OR Switch Group misbehaving and/or rule issues

[vanja (galaxy)]

Hi,
I’m using my presence Group and rule for years without issues.
Today, it started to misbehave. Group Presence goes to OFF even though one member of the group has the status ON.
Seems to me its time for a reboot as I don’t know how to deal with such nonsense…

Group:Switch:OR(ON, OFF)     Presence   "Presence [MAP(presence.map):%s]"	(All)

and then few switch items that are members, lets call them phone1 phone2 phone3.

now without involving any rules, as I understand this group switch cannot be OFF if at least one member is ON, right?
I think that’s my main problem right now, and since its behaving like that, it creates havoc with presence rule (java exceptions that don’t tell me much)

[rlkoshak (Rich Koshak)]

@vanja

now without involving any rules, as I understand this group switch cannot be OFF if at least one member is ON, right?

That’s my understanding of how the OR aggregation function works as written (it’s been years since I used .items files so I’m going from memory and the docs).

@vanja

I think that’s my main problem right now, and since its behaving like that, it creates havoc with presence rule (java exceptions that don’t tell me much)

The fact that the Group Item’s state is OFF instead of ON shouldn’t cause a rule throw exceptions. What actually is the state of the Group and all the members of the Group?

What are the exceptions? They may be meaningless to you but they are rarely meaningless to us. You should always post the acutal errors. You are not helping anyone by keeping back information like that.

[vanja (galaxy)]

@rlkoshak

What actually is the state of the Group and all the members of the Group?

State of the group is OFF, 1 or 2 members is ON others are null.
I think I fixed this now by removing one new rule from the same .rules file where my presence rule resides. I guess I’m not really skilful with timers and I might have accidentally caused some loop and/or OH brainfart.

I will post the potential problematic rule first and then the log from what happened before

var Timer timerCat = null  //top of the file

rule "Cat Fountain"
when
    Item CatMotion received update
then
    if(newState == ON && timerCat === null && LivingRoomFountain.state == OFF)
      {LivingRoomFountain.sendCommand(ON)}    
    if(newState == ON && timerCat !== null && LivingRoomFountain.state == ON)  
      {timerCat.cancel
      timerCat = null}
      timerCat = createTimer(now.plusMinutes(10)) [
      LivingRoomFountain.sendCommand(OFF)
      timerCat = null]
end

What I’m trying to achieve here is to run a cat fountain for 10 minutes after motion is detected, my original simple rule worked, but then I decided to complicate things.
I noticed it keeps going on/off too frequently, so I wanted a rule that will, in case new motion is detected, reset the old timer and give it new 10 minutes. So basically the fountain will not stop untill the area is cleared and no more motion is detected for 10 minutes.
Do you see any cardinal mistake above?

here is the exception (might be while triggering the above rule but not sure)

2024-08-19 20:13:01.859 [INFO ] [el.core.internal.ModelRepositoryImpl] - Loading model 'scenes.rules'
2024-08-19 20:18:30.945 [WARN ] [ore.internal.scheduler.SchedulerImpl] - Scheduled job '<unknown>' failed and stopped
java.lang.reflect.UndeclaredThrowableException: null
	at jdk.proxy146.$Proxy274.apply(Unknown Source) ~[?:?]
	at org.openhab.core.internal.scheduler.SchedulerImpl.lambda$12(SchedulerImpl.java:189) ~[?:?]
	at org.openhab.core.internal.scheduler.SchedulerImpl.lambda$1(SchedulerImpl.java:88) ~[?:?]
	at java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Executors.java:539) [?:?]
	at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:264) [?:?]
	at java.util.concurrent.ScheduledThreadPoolExecutor$ScheduledFutureTask.run(ScheduledThreadPoolExecutor.java:304) [?:?]
	at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1136) [?:?]
	at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:635) [?:?]
	at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:833) [?:?]
Caused by: org.openhab.core.model.script.engine.ScriptExecutionException: The name '<unkown>' cannot be resolved to an item or type; line 0, column 0
	at org.openhab.core.model.script.interpreter.ScriptInterpreter.invokeFeature(ScriptInterpreter.java:141) ~[?:?]
	at org.eclipse.xtext.xbase.interpreter.impl.XbaseInterpreter._doEvaluate(XbaseInterpreter.java:1008) ~[?:?]
	at org.eclipse.xtext.xbase.interpreter.impl.XbaseInterpreter._doEvaluate(XbaseInterpreter.java:971) ~[?:?]
	at org.eclipse.xtext.xbase.interpreter.impl.XbaseInterpreter.doEvaluate(XbaseInterpreter.java:247) ~[?:?]
	at org.openhab.core.model.script.interpreter.ScriptInterpreter.doEvaluate(ScriptInterpreter.java:226) ~[?:?]
	at org.eclipse.xtext.xbase.interpreter.impl.XbaseInterpreter.internalEvaluate(XbaseInterpreter.java:227) ~[?:?]
	at org.eclipse.xtext.xbase.interpreter.impl.XbaseInterpreter.evaluateArgumentExpressions(XbaseInterpreter.java:1222) ~[?:?]
	at org.eclipse.xtext.xbase.interpreter.impl.XbaseInterpreter._invokeFeature(XbaseInterpreter.java:1152) ~[?:?]
	at org.eclipse.xtext.xbase.interpreter.impl.XbaseInterpreter.invokeFeature(XbaseInterpreter.java:1098) ~[?:?]
	at org.openhab.core.model.script.interpreter.ScriptInterpreter.invokeFeature(ScriptInterpreter.java:151) ~[?:?]
	at org.eclipse.xtext.xbase.interpreter.impl.XbaseInterpreter._doEvaluate(XbaseInterpreter.java:878) ~[?:?]
	at org.eclipse.xtext.xbase.interpreter.impl.XbaseInterpreter.doEvaluate(XbaseInterpreter.java:243) ~[?:?]
	at org.openhab.core.model.script.interpreter.ScriptInterpreter.doEvaluate(ScriptInterpreter.java:226) ~[?:?]
	at org.eclipse.xtext.xbase.interpreter.impl.XbaseInterpreter.internalEvaluate(XbaseInterpreter.java:227) ~[?:?]
	at org.eclipse.xtext.xbase.interpreter.impl.XbaseInterpreter._doEvaluate(XbaseInterpreter.java:475) ~[?:?]
	at org.eclipse.xtext.xbase.interpreter.impl.XbaseInterpreter.doEvaluate(XbaseInterpreter.java:251) ~[?:?]
	at org.openhab.core.model.script.interpreter.ScriptInterpreter.doEvaluate(ScriptInterpreter.java:226) ~[?:?]
	at org.eclipse.xtext.xbase.interpreter.impl.XbaseInterpreter.internalEvaluate(XbaseInterpreter.java:227) ~[?:?]
	at org.eclipse.xtext.xbase.interpreter.impl.XbaseInterpreter.evaluate(XbaseInterpreter.java:213) ~[?:?]
	at org.eclipse.xtext.xbase.interpreter.impl.ClosureInvocationHandler.doInvoke(ClosureInvocationHandler.java:47) ~[?:?]
	at org.eclipse.xtext.xbase.interpreter.impl.AbstractClosureInvocationHandler.invoke(AbstractClosureInvocationHandler.java:30) ~[?:?]
	... 9 more
2024-08-19 20:18:45.463 [WARN ] [ore.internal.scheduler.SchedulerImpl] - Scheduled job '<unknown>' failed and stopped
java.lang.reflect.UndeclaredThrowableException: null
	at jdk.proxy146.$Proxy274.apply(Unknown Source) ~[?:?]
	at org.openhab.core.internal.scheduler.SchedulerImpl.lambda$12(SchedulerImpl.java:189) ~[?:?]
	at org.openhab.core.internal.scheduler.SchedulerImpl.lambda$1(SchedulerImpl.java:88) ~[?:?]
	at java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Executors.java:539) [?:?]
	at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:264) [?:?]
	at java.util.concurrent.ScheduledThreadPoolExecutor$ScheduledFutureTask.run(ScheduledThreadPoolExecutor.java:304) [?:?]
	at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1136) [?:?]
	at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:635) [?:?]
	at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:833) [?:?]
Caused by: org.openhab.core.model.script.engine.ScriptExecutionException: The name '<unkown>' cannot be resolved to an item or type; line 0, column 0
	at org.openhab.core.model.script.interpreter.ScriptInterpreter.invokeFeature(ScriptInterpreter.java:141) ~[?:?]
	at org.eclipse.xtext.xbase.interpreter.impl.XbaseInterpreter._doEvaluate(XbaseInterpreter.java:1008) ~[?:?]
	at org.eclipse.xtext.xbase.interpreter.impl.XbaseInterpreter._doEvaluate(XbaseInterpreter.java:971) ~[?:?]
	at org.eclipse.xtext.xbase.interpreter.impl.XbaseInterpreter.doEvaluate(XbaseInterpreter.java:247) ~[?:?]
	at org.openhab.core.model.script.interpreter.ScriptInterpreter.doEvaluate(ScriptInterpreter.java:226) ~[?:?]
	at org.eclipse.xtext.xbase.interpreter.impl.XbaseInterpreter.internalEvaluate(XbaseInterpreter.java:227) ~[?:?]
	at org.eclipse.xtext.xbase.interpreter.impl.XbaseInterpreter.evaluateArgumentExpressions(XbaseInterpreter.java:1222) ~[?:?]
	at org.eclipse.xtext.xbase.interpreter.impl.XbaseInterpreter._invokeFeature(XbaseInterpreter.java:1152) ~[?:?]
	at org.eclipse.xtext.xbase.interpreter.impl.XbaseInterpreter.invokeFeature(XbaseInterpreter.java:1098) ~[?:?]
	at org.openhab.core.model.script.interpreter.ScriptInterpreter.invokeFeature(ScriptInterpreter.java:151) ~[?:?]
	at org.eclipse.xtext.xbase.interpreter.impl.XbaseInterpreter._doEvaluate(XbaseInterpreter.java:878) ~[?:?]
	at org.eclipse.xtext.xbase.interpreter.impl.XbaseInterpreter.doEvaluate(XbaseInterpreter.java:243) ~[?:?]
	at org.openhab.core.model.script.interpreter.ScriptInterpreter.doEvaluate(ScriptInterpreter.java:226) ~[?:?]
	at org.eclipse.xtext.xbase.interpreter.impl.XbaseInterpreter.internalEvaluate(XbaseInterpreter.java:227) ~[?:?]
	at org.eclipse.xtext.xbase.interpreter.impl.XbaseInterpreter._doEvaluate(XbaseInterpreter.java:475) ~[?:?]
	at org.eclipse.xtext.xbase.interpreter.impl.XbaseInterpreter.doEvaluate(XbaseInterpreter.java:251) ~[?:?]
	at org.openhab.core.model.script.interpreter.ScriptInterpreter.doEvaluate(ScriptInterpreter.java:226) ~[?:?]
	at org.eclipse.xtext.xbase.interpreter.impl.XbaseInterpreter.internalEvaluate(XbaseInterpreter.java:227) ~[?:?]
	at org.eclipse.xtext.xbase.interpreter.impl.XbaseInterpreter.evaluate(XbaseInterpreter.java:213) ~[?:?]
	at org.eclipse.xtext.xbase.interpreter.impl.ClosureInvocationHandler.doInvoke(ClosureInvocationHandler.java:47) ~[?:?]
	at org.eclipse.xtext.xbase.interpreter.impl.AbstractClosureInvocationHandler.invoke(AbstractClosureInvocationHandler.java:30) ~[?:?]
	... 9 more
2024-08-19 20:19:01.945 [WARN ] [ore.internal.scheduler.SchedulerImpl] - Scheduled job '<unknown>' failed and stopped
java.lang.reflect.UndeclaredThrowableException: null
	at jdk.proxy146.$Proxy274.apply(Unknown Source) ~[?:?]
	at org.openhab.core.internal.scheduler.SchedulerImpl.lambda$12(SchedulerImpl.java:189) ~[?:?]
	at org.openhab.core.internal.scheduler.SchedulerImpl.lambda$1(SchedulerImpl.java:88) ~[?:?]
	at java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Executors.java:539) [?:?]
	at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:264) [?:?]
	at java.util.concurrent.ScheduledThreadPoolExecutor$ScheduledFutureTask.run(ScheduledThreadPoolExecutor.java:304) [?:?]
	at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1136) [?:?]
	at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:635) [?:?]
	at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:833) [?:?]
Caused by: org.openhab.core.model.script.engine.ScriptExecutionException: The name '<unkown>' cannot be resolved to an item or type; line 0, column 0
	at org.openhab.core.model.script.interpreter.ScriptInterpreter.invokeFeature(ScriptInterpreter.java:141) ~[?:?]
	at org.eclipse.xtext.xbase.interpreter.impl.XbaseInterpreter._doEvaluate(XbaseInterpreter.java:1008) ~[?:?]
	at org.eclipse.xtext.xbase.interpreter.impl.XbaseInterpreter._doEvaluate(XbaseInterpreter.java:971) ~[?:?]
	at org.eclipse.xtext.xbase.interpreter.impl.XbaseInterpreter.doEvaluate(XbaseInterpreter.java:247) ~[?:?]
	at org.openhab.core.model.script.interpreter.ScriptInterpreter.doEvaluate(ScriptInterpreter.java:226) ~[?:?]
	at org.eclipse.xtext.xbase.interpreter.impl.XbaseInterpreter.internalEvaluate(XbaseInterpreter.java:227) ~[?:?]
	at org.eclipse.xtext.xbase.interpreter.impl.XbaseInterpreter.evaluateArgumentExpressions(XbaseInterpreter.java:1222) ~[?:?]
	at org.eclipse.xtext.xbase.interpreter.impl.XbaseInterpreter._invokeFeature(XbaseInterpreter.java:1152) ~[?:?]
	at org.eclipse.xtext.xbase.interpreter.impl.XbaseInterpreter.invokeFeature(XbaseInterpreter.java:1098) ~[?:?]
	at org.openhab.core.model.script.interpreter.ScriptInterpreter.invokeFeature(ScriptInterpreter.java:151) ~[?:?]
	at org.eclipse.xtext.xbase.interpreter.impl.XbaseInterpreter._doEvaluate(XbaseInterpreter.java:878) ~[?:?]
	at org.eclipse.xtext.xbase.interpreter.impl.XbaseInterpreter.doEvaluate(XbaseInterpreter.java:243) ~[?:?]
	at org.openhab.core.model.script.interpreter.ScriptInterpreter.doEvaluate(ScriptInterpreter.java:226) ~[?:?]
	at org.eclipse.xtext.xbase.interpreter.impl.XbaseInterpreter.internalEvaluate(XbaseInterpreter.java:227) ~[?:?]
	at org.eclipse.xtext.xbase.interpreter.impl.XbaseInterpreter._doEvaluate(XbaseInterpreter.java:475) ~[?:?]
	at org.eclipse.xtext.xbase.interpreter.impl.XbaseInterpreter.doEvaluate(XbaseInterpreter.java:251) ~[?:?]
	at org.openhab.core.model.script.interpreter.ScriptInterpreter.doEvaluate(ScriptInterpreter.java:226) ~[?:?]
	at org.eclipse.xtext.xbase.interpreter.impl.XbaseInterpreter.internalEvaluate(XbaseInterpreter.java:227) ~[?:?]
	at org.eclipse.xtext.xbase.interpreter.impl.XbaseInterpreter.evaluate(XbaseInterpreter.java:213) ~[?:?]
	at org.eclipse.xtext.xbase.interpreter.impl.ClosureInvocationHandler.doInvoke(ClosureInvocationHandler.java:47) ~[?:?]
	at org.eclipse.xtext.xbase.interpreter.impl.AbstractClosureInvocationHandler.invoke(AbstractClosureInvocationHandler.java:30) ~[?:?]
	... 9 more

[rlkoshak (Rich Koshak)]

@vanja

I guess I’m not really skilful with timers and I might have accidentally caused some loop and/or OH brainfart.

Blockly makes it really easy to manage Timers. If you add the OHRT Block library managing Timers becomes even easier.

@vanja

I noticed it keeps going on/off too frequently, so I wanted a rule that will, in case new motion is detected, reset the old timer and give it new 10 minutes. So basically the fountain will not stop untill the area is cleared and no more motion is detected for 10 minutes.

That’s a standard motion sensor timer. See Design Pattern: Motion Sensor Timer.

You can probably handle this use case just using Expire on the Item. When motion is detected send an ON command to the switch. Set the expire metadata on the Switch and it will turn OFF ten minutes after the last ON command.

@vanja

Do you see any cardinal mistake above?

The indentation implies that the timerCat = createTimer... lines and below belong to the second if statement but they are outside the { }. Because it’s outside the if statements, you end up creating a new timer every time the rule runs but you only end up canceling it if the second if statement is true. That may be fine but you really should use consistent indentation for readable code.

Only indent when there’s a new context. So lines after a (, [, or { should be indented and then the indentation removed after the corresponding ), ], and }. Your indentation is all over the place making the intent and actual implemetation of the rule hard to understand.

Presumably you’d only want to run this rule at all when the CatMotion Item is updated to ON so add that to the trigger and you don’t have to test for it.

Item CatMotion received update ON

If the fountain is already ON reschedule the Timer.

If the fountain is OFF, create a new Timer.

You should get in the habbit of saving Timers in the cache also.

rule "Cat Fountain"
when
    Item CatMotion received update ON
then
    var timer = privateCache.get('timer'); // get the timer, null if there is no timer

    // command the fountain to ON if it isn't already
    if(LivingRoomFountain.state != ON) {
        LivingRoomFountain.sendCommand(ON)
    }

    // if there is no timer, create one
    if(timer === null) {
        privateCache.put('timer', createTimer(now.plusMinutes(10), [ |
            LivingRoomFountain.sendCommand(OFF)
            privateCache.put('timer', null)
        ])
    }
    // there already is a timer, reschedule it
    else {
        timer.reschedule(now.plusMinutes(10))
    }
end

Note, I recommend against new development of rules in Rules DSL. It has become a substandard language for rules development. If you are not a great programmer I recommend Blockly. If you are a programmer any of the other languages will serve you better.

@vanja

here is the exception (might be while triggering the above rule but not sure)

Unfortunately, it’s saying the error is happening at the very top of the code (line 0, column 0). But because it’s comming from the scheduler uit might be complaining about the first line of the timer.

I do notice you are missing the | in your lambda definition. That might be the issue. I don’t know for sure. I haven’t used Rules DSL for years now and I’m getting rusty on all of the many many quirks of the language.

Note, a rescheduled timer is really easy in Blockly. It’s just a single block and all the tracking and cancelling and rescheduling stuff is handled for you:

[vanja (galaxy)]

thanks for all the suggestions, that blockly does look good and easy
I tried it with expire binding, but that smart plug is tplink, and the binding keeps updating its state so it never expired. I could create another dummy item but I decided against it.
On the other hand, with expire I could not reschedule it…

[rlkoshak (Rich Koshak)]

@vanja

and the binding keeps updating its state so it never expired.

You can configure expire to ignore updates.

And if you have a rule that sendCommand(ON) to the switch when motion is detected ecah ON command will reschedule the Expire timer.

So with a simple UI rule (don’t even need code here):

configuration: {}
triggers:
  - id: "1"
    configuration:
      itemName: MotionSensor
      state: ON
    type: core.ItemStateUpdateTrigger
conditions: []
actions:
  - id: "2"
    configuration:
      itemName: Fountain
      command: ON
    type: core.ItemCommandAction

And Expire on the fountain set to:

• send command
• State: OFF
• ignore state updates
• After 0h10m0s

You have the behavior you are after. 10 minutes after the last motion is detected the Item will be commanded to OFF.

Note, if you only want to reschedule on Changes check to ignore updates and commands.