I have a three way switch in my garage which I can’t use smart switches to control for a variety of reasons. I bought a Reality Switch (physically toggles the switch) and a light sensor. I’d like to make a rule that changes the ST status of the switch to “on” when the illuminance is higher than 60+/- and changes the status to “off” when the illuminance is lower than 60.
The goal is to have the switch match the status of the lights, even when the other switch is used to control the light.
I’m very new to SharpTools so I don’t know if this is possible. I appreciate any help!
Hi @Brian_Emerson, welcome to SharpTools family and community. See the rule screenshot example for your scenario. Use light sensor’s illuminance as the trigger, so this rule will be triggered whenever the illuminance changes (since it should always be greater than 0). And use the If_Condition in the flow to determine if it should turn the switch on or off depending on if the illuminacne is greater or equal to 60.
Thanks James! My question is a little different in that the switch can say it’s “on” in ST when the light is actually off, since the other switch in the three way configuration can control the light and is not connected to ST.
I’m looking for a way to control the status of the light switch based on the light sensor.
@Brian_Emerson, can you provide a bit more context so maybe there’s another way to achieve what you need. And if the status of the Reality Switch will be used for other rule or something?
I am sorry that I found the problem of the rule example after a second thought that the Reality Switch is probably considered On when flipped “up”, and vice versa. However the 3-way switch on/off status cannot be determined by the up/down position, since the other switch can be also control the light.
Do you need the the Reality Switch status to show on/off based on the light sensor so you can see it in the dashboard to know if the light is on or off? If so, how about using a Virtual Switch, and use the example rule above to change this VS’s status based on the light illuminance status? So this VS should show the correct light status that you need.
And if you want to control the light through this VS, you can try the following rule which is a bit more complicated because it needs to toggle the Reality Switch based on its current status. (Switch: Virtual Switch, Kitchen Light: Reality Swtich, and Weather Station is the light sensor in your scenario.)
Please test it out and make sure it behaves the way you need, since the device’s event timing is important for this rule, especially when they are switched on/off very quickly.
Trigger: ( trigger the rule when the VS is switch to on or off.)
Flow: (toggle the Reality Switch when the VS on/off status is NOT in sync with the illumiance reading.)
Sounds like we are on the same page with the challenge. It makes sense as I read through it and I’ll test it asap. Thanks for the help!
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