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Author Topic: how to set a rule to set something to come on and then off after a certain time  (Read 6304 times)

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Offline ymulls

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Hi,

I was wondering I have the Almond+ and i am trying to create a rule but i cannot see the delay off? (not the Wait), Once i set the rule for something to switch on i need to set another rule with a delay to switch it off is that correct? or is there a way to add that into the original rule. I want my porch light to come on when the door is opened but i also want it to switch off after 60 seconds at the minute i have set up two rules for on and off is this the best way?

A good example is: at the minute i have all the lights come on if the nest protect goes off then i have another rule with the delay of 60 seconds to switch off the lights if the nest is turned off, can i not have this in one rule?

And one other thing say i if someone opens my garage door the living room lights will come on but then i have to set the rule to switch it off, but what if i am in the living room with the lights on will it still switch it on and off? I don't want to scare the kids with lights going off.

Thanks
YM

Offline fillibar

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No, the delay can be in the Rule, as part of the THEN section. Basically you select the On, then select an Off and set the Wait.
Screenshot using a Peanut Plug as an example.
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Offline fillibar

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Sorry, missed the second question in my reply. Here is a possible example, building a check about the light into the IF.

IF Garage Door Open AND Lights Off THEN Lights On and Wait 1 minute Lights Off

This would trigger only if the door is opened and the lights were off. It would turn on the light and then turn them off after a minute. If you were already in the room with the lights on and someone opens the door, it would not trigger.
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Offline ymulls

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Thank you for your assistance fillibar, In your second comment you said "Build a check" which i assume would be "If lights off/on", but how do i build it? sorry im completely new to this so im just trying to figure it out.

appreciate your help, thanks.

Offline fillibar

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The part I was referring to was the addition of checking whether the lights were off as part of the IF portion of the Rule.

So instead of only checking if the door opened, you then also scroll over and find your light in the list of devices. After selecting it, you select the Off icon. Having both items in the IF portion of the Rule means that both must be happening for the Rule to trigger (both are true at that moment). If one is not (the lights are already on for example) then the Rule will not happen.

So what you end up having is two devices in the IF portion of the Rule. After those are both there (their order does not matter in the IF section at this time) you need to create the THEN portion of the Rule. This will also have two pieces, but they are both for the light you are using. When you are adding things to the THEN portion, order does matter. So first you want to select the light, then the On icon for it. If you saved it there, the Rule would turn on the light if the door opens and the light was off to begin with. But you also want a second step. You want it to turn the light back off after it has waited for a minute (I assume so people can walk through the area). So what you need to do (before saving) is add a second step to the THEN section. Since you already have the light showing, all you need to do is select the Off icon. This will add a second step to the Rule's THEN portion at the top of the screen. Just to the left of it you will see an extra box that says Wait. If you select that, you can tell it how long you want it to wait before it runs that step (up to 5 minutes). Set the wait and save the Rule.

So what you end up with is a Rule that triggers when the door opens and the light is off. It tells the light to turn on immediately, then hits that wait portion of the second step... waits however long you set it for (a minute) then it runs the second step, turning the light off.

The Rules are pretty darn useful once you get the basics learned. There is still areas for improvement and some things need some... interesting... workarounds to accomplish, but it is possible to do many interesting things. As you have more questions or if you want to post the things you learn and have worked for you, please do!
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Offline ymulls

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Hi,

Thanks, I tried what you showed in the pics, and its working under one rule, but i am still having issues with the 2nd one. In the IF section i cannot select the specific light i want to check to see if it is on/off, i can only select the HUE Hub, then when i go to the THEN section the specific lights available show up on the list, is there a way around this, any way i can get them to  show in the IF section?

Thank you.

YM

Offline fillibar

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Unfortunately I do not have a Hue hub and have no idea how that impacts the Rules. It almost sounds like the Almond cannot "see" what the light's state is (which means it cannot be in an IF). Maybe that is how the Hue works and is a know limitation? I do not know.

Can someone with a Hue hub and using Rules answer? Can you see your Lights for IF purposes or are they only for THEN statements?
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Offline ymulls

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Yeah i think this might be an issue with the Hue system, as i can see all the bulbs in the THEN action but not in the IF only the Hub itself is there. But i appreciate your help. Im loving all this home automation stuff, waiting for the almond skill for amazon echo here in the UK.

Thanks
YM

vamsi.varanasi

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A good example is: at the minute i have all the lights come on if the nest protect goes off then i have another rule with the delay of 60 seconds to switch off the lights if the nest is turned off, can i not have this in one rule?

And one other thing say i if someone opens my garage door the living room lights will come on but then i have to set the rule to switch it off, but what if i am in the living room with the lights on will it still switch it on and off? I don't want to scare the kids with lights going off.

#1 - It depends on the IF conditions. If you want the on-off to happen after Nest goes on, then you can have it in one rule, like filibar suggested.
IF Nest Protect turned onTHEN turn hue on, wait 60s turn hue off.

If you want the lights to go off only if someone turns Nest off after it turns on, then you'll need two rules
IF Nest Protect turned on THEN turn hue on
IF Nest Protect turned off THEN wait 60s turn hue off


#2 - I've had to face something similar. You can solve this by using a Peanut plug and a plug in bulb.
https://www.amazon.com/Securifi-Peanut-Smart-Minute-Setup/dp/B00TC9NC82/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1486363042&sr=8-1&keywords=peanut+plug
https://www.amazon.com/Emergency-Automatic-Failure-Outage-Rechargeable/dp/B00UL41W1Q/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&qid=1486362960&sr=8-16&keywords=plug+in+bulb+lights
https://www.amazon.com/Adapter-Extension-Pendant-Lighting-Bathroom/dp/B01MXPGELE/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1486362960&sr=8-5&keywords=plug+in+bulb+lights
Peanut shows up in the IF part of the rule, so you can work with it to turn on and off only if it was originally off, using filibar's rule.

#3 (About Alexa)
You can use Alexa in the UK through IFTTT.

For now you can only activate a Scene (and set Home/Away mode), and the native Almond Skill on Alexa will bring a lot more once it's released. But if you want to tell Alexa "Alexa, trigger lights scene" and have the Almond turn on the lights in your living room you can do that now.

I'll let you figure out how to do that on IFTTT yourself ;) - go here: https://ifttt.com/almond

Offline ymulls

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thanks a lot guys, appreciate all the advice.

 

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