Can same scene overlap?

Community Playground General Discussions
#1

My kids often forget to turn off the light in our laundry room. I’m planning to replace the light switch with z-wave compatible switch so I can control it through Vera. I can a create scene to turn OFF the light in 10 minutes when the light switch is turned ON (trigger here is turning ON that switch) and this will work fine if the kids forget to turn OFF the light.

What will happen if the kids remember to turn OFF the light? 1 of the following 2 things has to happen:

  1. Scene gets executed after 10 minutes from the time switch was turned ON but since the switch was already OFF the scene execution will result in a no op situation (‘no operation’).
  2. The scene gets cancelled automatically.

If the answer is 1 (I think that is more likely the case), does Vera cancel the old scene execution and start a new one in this case? If yes, we are good and I have no further questions. But if the answer is no, how do I prevent the lights to turn OFF if/when I entered the laundry room and turn the switch ON just before the last scene got completed? Is it possible to cancel the previous scene?

In short, what I want to confirm is can the same scene overlap and cause undesirable effect?

Thanks

#2

Hi rajhouse,

It’s (1). No cancellation of running scenes happens. Which means that, yes, if you turn the light on at 9:55 it will go off again five seconds later.

These kinds of situations are why I developed the Countdown Timer plugin. It correctly handles these cancellations so you won’t be left in the dark. Search the forum and you’ll find it, along with a howto.

#3

Awesome. Countdown Timer plugin is all what I need.

#4

Actually, it (now) appears a command in a scene will get skipped if the device was manipulated manually:

Trigger: a light being turned on
Delay: 60 seconds
Action: turn light off

The light does not appear to be turned off if it was manipulated after initially being turned on. (E.g., turn it on to 30%, then 10 seconds later go to 20%. Or those steps, plus setting it back to 30% 10 seconds after that.)

When you turn it off and then back on, before the minute is up, a new minute starts.

Tested remotely, i.e. not manipulating the dimmer locally, but through the Dashboard.