Rule to turn lights on when someone arrives home (using presence)

Setup, Configuration and Use Scripts & Rules
1

Hi All,

Thanks to Rich, I have a working presense system that I’d like to build on. The intention is when presence is set to ON, turn on a series of lights. This is to ensure the house is lite when its dark.

The intention though is to use a timer, so that this only occurs legitimately when you’ve been away, for say 60minutes and when its night. I can use the time of day checks for night, but the timer is the confusing one.

The theory was:

when item gPesenceScd .ensors changed to ON
if = greater than 60minutes && vTimeOfDay.state !=Day
then
turn on lights.

Has anyone got something working that’s similar for the timer component? Or potentially a smarter way to avoid false positives.

Thank you

2

Hi,
for the timer you need to use a persistance for the item gPresence and than the command in a rule :
if !(gPresence.changedSince(now.minusMinutes(60)) && …)
Regards
Lorenzo

3

Another way would be to create a new Item. Set the Item to ON when presence turns ON. Then use the Expire binding to turn it back OFF after 60 minutes. In your Rule you just need to check whether that Item is ON or OFF to know whether 60 minutes has expired (if it’s ON, it’s been less than 60 minutes).

1 Like
4

Which is what you do i think with Presence_Timer item right Rich? It has a 5min anti flap timer

5

Pretty much but I do it for a different purpose. But if I remember correctly it’s implemented exactly like this.

The big difference is you don’t have to trigger a Rule when the Item goes ON or OFF. You just care what the state happens to be.

6

Yes. Just want to avoid false positives but I cant imagine that would ever happen with a 60minute timer! ill give it a whirl. Unforunately theres no smart lock or other device to trigger entrance.

7

Hi Rich

The changes i’ve made. I feel im missing something. Once its on, wont it just switch off after 60minutes? I only want it switched off, if presence changes to off ie: thats when the 60minute timer starts.

The new Switch item is called

Presence_Arrival

ITEMS:

Switch Presence_Arrival { expire="60m,command=OFF" } // Timer for the arrival scene

NEW RULE:



rule "Turn on arrival lights when guests arrive home after being out for 60minutes"
when
        Item gPresenceSensors changed to ON
then
        if (Presence_Arrival.state == OFF && vTimeOfDay.state != "DAY"){
         Bird_Light.sendCommand(ON)
         WallPendant_Light.sendCommand(ON)
         FrontDoor_Light.sendCommand(ON)
         }
end

And the updated rule that sets the new Switch on, when presence is on.

rule "A presence sensor updated"
when
        Item gPresenceSensors changed
then

    if(Presence_Timer.state == ON && gPresenceSensors.state == Presence.state) {
        logInfo("Presense", "Timer is running but group and proxy are the same, cancelling timer")
        Presence_Timer.postUpdate(OFF)
    }
    else if(gPresenceSensors.state == Presence.state) {
        logInfo("Presense", "No timer and both group and proxy are the same, nothing to do")
        return;
    }

    if(gPresenceSensors.state == OFF) {
        logInfo("Presense", "Everyone is away, setting anti-flapping timer")
        Presence_Timer.sendCommand(ON)
    }
    else if(gPresenceSensors.state == ON) {
        logInfo("Presense", "Someone came home, setting presence to ON")
        Presence.sendCommand(ON)
        Presence_Arrival.sendCommand(ON)
    }

end

Looks ok?

Cheers

8

Nothing stands out. Is gPresenceSensors changing a lot? Every time you sendCommand to Presence_Arrival the 60 minute timer gets reset. It will only go to OFF 60 minutes after the last time it receives an ON command.

1 Like
9

of course!, silly me.

Does it change alot? not really no. The overall sensor is on, as mobile phones drop in/out. I’ll do some test with it now. Thank you!