Turn ON & OFF using alexa/GH

[sumya]

Need some help in designing piston
I want the bulb #1 to be ON when there is motion and turn off when there is no motion. This is easy to design.
But if I turn off the bulb using ST app or turn it off using alexa/GH, then bulb # 1 should not turn on even if there is motion for that day. How can I achieve this?

[Cozdabuch]

You can’t exactly.
First there is no direct Alexa or GH integration to WC.
But either way it doesn’t leave a footprint on the device of what programmatic method turned it on.

WC can monitor physical and programmatic actions. It doesn’t break down programmatic by what app fired the action.

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Now there is a way but it’s a little round about.

You could conceivably make this work with a virtual switch…
Create virtual switch (Light override)

Then, have webcore then on/off (light) based on motion under an “only when” statement
Only when: (Light override) is ON.

So you use the app or Alexa to turn off (Light override) then the motion section of the piston won’t do anything until you turn (Light override) back on.
If you want this to reset daily, as a timer, run daily (at say 12:05am) that turns on (Light override)

[sumya]

Ya I thought of creating a virtual switch but wanted to know of it records the physical or programmatic action.
My better half gets confused by virtual switches so I try to stay away from it as much as I can

[Cozdabuch]

Name the light switch something weird, or forget the real switch from Alexa. This way Alexa interacts with the virtual switch and unless you’re doing it in ST app for all intents and purposes Alexa only interacts with virtual switch named what makes sense

[sumya]

I will give it a try. Thanks for the suggestion.

[Cozdabuch]

hope it helps. i’ve got some elements of the above suggestions in my setup and it works well.

[sumya]

This logic is very similar to what I have currently.

webcore turns on/off (light) based on motion from 6-9pm
if no motion then light turns off only between 6-9pm

After 9pm, mostly TVmode (virtualswitch) is on in which all bulbs are dimmed so even if there is motion, nothing happens.

Thanks again for ur help.

[sumya]

Motion Based Light EXCEPT when Manually turned On

This piston will turn on a light with motion and off after 5 minutes of no motion. But if user switches the light on it will not be turned off by motion, instead user will need to turn if off from the ST app. If motion turned on the light and you want it to stay on till you turn it off, just switch the light off and on. The isBetween check sets the light level to 100% when between 4am to 11pm otherwise to 10% only when turned on by motion. note that while i use a light in this example it could b…

[anon64378689]

i am trying to make the same project, using ifttt/wc. can you provide any example pistons? thanks.