Let me begin by saying that the apps and interface that I want may already exist and I don’t know where to look or how to configure SmartThings properly.
I am a recent convert to smart things. As anyone who has researched “home automation” knows there is an ongoing battle over protocols. No one can predict the ultimate winner (s) but my money is on Z wave, ZigBee, and IP based products. That being said; Smart apps are the doorway to the future of the really smart home and makes Smart things the perfect choice.
I have suggestions for several smart apps that I think would be very beneficial for many people.
The first is a smart app to control smart devices (mostly lights) based on time of day and day(s) of the week. I envision this app having an interface sort of like the iPhone alarm app or an event scheduled in calendar program.
You would select the devices to be include in the “event”, then set start time and end time, select the day or days of the week this would occur. Just as you have the ability to have multiple alarms on the IPhone you would need the ability to set more than one scenario.
For instance for me one scenario would turn on certain indoor and outdoor lights at 8:00 pm and then turn them off at 6:00 am every day of the week. Next scenario would be a vacation type scenario. Living room on from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm then living room off and bedroom on until 11:00 pm. Some of this may already exist in Modes.
I have found one app that will randomly turn lights on and off – but it will not simulate what lights are actually on and off at the proper times.
The second app may be more of an interface than an app. I see that the only camera that SmartThings supports is DropCam. I think that it would be great to have an app/interface to an IP camera app so you could use any IP camera(s) that you choose. I have 4 IP cameras install, all 4 did not cost what one DropCam cost.
Having an IP interface in general would be great!
The third smart app is more of a “hardware/device” issue. Our home watering system consist of 5 orbits timers connected to hose bibs. It was cost prohibitive to install something with a central manifold because of the age and size of our water feed. So It would be great to have an Orbits type device that would talk to SmartThings and allow scheduling. We have to stager the start stop times because of the size of our inflow pipe.
And at last one pet peeve. It would be great if the SmartThings app would rotate to landscape – especially on my IPad.
As I said before all of the things that I want may already exist and I just don’t know where to look or how to configure the SmartThings app.
I own a company that does web application development mostly in .net, so app creation for SmartThings is way outside our wheelhouse. I have no idea what the SmartThings cloud database looks like, so I have no idea if what am proposing/requesting is possible.