Why don't my lights come on?

SmartApps & Automations
1

Can someone explain me what I am doing wrong?

IF
15min before sunset - sunrise (Every day, precondition, once a day) (Precondition is not adjustable)
and
Location is “Home”

THEN
Turn on light frontdoor
Turn on light backdoor

I want to 2 lights to come on when I’m returning home in the dark but also when I’m already at home but it is getting dark.
“Home” setting is automated on my phone, so if I get close it turns from “away” to “home”.

It’s not coming on when I am already at home and coming home isn’t always a good execution either?

2

Routines are triggered by events that might cause a condition to evaluate as true. In your case that event will be the Location mode changing so the Routine should turn on the lights if you arrive during the time period.

If you are already at home there won’t be an event to trigger the Routine during the time period. You would need an additional Routine to run at 15 minutes to sunrise to check if you are already home.

3

Okay, check.

But wouldn’t the sunset also be a trigger in this case?

So, the trigger is the sunset if I am at home?

4

No. It has been implemented as a pre-condition. That is one that doesn’t trigger.

For those who are familiar with webCoRE, the Routine implements the equivalent of the condition group:

If time is between 15 minutes to sunset and sunrise
   and
   Location mode changes to 'Home'

(And yes I know you would actually write the trigger first in webCoRE to avoid problems)

1 Like
5

Unfortunally I don’t know how to use WebCoRE.
So I can use the routine I have for when I come home, but if I’m already at home I need something else.

I’m thinking copy the routine I have and add “if the LUX go below a certain point for a longer period then turn them on”.

6

Don’t learn Webcore, it is going away on Sept 30, and you will be sad because webcore is awesome.

I understand the SmartLighting app is going to survive the transition on Sept 30 to Edge drivers. If you are in a region that has SmartLighting available (US for sure, don’t know about others), you can do this automation with it. You may need two; one that fires at the start time noted and you are home, one that fires between the start and end time and you arrive home.

7

I wasn’t suggesting using it, I tend to post on the assumption others are reading and there are probably a few webCoRE users about at the moment looking to migrate.

2 Likes
8

I wasn’t planning to learn it, it was just a statement that for me that wasn’t a option.

But I’ll try my suggestion with the lux in the driveway going down as a trigger for when I’m already home.