I am looking for an application that will allow me to schedule various lights and Outlets to be turned on and off add multiple times with different times for various days of the week. For example turn on from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. on Monday through Thursday on Friday changed the time to 10:30 to 11, but on the weekends ignore this rule entirely, etcetera. I would also like for the app that have the ability to randomly turn on and off the light during a specific., for example between 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. trying this light off and on randomly 415 minutes duration. Which would be helpful for Home Security. I can see ways to do this but it would involve setting up an individual rule for every single day for every single time rather than being able to set asking for an individual device that would occur over the period of a week.
As a side note, I think that there needs to be a cleanup of old videos and how to instructions for previous versions of the Smartthings app. Currently a prior version could do exactly what I was asking for it, but the directions are so disjointed from the way the application works now there is no way to follow the step-by-step instructions because the steps are no longer there.
Will take a look at VLD as sson as i can find a DL.
Surprised there’s not a readily available solution for what I am looking for are in the first part. My $20 home thermostat has settings that allow me to do just that. It would seem to me to be a no-brainer that something like that should be available. But maybe not.
I’m not seeing the difficulty with the first part of your post. Smartlighting can do this for you, your example of 9am to 10am only Mon to Thurs is one rule and 10am to 11am only on Fri is another rule. Do you need help setting this up in smartlighting?
Actually, I just found the internal app that you were talking about and if taking a look at it. It may need most of my needs. I guess because I use an external app to set up my Echo to work with my Hub I was looking for other external apps to do things that the SmartThings program didn’t do outright.
No problem, good luck with your setup and let us know if need any help. Smartlighting is decent and I use it for about 60% of my automations. The other 40% is beyond what smartlighting is capable of, Im using rule machine (while it still works) and other community smartapps for that. Theres a new rule engine being created and it’s shaping up to be amazing. Check it out.
Good advice, I will keep an eye on it as development continues. I now have 6 devices set up and connected to my hub doing a variety of things to include water monitoring turning on and off certain lights and turning off things that are power vampires when they’re not in use. From this point on I will be adding a couple of devices every other week or so matching up with paydays. And playing with various apps to automate everything is going on in the background.
Sounds good, it’s definitely a good investment imo. I’ve been using the v2 since it came out and I am very happy, the wife even likes it. We have two kids, a 3 year old and a 10 month old, life is very busy. With the automations I have setup leaving the house and coming back, going to bed, etc have never been easier. Have you checked out the lowes iris sensors yet? There very well priced and work great with smartthings, they will even run local (hub v2 with smartsense device type).
Have not tried any of the motion monitoring sensors yet. Although, I have bought a few switches from Lowe’s. My primary source has been Amazon because they have a broader selection with many different manufacturers and price ranges. I have not had a problem with the single thing I bought as long as it says it is a ZWave. Zigbee on the other hand seems to have issues with compatibility based on different versions. You sure I ran into at Lowe’s was one of expertise early on. The people there know nothing at all about how this stuff works or what will work from items item. In fact, I had to explain reasons why I was looking for one version of a switch over another to the person who was supposed to be the lead employee in the area. I think we are still doing all of this and it will be a little while before people in the stores know exactly what they’re talking about and what they are looking at.
For sure, it’s still in the early stages for most. It will definitely be awhile or few and far between finding a sales associate who knows their stuff working at these box stores. The lowes iris in the purple box’s are compatible with smartthings. Im in Canada so not much here as far as retail stores. I do all my automation shopping online or drive across the border to lowes.
Agreed, sometimes it is hard being on the Leading Edge of Technology. I hope your border crossings into the US are easier than mine and my pass through Canada. Really, aside from the border people everyone I did run into was really nice there.
That’s a cool blog, I enjoyed reading it. I like the pic of the 50km over, the cops consider that stunting and yes its strictly enforced. I work as a contractor for bell canada and I’m up and down the 401 every day from windsor to Toronto. I usually have a good experience crossing, sometimes I get a dick who seems like there trying to prove something. I also almost always get lucky and never have to pay tax on my USA purchases.
Thank you for the very kind words. I always try to be polite to anybody I run into in a position of authority figuring they may be having a bad day and if I’m a jerk they’re going to be a jerk.