Apologies if this has been discussed before and I missed it - I’ve had a hard time searching for this. I might also just be missing something in the app, but is it possible to nest conditions? Specifically the multiple press and on/off conditions. I have e.g. a Lutron Aurora which has a single button. On the first press, I’d like that button to active a scene if the lights are off, and turn the lights off if they are on. The second press I’d like to always activate a different scene. It seems like the solution is a multiple press condition which has an on/off condition on the first press. I realize this would act a little weird if you pressed the button twice when the lights were already on (would first turn them off and then turn them on to a different scene) but that’s not so bad (although it’d be a nice feature request to have it not work that way eventually).
Hello Jesse, nested conditions is not possible at the moment. However, it is on the wish list for future development. It is a great feature, but we are still looking at how we can show nested conditions in the app. I think it would be confusing for users if it is not implemented clearly. Do you have any ideas how nested conditions could appear in the app so (most) users still understand what is going on?
I think it wouldn’t be too bad if the nested condition was shown indented to the right under the parent condition. That is, when you create a condition, instead of just having “Add Action” also have an “Add Condition” option, which will be moved to the right a bit. No idea if that’s easy to do with the Android list menu component thing or if it’ll be a big lift. Maybe a lighter colored background could also be used to differentiate the “nested condition block.”
It’s probably fine to limit to two levels of conditions. A “on/off” nested in a “multiple press” condition matches a use-case that the official Hue app supports (first press turns on/off, subsequent presses pull up scenes) and there’s also an official Hue app behavior where each buttonpress also depends on time of day. I can’t really think of any situation where someone would want to nest three levels.
Thank you Jesse for your ideas, they are helpful. I will look into it in the future.
As for combining conditions you can consolidate some current conditions into one without it being confusing to users. Combining condition ‘Day and Night’ and ‘Time’ into one can easily be done. Re-name it to ‘Day/night and Time’. When you show the clock to set the times, just add a ‘Sunset’ and ‘Sunrise’ button under the clock. So you can either select a specific time or just go for ‘Sunset’ or ‘Sunrise’.
This way the user can mix day/night with time setup. F.e. tell a switch to activate a ‘daytime’ scene starting after ‘Sunrise’ and use a ‘nighttime’ scene starting after 19:00.
In case it helps to understand where I come from; this last example scenario is useful for me in the children bedrooms. In the morning the brighter ‘daytime’ scene can be activated once the sun is up outside. In the evening the more dimming ‘nighttime’ scene should start after 19:00 because that is bedtime for them and I need more dimming light with their curtains being closed even if the sun is still shining at 19:00 (as is the case in summertime).
You can now use multiple conditions for the automations in Hue Essentials.
In addition, there is now a simple toggle action, so you no longer need to use group on state conditions for just a simple toggle.
For more details on the automations see: Automation in Hue Essentials
Let me know what you think about it.
Will play around with it soon. Thanks!
This works great! thanks.