I’ve been diving into the world of smart lighting automation recently, and I must say, it’s been an exciting journey! 
I’ve been using a Shelly 1 to control two Hue lights in my dining room, and I wanted to set up a system where the lights adjust their brightness based on whether it’s daytime or nighttime. Sounds simple enough, right? Well, let me walk you through my setup and the little hiccup I encountered along the way.
So, here’s what I did: I created three different automations using the same trigger—the switch input from the Shelly 1. The idea was to have one automation for turning the lights on during the day, another for turning them off when both lamps are on, and a third for adjusting the brightness at night. The day and night scenes were set up with specific brightness levels to match the ambiance I wanted.
The daytime automation worked like a charm! During the day, the lights would turn on and adjust to the daytime scene without any issues. However, when the sun started setting, things got a bit tricky. The nighttime automation just wouldn’t trigger, and the lights remained at their daytime brightness. It was perplexing because everything seemed to be in order when I tested the automations manually through the GUI.
After some digging, I realized the issue might be with the conditions I set for the nighttime automation. I had it linked to the sunset event, but perhaps the timing wasn’t precise enough. I decided to tweak the conditions, ensuring that the sunset event was correctly detected and that the automation wasn’t conflicting with any other routines.
To my delight, adjusting the conditions solved the problem! Now, the lights seamlessly transition between day and night settings, creating the perfect ambiance for any time of the day. It’s such a small tweak, but it made a world of difference!
This experience taught me the importance of double-checking conditions and timing in automations. Sometimes, the simplest adjustments can lead to the biggest improvements. I’m now more confident in setting up even more complex automations in the future!
If anyone else has tips or tricks for optimizing automations, I’d love to hear them! Let’s keep the conversation going and help each other make our smart homes even smarter! 