How to Adjust Light Level WITHOUT Turning the Light On

[bangali]

at least im not an idiot

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

(well…i am anyway, but not for this).

[sgnihttrams]

yep-yep

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

[bangali]

set the level just before turning off the light.

[sgnihttrams]

lol

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

Thanks!

[bangali]

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

yeah i know

[Mike1616]

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

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.

[sgnihttrams]

Here’s what I do… I have a two pistons…“pre-loads” the Dimmer setting …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.

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.

[bangali]

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.

[sgnihttrams]

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.

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.

[bobbles]

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

[Robin]

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.

[Mike1616]

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.

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.

[sgnihttrams]

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

Ha-ha, your words seem to make it so simple.
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.

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

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?

[Robin]

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.

[Robin]

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.

[sgnihttrams]

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’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.

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.

[Robin]

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.

[bangali]

might want to take a look at this app also. it lets you turn on / off lights and switches based on occupancy and automatically set the light levels every 15 minutes based on settings you specify:

Rooms Manager smartapps and Rooms Occupancy DTH (Smarter Lighting with rules driven lighting + thermostat + routines + ...) (now with window shade control)

while ST has a concept of rooms it seems to be more of a grouping mechanism. in contrast rooms occupancy considers the room as a meta device and automates a few common tasks associated with a “room” physical or virtual. in keeping with that it has attributes, capabilities and commands which are useable in webcore or other smartapps like Smart Lighting. however, what makes it useful for me is not just the room’s state but the abiloty to manage automation for room in one set of settings for the r…

[sgnihttrams]

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.

OK…I’m not sure if I completely understand.
Does this mean we could have more than just one level outside of ‘normal’, or still just one?

might want to take a look at this app also. it lets you turn on / off lights and switches based on occupancy and automatically set the light levels every 15 minutes based on settings you specify:

Rooms Manager smartapps and Rooms Occupancy DTH (Smarter Lighting with rules driven lighting + thermostat + routines + ...) (now with window shade control)

OK…I’m confused.
Again, I’m not having trouble with getting lights to come on or to change levels at various times.
webCoRE is quite capable, and seems to handle most of this kind of stuff just fine.

So, does this SmartApp ‘Adjust Light Level WITHOUT Turning the Light On’?
I thought this couldn’t be done (as per the rest of this thread so far).

Generally speaking, with webCoRE in my life, since I know how to use it (and/or know how to find out) I really have no use for any other SmartApps anymore.

The only reason I could see having one is if it does something that either can’t be done with webCoRE, or something that would be a LOT of work to set up.

[Robin]

Does this mean we could have more than just one level outside of ‘normal’, or still just one?

You would set the max level via webCoRE… if the light is on above that level it will dim down. If the light is off it will turn on to the max level next time you flick the switch.

You can only set one max level at a time, but you can change the setting with webCoRE as often as you like.