A warning to anyone considering Smartthings

You are using the ST routines? How many devices are in your routines? Are you changing the mode as well as controlling devices within the same routines?

yes, I am changing modes in routines. Yes, Iā€™m using plenty of devices in each routine, like 15-20. Is there a known issue around that?

This is just my personal experience over the past year (since Sept 2015) and it may or may not affect your system in any way at all.

I have learned that when using routines for mode changing, each mode change has itā€™s own routine, with nothing else in them at all. I have found this to be the most reliable.

I also learned not to have that many devices in the routines. I kept them no more than 10.

This is how my system has been set up since March 2016 and has been almost trouble freeā€¦

Each mode change has its own routine, triggered by a specific time.
My ā€œroutinesā€ for devices was changed over to CoRE. Each CoRE ā€œRoutineā€ Piston is triggered by the
mode change it is for. In CoRE the number of items does not seem to matter as muchā€¦ just break a big list of devices into several actions within the piston.

I also created a piston that checks the current mode and if it is not in the mode it is supposed to be it then sets the correct mode. It runs this check every 15 minutes. I have had mode change failures and this piston catches it every time. It keeps my system running very well.

I also use Smart Lighting with any automation that is able to run locally. So, I have SL rules working with my Pistons to make things work. Itā€™s actually running very very good.

There are of course still problems with things, but nothing compared to the past, and it seems that any problems Iā€™ve had have not been with my system, but were cloud based.

Thanks for the tips. I have been wondering if perhaps I was issuing too many commands simultaneously in a single routine and they were overwhelming the z-wave network or something. I also wonder if maybe I donā€™t have too many SmartRulesā€¦

Is Core worth switching to over SmartRules?

In my opinion - yes.

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Yes!

Smartrules has not been touched in 6+ months. That alone is reason enough for me. The platform has gone through changes.

Core is fully open source, so low risk of it dying off because the lead dev moves on.

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Wow CoRE looks kind of cool. Is there a txt interface to it? Seems like it allows you to write pretty complex rulesā€¦ too complex for the phone interface imho. Iā€™d rather use an actual editor and upload them.

Not yet. There is a concept. But for now you are limited to STā€™s mobile interface.

IMHO, ST should offer a more robust web interfaceā€¦ but they donā€™t have any public plans to do so at this timeā€¦

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There are a lot of things SmartThings should do. I personally donā€™t understand Samsungā€™s strategy with this product. I just got back from the AWS re:invent conference in Vegas, where both Amazon and Intel where showing demo smart homes.

In intelā€™s case they were demoing their own hub which isnā€™t available retail, but only through telcos and cable companies as customer premises equipment. Amazonā€™s demo was using control 4 in one room and crestron in another, but was naturally centered around alexa.

Another few months of Samsungā€™s apathetic strategy in this market and their investment in SmartThings is going to have been wasted. They need to start throwing down with both development and marketing dollars before its too late.

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Samsung is licking its wounds until the company manages to put the exploding phones to bed. I wish they sell them to Flex so we can have a Smart Wink
:wink: :wink:

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