Event triggers

[racerfern]

I have three doors with sensors and events that trigger the doorbell to play a different sound for each door. That works fine. Separately I want to get a notification when someone rings the doorbell which is not a zwave connection to the bell. I can tell when bell turns on and a quick check confirms all the doors are closed so someone must have rung the bell, then send me a text.

However, I get the text when a door opens and that shouldn't be. Where am I going wrong?

[Uncle Michael]

Could it be a timing issue?
You could break your event into two as a test. The first event has the trigger, but waits a brief time, 1 or 2 seconds maybe, then runs another event (checking conditions) with a manual trigger and the three door-closed conditions and the email action.

[randy]

I have three doors with sensors and events that trigger the doorbell to play a different sound for each door. That works fine. Separately I want to get a notification when someone rings the doorbell which is not a zwave connection to the bell. I can tell when bell turns on and a quick check confirms all the doors are closed so someone must have rung the bell, then send me a text.

However, I get the text when a door opens and that shouldn't be. Where am I going wrong?

There is nothing wrong with your event. It will only run at the moment the bell rings and as long as all three doors are closed. You need to carefully look at the devices. If you have all four devices set to log commands, you should be able to see what their status is when the text is sent. One trick I use is to temporarily rename the devices. You can rename them without breaking any events. I would put a set of characters in the name of each device and the name of the event so that you can filter the log on that string. I use something like "xzy" in front of the names. Then filter on log entries containing that string and you should be able to see what is going on in a very concise form. You will see the status changes of all of the involved devices as well as the event being run. Once you have it sorted you can change the names back.

[racerfern]

@Uncle Michael, you might be right. It might all have to happen with absolutely perfect timing and for sure that doesn't always happen.

@rprade thanks for making me confirm that everything is logging. I'll keep drilling into this. But I did just realize that I will have to add to this since there is the possibility that the back door could be open and there is someone at the door. It's always something isn't it.

[randy]

@Uncle Michael, you might be right. It might all have to happen with absolutely perfect timing and for sure that doesn't always happen.

@rprade thanks for making me confirm that everything is logging. I'll keep drilling into this. But I did just realize that I will have to add to this since there is the possibility that the back door could be open and there is someone at the door. It's always something isn't it.

It really shouldn't have anything to do with timing. At the moment your bell rings, if all doors are closed the event will run - if any of them are open it won't. My concern is that one of your devices is not reporting properly. You originally wrote "I get the text when a door opens", which would indicate a door is triggering an event, unless you meant this event runs even if one of the doors is open - when the bell is rung.

[Uncle Michael]

My concern is that one of your devices is not reporting properly.

I think this is the most likely cause as well, but I was thinking that the reporting of a door might be delayed, or the doorbell ring might not be instantaneous, so the two are not as closely synchronized as your event assumes.

Another thought occurred to me about a timing issue, but in the opposite direction. That is, if a door is opened, but gets closed again before the doorbell rings. Changing the conditions to 'has been for at least' might be needed. Randy's suggestions for monitoring your log are definitely going to help to track down what is happening, so that's the place to start. If you can display the HS log on a tablet or laptop as you open the doors, you should be able to see what's going on pretty quickly.

[racerfern]

I use the Doors Sensor as the trigger since it always correctly shows open/closed. I can't rely on the Notification since it seems I have to constantly reset those or I get an unknown status (see screenshot).

So I'll agree it may be a timing issue since when the door opens at times the doorbell is almost instantaneous, at other times it takes a couple of seconds. Although it is almost instantaneous 99% of the time.

So I'll add a slight delay between the bell and the first door check and see how it goes.