I really like the bulb cam, but I’m having an issue with the light automatically turning on at sunset and off at sunrise. I had to manually turn it on and off since installation.
Under blub settings, I have the ACTIVATE WHEN: set to motion, Smart detections, Person.
Lights off Timer is 1 min
Schedule is Sunset - Sunrise (this is the setting that’s supposed to make it turn on and off on the schedule, right?)
So, what am I doing wrong?
If you haven’t already done so, then you need to turn on the Ambient Light setting and set its schedule.
Where you currently have it set it’s scheduling when you want motion-activated light to work. If you want the lights to turn on and off automatically on some schedule regardless of whether there’s motion, then you should set this up in the Ambient Light screen.
As an example, this is how I’m currently using it on a Bulb Cam on my deck:
You might also want to navigate into Advanced Settings ➜ Sync Time and tap the Sync button for good measure.
I hope this makes sense and helps!
In addition to what @crease said, make sure your zip code is correct in the app, it uses that to determine sunrise and sunset for automations and other time based activities.
Ah, it’s the ambient light that I need to have on, and have the schedule set there, so that’s what I was missing. Thank you!
You’re welcome! I figured that was the missing piece for you. It takes some getting used to, but it makes sense when you see it working. Hopefully that’ll be the case with your next sunset.
Some time-based activities…ostensibly. I’ve been doing some Vacation Mode testing lately that works for some devices but not others, all running from the same app with the physical address (including ZIP Code) set. For this particular device, though, my experience is that it’s obeying schedules as expected.
So the Ambient setting is what actually turns lights off by schedule? what does the Schedule do under the MOTION Option in bulb settings?
They’re two separate schedules, yeah. Since I don’t know what schedule you set or where you set it, I asked for more detail in the topic you created.
If you just want the lights to turn on and off on a schedule regardless of what the camera is seeing at a given time, then yes. You could also do this with Schedule-type Automations, but the Ambient Light feature is built into the device’s settings and gives you control over the light level, which I don’t believe Automations currently allow for this product.
That’s for motion-activated light. Notice on the “Bulb Settings” screen it’s under ACTIVATE WHEN. When you tap on Motion, you get to another “Bulb Settings” screen with a Motion toggle. If you tap the information circle icon, the app explains more about how this feature uses motion to trigger the lights, and you can set the lights to trigger on motion based on All Motion events or (with a subscription) Smart Detections. The schedule you set on this screen determines when the motion-activated lighting feature will trigger. If you go back one screen to the previous “Bulb Settings” screen and set the BRIGHTNESS LEVEL slider, then that determines how bright the lights will be when they’re triggered by motion.