Rule issue with timing

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I have the following rule:

if its after 13:00 and its before 17:30 and PIR test is present then send mail to:"xxx@yyy.com" subject:"PIR activated!" text:"Movement detected by PIR in living room!"

When omitting the time constraint (just PIR detection) it is working fine.
Using the time restriction an email is never sent.
The rule is built with the included wizard in Pimatic.

What am I doing wrong?

@Petjepet

try

if [its after 13:00 and before 17:30] and PIR test is present then send mail to:"xxx@yyy.com" subject:"PIR activated!" text:"Movement detected by PIR in living room!"

Kinda weird. Should work. Brackets should not be necessary with only “and”.

@xCite86 When I add the brackets in text mode editing they disappear when switching to GUI mode (correct, because they are not needed).

I also tried if its after 1pm and its before 6pm and PIR test is present then ... with no result.

I just discovered my RasPi clock is two hours behind. That was causing the issue while I did the test.
The “after” constraint did not work.

Another question: sometimes two emails are send because the PIR has a uptime duration after detection. How should I deal with that in rules?

@Petjepet use trigger?

If trigger: xxx is present

Then it triggers on the latch. Or do you mean in triggers several times? Then create a var like $email sent. And use

If xxx and $email was not updated for 15m then send mail and $email = 1

@sweebee said:

Kinda weird. Should work. Brackets should not be necessary with only “and”.

ok, i didn’t know that… never learning out about pimatic

@Petjepet

Another question: sometimes two emails are send because the PIR has a uptime duration after detection. How should I deal with that in rules?

i’m using a variable “pir-movement” and set the var active by pir’s

set active with

if PIR test is present is present and $pir-movement = "no" then set $pir-movement to "yes"

inactive with

if $pir-movement = "yes" for 40 minutes then set $pir-movement to "no"

and the mail-rule

if its after 13:00 and its before 17:30 $pir-movement = "yes" then send mail to:"xxx@yyy.com" subject:"PIR activated!" text:"Movement detected by PIR in living room!"

so you will get max. every 40 minutes a mail between 13:00 and 17:30 on momement

@sweebee @xCite86 Thanks. I will try something.

@sweebee said:

@Petjepet use trigger?

If trigger: xxx is present

Then it triggers on the latch. Or do you mean in triggers several times? Then create a var like $email sent. And use

If xxx and $email was not updated for 15m then send mail and $email = 1

Because the PIR is present for about 15 seconds the rule gets evaluated twice in the same presence indication of the PIR.
I tried changing the rule in the rule editor with your second solution with the $email variable but then I see a short message saying something about the provider not supporting the $email attribute. When leaving that part out I get a message the “and $email” is not supported.

@Petjepet you have to add a variable called email. Check menu > variables > gear icon and add variable.

@sweebee That’s what I did but “was not updated for” is not a an option to choose I guess.
This is the message that appears for a short time when saving.
Could not find an provider that decides next predicate of "$email=1"., Expected a new predicate after last "and".'

@Petjepet your right. It only works for devices. Like if status of x was not…

The solution of @xCite86 should work.

@xCite86 I’m also trying your solution with the additional rules but somehow I can’t the " and $pir-movement =“no” " is not excepted.
Same message as before “could not find a provider…”.
Of course I omitted the double “is present” in your example.

if PIR test is present and $pir-movement = "no" then set $pir-movement to "yes"

Same for your second rule when checking $pir-movement =“yes” in the if clause.
At your side this is working?
Am I missing some ruling types?

@Petjepet

add a variable first and name it “pir-movement”

then the rule should be able to create

@Petjepet

i simulate it and it works for me

@xCite86 I created the variable before. I stopped pimatic and started is and now I can evaluate the variable where I couldn’t before. Strange.

@xCite86 said:

i’m using a variable “pir-movement” and set the var active by pir’s

set active with

if PIR test is present and $pir-movement = "no" then set $pir-movement to "yes"

inactive with

if $pir-movement = "yes" for 40 minutes then set $pir-movement to "no"

and the mail-rule

if its after 13:00 and its before 17:30 and $pir-movement = "yes" then send mail to:"xxx@yyy.com" subject:"PIR activated!" text:"Movement detected by PIR in living room!"

so you will get max. every 40 minutes a mail between 13:00 and 17:30 on movement

Now trying to understand these rules I’m not sure this is working.
$pir-movement stays “yes” for 40 minutes before turning to “no” in your example meaning your email rule will send emails during 40 minutes sinds $pir-movement is keeping the IF clause on true.

But probably I’m overseeing something in this.
How often are rules evaluated? Is that an ongoing cycle? All rules evaluated again within 5 s?

My goal is to prevent sending a second email on a onetime PIR signaling where the PIR is detecting a presence and keeps that state for about 15 s. So I guess it should be trigger based.

@Petjepet

you will get only one mail on the beginning of the 40 minutes.

your pir set the variable $pir-movement to “yes” first time and will be stay for 40 minutes. if a second “yes” appears after a short time (in a timeperiod of 40 minutes in the example), nothing happens.

at the earliest after 40 minutes (of course you can also can decrease the time) you will get a second mail if movement will be going to “yes” by pir.

@xCite86 said:

@Petjepet

your pir set the variable $pir-movement to “yes” first time and will be stay for 40 minutes. if a second “yes” appears after a short time (in a timeperiod of 40 minutes in the example), nothing happens.

Why not?
When the email rule evaluates again within these 40 minutes the if clause is true (time interval is the same and $pir-movement = “yes”) and will send an email again.

I think I’m missing something in the ruling concept.
How often are rules evaluated? Isn’t this a continious repeating loop of evaluating all rules again and again?

@Petjepet

Why not?
When the email rule evaluates again within these 40 minutes the if clause is true (time interval is the same and $pir-movement = “yes”) and will send an email again.

because there is nothing change within the 40 minutes.

if the variable does not change, the rule is not triggered again.

if you want to continous a rule:

if $pir-movement = "yes" and every 5 minutes then....

@sweebee … please correct me if was false.