Rule for control a simple water leak sensor (two cables)

[ortegafernando]

Hi, I have done a simple water leak sensor with two cables (one to A0, and the other one to GND) with a 1 mega resistor external pull up.

What do you think about this rule? do you think it has more improvement?

Rule1
ON Analog#A0 DO var1 %value% ENDON 
ON Analog#A0<3000  DO Backlog IF %var3%==0 RuleTimer2 60; var3 1; ENDIF ENDON  
ON Analog#A0>=3300 DO Backlog RuleTimer2 0; var3 0; IF %var2%==1 Publish stat/tasmota/water_leak OFF; var2 0; ENDIF ENDON 
ON Rules#Timer=2   DO Backlog IF %var1%<3000 Publish stat/tasmota/water_leak ON; var2 1; RuleTimer2 300; ENDIF ENDON

Explanation:

1. save A0 value in var1 (so we could read it when timer triggers)
2. if water_leak happens and timer is not active (var3), activate timer for 60 seconds and mark var3 as active
3. if not water_leak, deactivate timer (mark also var3 as 0) and ONLY if I have sent ON mqtt message, publish OFF mqtt message and mark var2 as 0 to know that there is not "ON message" pending to answer
4. after first 60 seconds timer, if var1 (A0) is still under 3000, publish ON mqtt, mark var2 as 1, and reactivate timer2 with 300 seconds to go on publishing ON mqtt messages until the water_leak disappears

As you can see, I have added a double histeresys:

1. first one in value 3000 and 3300
2. second one in time. I will only publish ON message if after the first trigger, the condition (<3000) has hold on for 60 seconds)

I have to repeat this for 4 analog inputs.

What do you think?

NOTE: I am using ESP32, I have never started with berry. I usually try first this problems in rules before start to program berry. If I find a solution with rules..... may be this is the reason why I have never started with berry 😂. Probably there is a cleaner way, but rules are simple and, please, tell me about this rule. Only speak me about berry if there is a very important improvement, thanks

Thanks

[sfromis]

As a starting point, dont break the syntax for rules. Instead of the broken
ON Analog#A0<3000 DO Backlog IF %var3%==0 RuleTimer2 60; var3 1; ENDIF ENDON
better use
ON Analog#A0<3000 DO IF (%var3%==0) RuleTimer2 60; var3 1; ENDIF ENDON

Use () around logical expressions, and don't combine IF with Backlog (which is already implied when using IF.

The many arcane syntax details to even make rules work is just one of the reasons why I recommend using Berry instead of "surprises" with rules just not working, and not giving you any error messages why.

[ortegafernando]

@sfromis Thanks a lot. May be this is the time that I need to start with Berry, besides, I need to do it for 4 water leak sensors. 😂

Rule1
ON Analog#A0 DO var1 %value% ENDON
ON Analog#A0<3000  DO IF (%var3%==0) RuleTimer2 60; var3 1; ENDIF ENDON
ON Analog#A0>=3300 DO Backlog RuleTimer2 0; var3 0; IF %var2%==1 Publish stat/tasmota/water_leak OFF; var2 0; ENDIF ENDON
ON Rules#Timer=2   DO IF (%var1%<3000) Publish stat/tasmota/water_leak ON; var2 1; RuleTimer2 300; ENDIF ENDON

[sfromis]

Well, in the 3rd rule you are still lacking () and combining Backlog with IF 😜
Any experience of what to expect from an actual programming language can hurt you when creating rules.

More generally, it is fine to use rules too, but while they look simple, the logic behind is complex enough to need very careful scrutiny of constructs, and whether you actually get the full outcome you were aiming for (when reading the code looks "ok", it may still be broken). In simple cases, rules can be a shorter way of doing the same, without much risk of getting lost in the details, but when things gets to be "less simple".....