How to Adjust Light Level WITHOUT Turning the Light On

#1

OMG…I feel stupid even asking this…
I’ve created hundreds of automations over the years, but for some reason, I’ve never really figured this one out yet.

Is it just me, or is this something that really can’t be done?

I’ve tried both ‘set’ and ‘adjust’, but it seems no matter which one I try, the lights turn ON.

USE CASE:
I have ‘evening light’ and ‘night light’ automations.

For these, I use virtual switches to control smart light bulbs AND smart switches (depending on what’s there in that room, etc).

When they get triggered to turn on by doors opening, motion, or whatever, they turn ON to a certain level (still not perfect, but it’s mostly working).

When they turn back off, I want them to all turn back to 99% and go off.
The problem is that, sometimes, they ‘adjust’ up to 100%, and just stay there in the ON position lol and other times, the d@mn thing only ‘adjusts’ it up to 72%, and goes off (leaving the light at 72% instead of the 99% that I told it to go to).

Ideally, I would like to have a world where adjusting the level of a light has nothing to do with whether it’s ON or OFF, or with turning it ON or OFF.

If that is possible, PLEASE show me how.
If not, what’s the best way of tricking the system to accomplish the same thing?

#2

not you cant be done.

#3

aw, geez

i’m torn…in one sense i’m pissed, but then again, at least im not an idiot (well…i am anyway, but not for this). lol

#4

was going to say … checked with your wife lately? … but then you covered it :wink:

#5

yep-yep

So, what is the best way of getting at this some other way?

#6

set the level just before turning off the light.

#7

lol

Hilarious. That’s what I do…it just doesn’t seem to work…not consistently anyway.
Oh well.

Thanks! :slight_smile:

#8

yeah i know :slight_smile:

#9

Here’s what I do… I have a two pistons. One which Triggers late in the evening and the other which Triggers when I go to bed. The one that runs late in the evening “pre-loads” the Dimmer setting that I want in all the rooms that I am not in (or not expected to be in). Then when I go to sleep the next piston sets all the rest of the lights to their nighttime setting. So that way if anyone needs to get up in the middle of the night the lights will just automatically be at the level that I want them to be at.

I find this to be better than turning on the light to some arbitrary value that it last had and then adjusting the level down to where I want it. With this way the lights will be where I want them when turned on.

Then in the morning, I set them all back to their full usual level again. Rinse and repeat.

As for the dimmer level…I find that I just need to add some slight delay in there before trying to turn the light off. 750-1500ms usually does it for me.

And yes, I do have to turn on the lights to set the dimmers…but I don’t usually see it happening as I’m not generally in the rooms which are getting changed when those changes take place.

#10

This ^^^^ is golden.

Obviously, it’s a lot more thinking and configuring than we’d really like to have to do, but wow…I’m glad you did that thinking.

Once I read it, it seems so simple, but I just hadn’t thought of it.

For now, and until/if something better comes along, this is exactly what I will do as well.

So, thanks, man. :slight_smile:

#11

wait … this is all you wanted to do?

sorry man thought you always wanted the light to turn on at 99% no matter what the last level had been previously.

#12

Well… (besides the fact that I occasionally get confused about exactly what it is I am/was hoping to accomplish in the first place by the time I get off on a tangent) there are times when I do want some of the lights to turn on at 100%. For those, I make it happen by which virtual switch, and which automation is used.

However, the main point I was looking for here is just what’s in the title…
“How to Adjust Light Level WITHOUT Turning the Light On”.

Since (as you pointed out) it can’t actually be done, and since I was also open to alternative methods of achieving something similar to the desired effect, this solution from Mike above will come in real handy.

p.s. Clearly, no sorries needed. :slight_smile:

#13

Just turn it on at different levels when in different modes or during different time periods.

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#14

This is one of the many reasons I really like my Fibaro Dimmer 2 modules!

They have a night mode built into the device firmware which can be toggled from webCoRE, adjusting the max brightness levels.

If the light is on when night mode is toggled, it fades up / down to the preset level. If the light is off then it sets the level in the background without turning on.

#15

That’s pretty sweet there Robin. I’m actually using WC to produce this same effect on my main living room light. When it hits 11PM, if the light is on it fades it down to 10% over 5 minutes. That fade time is long enough to where it really is unnoticeable even if someone is still there watching TV…and it’s a good signal that it’s getting late. :slight_smile:

#16

Ha-ha, your words seem to make it so simple. :slight_smile:
The problem is that what you just suggested is EXACTLY what I already do.

However, this thread was not about ‘How to get lights to turn on at different times’, but about
’How to Adjust Light Level WITHOUT Turning the Light On’

Unless I’m misunderstanding what you’re saying, in light of the thread so far, what you suggested does not do that.

Thanks though.
I will take any suggestions that come along.

On my shopping list now.
Thanks!

@Robin
To do this (i.e. to ‘Adjust Light Level WITHOUT Turning the Light On’) with the Fibaro Dimmer 2, do I simply tell the light to ‘adjust’, or is there a different command needed?

#17

You have to choose preset brightness levels for normal and night modes (in the device preferences page).

All you can do in webCoRE is toggle night mode on / off.

#18

Correction… you can only choose a level for night mode… when switching away from night mode the dimmer reverts to its previous setting.

The DTH also has optional options to set a time for night mode to start and stop… in addition to being able to toggle the mode via webCoRE.

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#19

Aha…so, there is only one level (outside of ‘normal’).
I guess perhaps that might not work for me like I was getting excited about.

Of course, I could just scale-down my OCD a bit, and use just one, but I’m currently working with several light levels that get progressively dimmer as the evening progresses (to be specific, 4 levels; triggered by 4 Location Mode changes).

Perhaps I should reconsider something mentioned earlier above about having the lights gradually dim over a period of time…as opposed to changing the lights to specific levels at specific times.

i.e.

I wonder if I could set it up to use this sort of dimming routine over a longer period of time. Oops…I just remembered, this probably only works with a situation where the lights will be on the whole time, and won’t work for the ‘in the background’ sort of thing I’m wanting. Oh well.

#20

Looking closer at the Fibaro device handler… all night mode is doing is changing parameter 19 (forced switch on brightness level).

It would be a piece of cake to tweak the device handler to enable the setting of parameter 19 via webCoRE… via a custom command, so actually, you CAN set the level with the switch off, to anything you like.