How To: Setting up Notifications in Rule Machine | Hubitat

How To: Setting up Notifications in Rule Machine | Hubitat

Introduction

This guide will show you how to use Rule Machine in Hubitat to activate the notification feature of our Red Series products (Dimmer, Switch, Fan + Light, etc.). There are a few different ways of doing this, but using the built in Rule Machine App is likely the easiest and most flexible way of taking advantage of this powerful feature.

Steps

First, go into Rule Machine and click on "Create New Rule"



Next, name the rule and setup a "Trigger Event" that you would like to use. This could be any event that you can think of like if a garage door is left open, or HSM (Hubitat Safety Monitor) is armed, or the outside temperature is certain value. The options here are really limitless and users have thought of dozens of ways to make use of this feature. Here we are going to use a motion sensor to setup off a notification if there is activity.



After the trigger event is setup, it is time to add an Action. Click on "Select Action Type to add" . . . 



then choose "Set Mode, Variables or File, Run Custom Action" (we are interested in "Run Custom Action" here).





Next, we need to choose a capability that allows us to choose one of the switches, dimmers, or fan controllers that we want to use a notification on. The "actuator" capability should contain any device that has an actionable command on it so all of our applicable Inovelli devices should be in this group.



Select the devices that you would like to initiate the notification on.



Then click on "custom command" and scroll down to select "startNotification".





The next step will be to add a parameter to the command that we are going to send. Select the "string" type to allow us to input the necessary value.



For this next step, we need to go to the "Inovelli Toolbox" that was created by a community member. The URL is:  https://nathanfiscus.github.io/inovelli-notification-calc/  Select the appropriate device and then the "Notifications" tab.

Note: As of the date of publication, there may be an error in the Fan + Light notification calculator. You can use the "Dimmer Switch" calculator as the values will be the same for both devices.




Next, choose the color, brightness level, duration, and effect that you would like to use for the notification.



This will produce a "Configuration Value" that you can use in Rule Machine. Click on "Copy Value" to copy the necessary number to your computer clip board.



Go back to Hubitat and paste the value into the "string value" field.



Note: If you are using the Fan + Light you will need to "Add another parameter" to the configuration to specify whether you want to control the fan or the light LED bar. Click on "Add another parameter", choose a "string", and input a "1" for the light LED bar or a "2" for the fan LED bar.



After clicking "Done with this action" you will see a description of what the action is (shown in the red rectangle below). Click on "Done with Actions" to go to the next step.



Finally, click on the "Done" button to finish the rule and you are ready to go!