Hi everyone, I wanted to share my experience with setting up a smart lighting automation system. The goal was to have certain lights turn on when I arrive home, but only during the evening and early morning hours. I thought it would be straightforward, but there were a few hurdles along the way!
Initially, I set up the automation to trigger based on my geolocation. It worked perfectly when I arrived home, but I noticed that the lights would also come on during the day if I happened to be near my house. That wasn’t ideal, so I decided to add a time-based condition to the automation.
I configured the system to only activate the lights between sunset and sunrise. However, the lights still turned on during the day. I tried adjusting the schedule to specific hours, like 6 PM to 7 AM, but the issue persisted. It was frustrating because the system seemed to ignore the time constraints I set.
After some research, I realized that the geolocation feature might be overriding the time-based settings. I decided to simplify the automation by removing the geolocation trigger and relying solely on the sunrise and sunset times. To my delight, this worked perfectly! The lights now only come on during the designated evening and early morning hours.
This experience taught me the importance of understanding how different automation triggers interact with each other. By breaking down the problem and testing each component separately, I was able to find a solution that met my needs. It’s a great reminder that sometimes simplifying the setup can lead to better results.
I’d love to hear from others who have set up similar automations. What challenges did you face, and how did you overcome them? Any tips or tricks would be appreciated!