Dimm the light during nighttime

[kurztipp (Peter K)]

Hi,

I’d like to dimm my lights in the bathroom automatically during nighttime. I have never worked before with rules, so I’m a bit stuck here.

What my rule looks like:

rule "Bathroom_Dimm_Nighttime"
when
  Item Light_GF_Bathroom_CeilingLights_MainLight_Brightness changed from OFF to ON
then
  logDebug("bathroom", "Bathroom light turned on")
  var int nightTimeStart = 2300
  var int nightTimeEnd = 0530
  var int now = now.getHourOfDay * 100 + now.getMinuteOfHour
  if (now >= nightTimeStart || now <= nightTimeEnd) {
    logDebug("bathroom", "nighttime")
    Light_GF_Bathroom_CeilingLights_MainLight_Brightness.sendCommand(new PercentType('33'))
  } else {
    logDebug("bathroom", "daytime")
    Light_GF_Bathroom_CeilingLights_MainLight_Brightness.sendCommand(new PercentType('100'))
  }
end

I just placed the rule in /etc/openhab2/rules/bathroom.timed.rules. Do I have to activate it somewhere? The openhab log says: [INFO ] [del.core.internal.ModelRepositoryImpl] - Loading model 'bathroom.timed.rules', so I think it is loaded and does not contain an error.
I’m a bit confused, because neither the light is dimmed nor a log output is created by the rule.
What am I doing wrong?

• Platform information:
  • Hardware: RPi 3
  • OS: raspbian/debian stretch
  • Java Runtime Environment: which java platform is used and what version
  • openHAB version: 2.4.0

[vzorglub (Vincent Regaud)]

var int now = now.getHourOfDay * 100 + now.getMinuteOfHour

You are using the keyworrd now as a variable name
Don’t use int

Also, have a look at: Design Pattern: Time Of Day

[kurztipp (Peter K)]

I changed it, thanks.

The rule is now:

rule "Bathroom_Dimm_Night"
when
  Item Light_GF_Bathroom_CeilingLights_MainLight_Brightness changed from OFF to ON
then
  logDebug("bathroom", "Bathroom light turned on")
  var nightTimeStart = 2300
  var nightTimeEnd = 0530
  var currentTime = now.getHourOfDay * 100 + now.getMinuteOfHour
  if (currentTime >= nightTimeStart || currentTime <= nightTimeEnd) {
    logDebug("bathroom", "nighttime")
    Light_GF_Bathroom_CeilingLights_MainLight_Brightness.sendCommand(new PercentType('33'))
  } else {
    logDebug("bathroom", "daytime")
    Light_GF_Bathroom_CeilingLights_MainLight_Brightness.sendCommand(new PercentType('100'))
  }
end

I know that the rule does not change the brightness now, but i think it should log something. I switched the lights on and off but there is no log output. Why?

11:13:59.697 [INFO ] [del.core.internal.ModelRepositoryImpl] - Refreshing model ‘bathroom.timed.rules’
11:14:55.030 [INFO ] [smarthome.event.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Light_GF_Bathroom_CeilingLights_MainLight_Brightness changed from 0 to 100
11:15:00.759 [INFO ] [smarthome.event.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Light_GF_Bathroom_CeilingLights_MainLight_Brightness changed from 100 to 0

[vzorglub (Vincent Regaud)]

Look at the difference between your rule trigger and your log

[kurztipp (Peter K)]

Do you mean that my trigger is ON/OFF and the log says it changed from 0 to 100?
I took ON/OFF for some kind of placeholder for 0/1 (if there’s no dimmer) and 0/1-100 (if theres a dimmer).

How can I rewrite that? Since the light might not always be 100.

Is something like changed 0 to x possible?

[5iver (Scott Rushworth)]

Is something like changed 0 to x possible?

No, you’ll need to put the conditional in the body of the rule. Something like this could work…

rule "Bathroom_Dimm_Night"
when
  Item Light_GF_Bathroom_CeilingLights_MainLight_Brightness changed
then
    if (triggeringItem.state > 0) {

Light_GF_Bathroom_CeilingLights_MainLight_Brightness.sendCommand(new PercentType('33')

This will work, but it’s a little easier to just use…

Light_GF_Bathroom_CeilingLights_MainLight_Brightness.sendCommand("33")

[kurztipp (Peter K)]

Thanks. It works now.

Only thing wich does not work: Logging something.

rule "Bathroom_Dimm_Night"
when
  Item Light_GF_Bathroom_CeilingLights_MainLight_Brightness changed
then
  if (triggeringItem.state > 0) {
    logInfo("Bathroom_Dimm_Night", "Bathroom light turned on")
    var nightTimeStart = 2300
    var nightTimeEnd = 0530
    var currentTime = now.getHourOfDay * 100 + now.getMinuteOfHour
    if (currentTime >= nightTimeStart || currentTime <= nightTimeEnd) {
      logDebug("Bathroom_Dimm_Night", "nighttime")
      Light_GF_Bathroom_CeilingLights_MainLight_Brightness.sendCommand('33')
    } else {
      logDebug("Bathroom_Dimm_Night", "daytime")
      Light_GF_Bathroom_CeilingLights_MainLight_Brightness.sendCommand('100')
    }
  }
end

I’m monitoring the logs with log:tail after connecting to openhab with ssh -p 8101 openhab@localhost . Is that correct?

Edit:
Is it possible to check which state the Item was before the change? Because now the brightness is fixed to either 0 when off and 33 or 100 when on. I can’t change it manually, because every change is intercepted by the rule and overruled .
So, I’d like to check if the state was 0/off and change it to 33/100, then. But if the light is already on I’d like to do nothing in order to be able to set any value between 1 and 100 - if that is possible.

[5iver (Scott Rushworth)]

Do the logInfo come through, but not the logDebug? If so, you’ll need to set the log level…

log:set DEBUG org.eclipse.smarthome.model.script

Logging

[kurztipp (Peter K)]

Thanks. That was the problem.

Found also previousState, which gives me a solution for manually changing the brightness. Here is the working example:

val nightTimeStart = 2300
val nightTimeEnd = 0530
val currentTime = now.getHourOfDay * 100 + now.getMinuteOfHour

val nighttimeBrightness = '25'
val daytimeBrightness = '100'

rule "Bathroom_Dimm_Night"
when
  Item Light_GF_Bathroom_CeilingLights_MainLight_Brightness changed
then

  logDebug("Bathroom_Dimm_Night", "Bathroom light brightness changed")
  logDebug("Bathroom_Dimm_Night", "Previous brightness:" + previousState)

  if (triggeringItem.state > 0 && previousState ==0) {

    logDebug("Bathroom_Dimm_Night", "Bathroom light turned on")

    if (currentTime >= nightTimeStart || currentTime <= nightTimeEnd) {
      logDebug("Bathroom_Dimm_Night", "Dimm bathroom light because it is nighttime")
      Light_GF_Bathroom_CeilingLights_MainLight_Brightness.sendCommand(nighttimeBrightness)
    } else {
      logDebug("Bathroom_Dimm_Night", "Set bathroom light brightness to 100 because it is daytime")
      Light_GF_Bathroom_CeilingLights_MainLight_Brightness.sendCommand(daytimeBrightness)
    }

  }
end

[5iver (Scott Rushworth)]

As Vincent suggested, it may be helpful for you to look into using Time of Day. If you use the new rule engine, I’ve built a full solution for automating lighting and other things. Once setup, you just adjust metadata and group membership… no more coding of rules.

Area Triggers --> Area Actions

The main thing I am aiming to communicate in this tutorial is the concept of using the logic built into groups to lessen the complexity of rules. By setting up your Items and groups in the following way, you will be able to use one rule for much of the automation in your home. A second rule is needed if you’d like to have the lights adjust to Mode (Time of Day) and outside lux levels. The concept is that each area within a home has triggers and the combined state of those triggers can represent …

[mpuff (Martin Puff)]

@kurztipp

val currentTime = now.getHourOfDay * 100 + now.getMinuteOfHour

in oh3 i get an error:

The field Tmp_licht_dimmen_testRules.currentTime refers to the missing type Object

do you have a working version for oh3?