[SOLVED]How to trigger a light to come on at a specific dim

I have a lighting circuit which I want to come on under certain conditions at a certain dim level. The light is triggered by a motion sensor with the following condition..
"All" "of the following rules are true"
"If current time" "is between" "23:01:00" "and" "07:30:00"

The action of this trigger should be to turn on the light at 15% brightness for 3mins. If I ignore the 15% brightness then its very easy, just set the action to turn on the light and then auto off after 3mins. But what if I want the light to always come on at 15% brightness no matter what its level was previously? Also Ideally I would like to control the time from eg 23.00 to 30 mins after sunrise but I cant get my head around the logic to do this, probably because I'm new to this.

Colin

[jay (support)]

The key to successfully doing complex automation tasks like this is to fully/thoroughly describe what you want to happen. So you have to think through all of your scenarios and describe them. Your description is missing some key details:

The action of this trigger should be to turn on the light at 15% brightness for 3mins. If I ignore the 15% brightness then its very easy, just set the action to turn on the light and then auto off after 3mins.

But the light is already on (at 15%) - so what exactly do you want to happen if you "ignore" it? And when you say "ignore" what exactly does that mean?

But what if I want the light to always come on at 15% brightness no matter what its level was previously?

Under what conditions would you want the light to behave this way (differently than above)? You have to be able to clearly define the conditions so that you can formulate a solution.

Also Ideally I would like to control the time from eg 23.00 to 30 mins after sunrise but I cant get my head around the logic to do this, probably because I'm new to this.

Just add the "If dark" condition to your conditions and expand the time range to ensure that the end of the range is during the day:

Code: Select all

"All" "of the following rules are true"
   "If current time" "is between" "23:01:00" "and" "10:00:00"
   "If dark"


So, basically, what this condition says is that in order for the actions to fire the time must be between 11:01pm and 10:00am AND it must be dark. We know that it will always be dark at 11:01pm, but at, say, 7:00am it may or may not be dark so we add the "If dark" condition that Indigo automatically sets based on your location. If it's dark and the trigger fires, it will run the actions - but if it's already daylight it won't.

If you're new to Indigo and Home Automation, then you might want to tackle some more basic scenarios first. There is a curve to learning how home automation logic works and what functionality Indigo provides to accomplish that logic. Your scenario is a fairly complex scenario and there will undoubtedly be multiple ways to accomplish it (and I'm positive it can be done, whatever it may be). Trying some easier scenarios first might help you become more confident before tackling a complex problem. Too often we see people get frustrated because they choose to start with complex tasks first - then they become disenchanted with Indigo and home automation without ever actually getting over the initial learning curve.

Thanks Jay for your comprehensive answer.

But the light is already on (at 15%) - so what exactly do you want to happen if you "ignore" it? And when you say "ignore" what exactly does that mean

What I meant was if all I wanted to do was to turn the light on and off then its a simple action with an auto off after 3 mins, but the lamp may not be at the brightness I want for this particular scenario, hence the requirement for the brightness to be set at 15% as part of the trigger/action.

I understand your comments about taking baby steps in working with Indigo, the trouble is you have made it too easy to create complex scenarios, don't worry you can't get rid of me that easily..wait till I get the Sonos plugin working so that it will play a different playlist depending on the mood of the person.A mood sensor, that's one that Fibaro haven't thought of..yet.

Cheers

Colin

Never mind just figured it out. Two actions, one to increase brightness to 15% and then another to turn off lamp delayed by 3 mins. Just need to test it.
Colin

[jay (support)]

If that doesn't work for you, just describe more thoroughly the scenario(s) you're looking at and we can help guide you to the solution options.

If it does, please post a description of what you ended up doing (so others can benefit) and prepend "[SOLVED]" to the original post's subject so everyone will know there's an answer in the thread. Thanks!

I now have the trigger working as desired. The concept was to turn on some led lights in a bathroom at night at a very low brightness level, The trigger is a motion detector outside the bathroom, as per Jay's suggestion the condition was as follows..

Code: Select all

"All" "of the following rules are true"
      "If current time" "is between" "23:00:00" "and" "10:00:00"
      "If dark"

Followed by two actions, one to brighten lights to required level and a second delayed action to turn the lights off again.
All working well

Colin