Hi everyone!
I currently control my living room lights based on lux values. However, I’m struggling with the situation where I also want to manually control the lights sometimes.
Right now, I have a flow that checks a variable. If the variable is set to “yes,” the lights won’t turn on or off automatically based on the lux values. The issue I’m facing is deciding when to set that variable back to “no” so the automation starts working again.
I want to keep it as simple and user-friendly as possible for others in the house, but I honestly have no idea what the best approach would be.
Good to know is that i am using buttons instead of switches.
Do you guys have any tips or ideas? Let me know! Complete other ideas are also welcome!
If I understood the core of the problem correctly—I used Virtual Devices (sockets) to solve it. When the outdoor lux level matches ‘Day,’ the VD plug is OFF. When lux equals [value], it’s ‘Night’ and the plug is ON. I assigned different modes to rooms and scenes, such as Auto, Manual, Scene, TV, and Sleep. If someone presses a button, the automation switches to Manual mode and stays that way until the next trigger. (Ex.If the zone is inactive for … min: Auto = ON, Manual = OFF.)
For your inspiration:
I have this flow for the light above my countertop.
One YES/NO-variable ‘keuken handmatig aan’
One number-variable ‘lux keuken’ with the luxvalue I want to turn on the lightstrip.
One number-variable ‘dimlevel’. The value of the last one is changed by the different triggers. The fun part is when the value is ‘changed’ from 0.5 to 0.5 Homey doesn’t sees it as a change, so nothing happens. If it does changes the trigger at the bottom is activated.
Near the countertop I have a button:
One click: on/off manually
Double click: dimlevel 1 and color temperature 0.
The timer is started by movement in the garden. When I am away or asleep the light is off. When the timer reaches 135 seconds left the light turns on, thus mimicking my reaction to the movement.
