Trigger based on current ambient temperature?

[FlyingDiver]

Chipping in

I suspect that might be because the state you are comparing against is a text string of '79 F' and therefore not numeric?
Is there a numeric only custom state that you can compare against?

The nest device is an Indigo thermostat. The trigger is against a standard device attribute. You can't get the "Becomes greater than" on the popup for a string type.

[FlyingDiver]

Doesn't look like this is working, unfortunately.

You can see in the top of my screenshot that my Office Thermostat is 79F now and my Trigger is "Becomes Greater than 78" but my trigger didn't trigger.

What's in the "Conditions" tab?

[mikejandreau]

The nest device is an Indigo thermostat. The trigger is against a standard device attribute. You can't get the "Becomes greater than" on the popup for a string type.

So how can I accomplish this then?

What's in the "Conditions" tab?

Nothing too fancy. Just a variable being true and a time check (for when I'd be in my office).

[FlyingDiver]

Not sure what you mean by "window beneath the Thermostat Controls".

Can you elaborate on what window I should be looking in here?

When you have the Nest selected in the device list, drag up on the little "dimple" just at the top of the device details pane:

[FlyingDiver]

What's in the "Conditions" tab?

Nothing too fancy. Just a variable being true and a time check (for when I'd be in my office).

Are you sure both of those are true while you're testing?

[mikejandreau]

Yep. 100% positive.

[FlyingDiver]

The nest device is an Indigo thermostat. The trigger is against a standard device attribute. You can't get the "Becomes greater than" on the popup for a string type.

So how can I accomplish this then?

You're doing it right, but something is keeping the trigger from firing.

[jay (support)]

I don't think so. But I'll try changing my trigger to "78 F" and see if that does anything.

That won't work because it's a string.

You can see in the top of my screenshot that my Office Thermostat is 79F now and my Trigger is "Becomes Greater than 78" but my trigger didn't trigger.

How did you test it? Are you sure that the temp actually did change from 77 to 79 while the trigger was active and configured correctly?

Zone 1 Temperature is the standard field for single zone/sensor thermostat devices when referencing the temp as a number. As I said, I don't know anything about how the Nest works, so I can't say for sure that's the correct state.

I did just create a trigger as your trigger is configured and it worked correctly. Disable your conditions just to ensure that the trigger is actually firing.

[mikejandreau]

How did you test it? Are you sure that the temp actually did change from 77 to 79 while the trigger was active and configured correctly?

Yep, I triple checked that the variable was True, the Nest Device reads 79 in Indigo, and the time is between my time range. The Trigger is active.

Zone 1 Temperature is the standard field for single zone/sensor thermostat devices when referencing the temp as a number. As I said, I don't know anything about how the Nest works, so I can't say for sure that's the correct state.

I did just create a trigger as your trigger is configured and it worked correctly.

I'm stumped. Every bit of logic in my brain says this should work, but it doesn't, hence my post for help here.

[jay (support)]

the Nest Device reads 79 in Indigo

The trigger isn't going to fire until the nest temp crosses the 79 degree threshold again. So, for testing, if the temp is still at 79, change the trigger to look for >79 and wait until it does. Disable the conditions just to make sure that it's actually firing, then you can turn the conditions back on.

[FlyingDiver]

Is it possible the temperature was already over 78 at 7am? IOW, it crossed the threshold before that condition was true?

[mikejandreau]

This is what I mentioned earlier might be happening.

The "Becomes great than X" requires it to go above X. But I don't think the plugin polls the thermostat enough. Sometimes it jumps from 77 to 80 and never reads 78 or 79 in Indigo.

Ideally, the condition would be "is greater than".

I removed the conditions to see if that's the culprit (though I don't think it is).

As a workaround, I guess I could duplicate the Trigger and have it look for "Becomes greater than 77, 78, 79"

Is it possible the temperature was already over 78 at 7am? IOW, it crossed the threshold before that condition was true?

Nope, it was 77 this morning when I came into my office. Stupid electronics running 24/7.

[FlyingDiver]

Does the Nest log temperature changes? If not, you might want to set up a trigger that fires on any change in that value and logs it. Then you would have a way to see how often Indigo sees that temperature change.

[jay (support)]

The "Becomes great than X" requires it to go above X. But I don't think the plugin polls the thermostat enough. Sometimes it jumps from 77 to 80 and never reads 78 or 79 in Indigo.

Ideally, the condition would be "is greater than".

NO. Becomes greater than 78 is the correct terminology and the correct implementation because it works in any of the following example before and after scenarios:

• 78->79
• 77->79
• 77->80
• 65->100

Becomes greater than is a threshold rule - any time the before value is <= and changes to >the trigger will fire, regardless of the specific before and after.

Again, HOW ARE YOU TESTING THIS? The only way to test the trigger is to make the boundary get crossed. So if the current temp is already 79 or higher, the trigger isn't going to fire until the next time the temp is below 79 then changes to be greater than or equal to 79.

[mikejandreau]

I get what you’re saying now Jay. I’ll run with that.

As for testing, I manually turned the air conditioner on to cool my office. Then turned it off and let the temperature climb back up to 79.