Rule Development Consulting?

[alfista2600 (Jason)]

I checked Fiverr to see if anyone was providing OpenHAB support, but it doesn’t look like there is really anyone there.

I find that finishing my rules is the greatest source of frustration for me, partly because of some of the idiosyncrasies of OpenHAB and partly due to me wanting to get on to the next project. It’s a classic example of the first 80% of the project being fun, and the last 20% is tedious. Then I get busy with business cycles and forget where I left off, discouraging me further.

I realize that the community is a huge help and fantastic resource, but I could use a fiverr-type relationship for some support. Anyone offering such a service?

[MDAR (Stuart Hanlon, UK importer of Velbus hardware)]

Exactly what kind of help do you need?

Your question is fantastic and a sentiment I fully support, however you’ve been sufficiently uninformative to not know how to help.

[alfista2600 (Jason)]

Hi Stuart,

Technically, yes. I’ve provided little detail, but the question was more about finding people that might want to help for $5 here and $10 there… simple script stuff that makes me crazy and discouraged (like a script not working because of the difference between postupdate and sendcommand). And timers that reset when a motion detector continues to detect motion.

Or this one, where the chart below shows power consumption of a washer and a dryer, and a sensor checking the dryer for relative humidity at the exhaust. I want to trigger events when the washer is ‘done’ and turn off the dryer (a dumb dryer) when humidity hits a low level.

[MDAR (Stuart Hanlon, UK importer of Velbus hardware)]

@alfista2600

and a sensor checking the dryer for relative humidity at the exhaust. I want to trigger events when the washer is ‘done’ and turn off the dryer (a dumb dryer) when humidity hits a low level.

Hi

So only two rules here then?

One for the humidity compared to dryer state

And one for when the washer stops consuming power?

Have your identified the key levels?

IE

when humidity < xxxx then

And

when washer.state == OFF then

???

If you form a rule as best you can, there are plenty of people on here who will chip in for free, but only if you provide something to critique.

However, if you’re looking for someone to write the rule completely, you’ll need to provide the key facts.

Names of items you want to do things with.

Names and trigger values that you want the rule/s to act on.

Oh yeah. And how much the job is worth to you

There is talk about “bounty” on here, but unless it involves physical cables, I’m not a lot of help, as much as I might try.

[alfista2600 (Jason)]

to start, these two rules would be helpful.

If you look, it is hard to determine when the washer is off as it periodically starts and stops, so there needs to be some logic.

Same with humidity, there needs to be a difference against a baseline.

Sometimes getting help from 10 people in public is less effective than 1 in private, as there are many ways to skin a cat depending on expertise, setup and experience.

I need a ‘shaman’ who can help guide me quickly and effectively, understanding my setup, time constraints, and technical weaknesses.

Happy to ‘buy’ helpers a weeks worth of coffee or a Friday night’s worth of beer for some casual, but focused, assistance.

[Sascha_Billian]

Did you have a look at the following:

Washing Machine State Machine

By following this tutorial, you will make your openHAB setup aware of the current operation state of your washing machine, dishwasher, dryer, toaster, doomsday machine, you name it. This solution is purely based on a power usage reading by one of the many available modules. The solution will allow you to react on certain state transition, e.g. sending a notification to your smartphone: “Washing machine is finished!”. [image] Requirements power consumption measuring device, e.g. Homematic HM-E…

I think that could be helpful for both your devices

[matt1 (Skinah)]

I think if you wanted to do that it would be best to ask here on the forum for someone with experience with X gear that wants to do some rule creation for you. Rules need to be tested, so either you would need to do testing and feed it back to the creator, or they need to have a similar setup for testing on their own setup.

@alfista2600

If you look, it is hard to determine when the washer is off as it periodically starts and stops, so there needs to be some logic.

It could be done with the expire binding and each time you detect power being drawn above a ‘threshold’ you just reset the expire time on a virtual switch. When the control expires the washer is off. It could be done with a slider for adjustable threshold or a hardcoded value in the rule.

[alfista2600 (Jason)]

Here is a simple example. I’ve spent 1/2 hour on it and am still frustrated.

rule "Post Holiday Data"
when
Time cron "0 8 21 * * ?"
then
val holiday = V_HolidayName.state.toString
    holiday = holiday.replace("'", "\'")
val result = executeCommandLine("python /etc/openhab2/scripts/slack.py '#general' '" + holiday + " " + V_HolidayType.state.toString + "'", 1000)
    logInfo("Slack", result)
end

V_HolidayName = “President’s Day” in this example.

Error:
2019-02-18 21:08:00.399 [ERROR] [ntime.internal.engine.ExecuteRuleJob] - Error during the execution of rule 'Post Holiday Data': Unbalanced quotes in python /etc/openhab2/scripts/slack.py '#general' 'President's Day Holiday'

Visual Studio Code & the log report the script to be in error:

2019-02-18 21:06:38.523 [INFO ] [el.core.internal.ModelRepositoryImpl] - Validation issues found in configuration model 'notification.rules', using it anyway:
Assignment to final variable

[alfista2600 (Jason)]

Skinah - thanks for the tips. I think you hit upon what I need. The slider would allow someone to put together a script and allow me to adjust it until I get the results I need.

I agree the community is awesome but:

1. I dislike feeling like I’m always asking stupid questions, even if I’ve spent 20 minutes with google and the search function.
2. I dislike trying to map my understanding to someone who may or may not have a better approach (for my situation) and sometimes trying to decipher what I’ve been told takes longer than having spent more time with google.
3. I like having someone who understands my thought process, technical weaknesses, environment and can provide understandable tips, or deployable code.

[dastrix80 (Kris K)]

Well said Jason, i echo your comments and would be MORE than happy to pay people for the task of creating rules that would take me a week.

There are plenty of people on Freelancer can do what you require

Regards

[matt1 (Skinah)]

Just a heads up that their is talk of discontinuing the rules language (xtend) at the moment and moving to a newer format in Openhab 3. I could have that wrong, but I would not like to pay for someone to create rules and then have to pay to get them going in a newer format in 12 months time.

An issue I thought about with the washer situation is detecting if someone has paused or cancelled the washing part way through and the rule thinks the washing is done.

I don’t have the time to offer so best of luck finding someone but it is good that you are not expecting people in the forum to write rules for you for free.

Another approach may be for you to play with node red, perhaps learning a graphical way will allow you to piece together the same result without learning Xtend?