I’ve been trying to set up a set of rules to control my z-wave security devices in an event of unauthorized access to my home. My rule is however not working as I intended. I’ve been setting up OH2 since december and first now I’m starting with more complex rules. It’s taken me a long time to get all the way here.
I gueess I should outline my stuff first:
I have 2 door sensors, 1 movement sensor and 2 sirens. These I’m trying to get to work in harmony.
Dorr_Dorrsensor_Hall_null = Door sensor main door
Dorr_Dorrsensor_Vardagsrum_null = door sensor back door
Rorelse_Rorelsesensor_Vardagsrum_null = motion sensor living room
Then I also have two virtual items:
Number Switch_Virtual_Armering “Alarm arming status”
Switch Switch_Virtual_AlarmState “Alarm state”
The Number Switch_Virtual_Armering item has 4 states.
1 = Off, Nothing will ever trigger
2 = Day, only the back door can trigger the alarm
3 = Night, back and front door can trigger the alarm
4 = Full security, all sensors can trigger alarm. Back door, front door and motion sensor in living room.
Shown in my sitemap it looks like this:
Now to the rule. Just an example of what goes wrong. If I try to trigger the back door in “Day” mode. Then the timer activates as it should. But everything in the rule “alarm trigger” gets executed even the part about reseting the timer.
You see I have a tablet inside my door which is password protected. I have a 25 second timer so that I can deactivate the alarm before it triggers. If I do deactivate before the timer reaches 0 it it still activates the parts of the code for alarm activation.
I’ve followed different examples that I have found in the OH documentation to build the Rules.
import org.openhab.model.script.actions.Timer
var Timer timer
var String alarm_trigger1 = null
rule main_door_open
when
Item Dorr_Dorrsensor_Hall_null received update
then
if (Switch_Virtual_Armering.state >= 3 && Dorr_Dorrsensor_Hall_null.state == OPEN) {
alarm_trigger1 = "front door"
sendCommand(Switch_Virtual_AlarmState, "ON")
}
end
rule back_door_open
when
Item Dorr_Dorrsensor_Vardagsrum_null received update
then
if (Switch_Virtual_Armering.state != 1 && Dorr_Dorrsensor_Vardagsrum_null.state == OPEN) {
alarm_trigger1 = "back door"
sendCommand(Switch_Virtual_AlarmState, "ON")
}
end
rule movement_vardagsrum
when
Item Rorelse_Rorelsesensor_Vardagsrum_null received update
then
if (Switch_Virtual_Armering.state == 4 && Rorelse_Rorelsesensor_Vardagsrum_null.state == ON) {
alarm_trigger1 = "movement living room"
sendCommand(Switch_Virtual_AlarmState, "ON")
}
end
rule alarm_trigger
when
Item Switch_Virtual_AlarmState changed from OFF to ON
then
if (Switch_Virtual_AlarmState.state == ON) {
sendNotification("emailaddressofmytablet@gmail.com", "Alarm at home!!")
timer = createTimer(now.plusSeconds(25)) [|
sendCommand(Switch_Siren_Hall_null, "ON")
sendCommand(Switch_Siren_Vardagsrum_null, "ON")
sendBroadcastNotification("Alarm! Alarm trigger is: " + alarm_trigger1)
]
} else {
if(timer!=null) {
timer.cancel
timer = null
alarm_trigger1 = null
sendBroadcastNotification("Alarm aborted")
}
}
end
rule reset_alarm
when
Item Switch_Virtual_Armering received update
then
if (Switch_Virtual_Armering.state == 1 && Switch_Virtual_AlarmState.state == ON) {
sendCommand(Switch_Siren_Hall_null, "OFF")
sendCommand(Switch_Siren_Vardagsrum_null, "OFF")
sendCommand(Switch_Virtual_AlarmState, "OFF")
}
end
Ah I see, I didn’t relize that the part after “then” didn’t need to start with an if clause. Most rule examples I have looked at all have this.
And after some more testing I think that the part of my rules which is not functioning as intended is that rule called “alarm_trigger”.
I based it off one of the examples in the OH docuentation here. I tried to adapt the example for my needs, but maybe I am missunderstanding the function of the rule in the documentation.
The description says “How to create a rule, which only executes some code, if a value does not change for a certain period of time”. And that is what I want.
I’m not sure how to adjust the rule to simplify it as you suggest when it has an else clause.
Cut and pasted just that part of my rules that is the "alarm_trigger currently looks like this:
rule alarm_trigger
when
Item Switch_Virtual_AlarmState changed from OFF to ON
then
if (Switch_Virtual_AlarmState.state == ON) {
sendNotification("emailaddressofmytablet@gmail.com", "Alarm at home!!")
timer = createTimer(now.plusSeconds(25)) [|
sendCommand(Switch_Siren_Hall_null, "ON")
sendCommand(Switch_Siren_Vardagsrum_null, "ON")
sendBroadcastNotification("Alarm! Alarm trigger is: " + alarm_trigger1)
]
} else {
if(timer!=null) {
timer.cancel
timer = null
alarm_trigger1 = null
sendBroadcastNotification("Alarm aborted")
}
}
end
Is it correct to change it to this?
rule alarm_trigger
when
Item Switch_Virtual_AlarmState changed from OFF to ON
then
sendNotification("emailaddressofmytablet@gmail.com", "Alarm at home!!")
timer = createTimer(now.plusSeconds(25)) [|
sendCommand(Switch_Siren_Hall_null, "ON")
sendCommand(Switch_Siren_Vardagsrum_null, "ON")
sendBroadcastNotification("Alarm! Alarm trigger is: " + alarm_trigger1)
]
if(timer!=null) {
timer.cancel
timer = null
alarm_trigger1 = null
sendBroadcastNotification("Alarm aborted")
}
end
In your original rule, the ‘else’ clause would only be executed when the ‘if’’ check for ON was not true.
Since the rule was triggered by the same ON, the ‘else’ clause could never execute.
I don’t really understand what you want this rule to do, perhaps text explanation? You want to turn on the sirens 25 seconds after the door opening event? Then what?
Hmm I’m trying to understand what your saying about else clause being not able to execute. I will think some more after this post.
I thought I just explain quickly what I’m trying to do in this rule.
If the alarm trigger item “Switch_Virtual_AlarmState” is ON then I want a timer to start. And if the timer goes all the way to the end it will trigger my sirens Switch_Siren_Hall_null & Switch_Siren_Vardagsrum_null.
However, if the state of Switch_Virtual_AlarmState changes to OFF during the timer then the timer should cancel and no alarms should go off. (basically an abort of the alarm, in case I enter the house and have forgotten to disarm).
I think I got the rule working now. Just tested it from different angles live and it seems to be doing what I want now.
I went with having when the items “changes” and nothing else not from this to that.
I also removed the import at the very top of my rules file. It was saying this: import org.openhab.model.script.actions.Timer since I copied the code directly from the OH2 documentation rule examples.
But I found this thread where the op had problems with the same type of rule as me. It seems it was maybe the same issue in both cases! yay!!
