Hi JD!
Thanks for your input and the tremendously informative post and definitions!
IMHO, as you can tell from my earlier posts in this Topic thread, “Full Scenes” (to varying degrees of fullness (excuse the oxymoron)), should be a fundamental part of the SmartThings platform, not only because of the basic “power” of this function, but also because I think it is an intuitive Home Automation expectation, especially for lighting systems (Lutron, Insteon, …), and is explicitly present in other HA systems.
The Community, however, cannot successfully prescribe the individual priorities and road-map of SmartThings – the platform is complex and going through a major overhaul in a few areas, the most visible being the SmartHub V2. Our feedback and suggestions here are heard and considered, but from the Developer Office Hours open conference calls, and other posts from their engineers, I can make a pretty good guess as to what issues and features are pulling attention and resources.
I’m confident, though, that a custom SmartApp(s) and likely some “Virtual” SmartDevice Types, we can implement something much closer to “Full Scenes”, and overcome the “Limited Option Scenes” implied by Hello Home Actions.
Some of my peers may disagree … although I think we partially agree on many of the parts of the “definition”:
Fact is, there are many ways to solve the problem, but, personally, I would like to focus on the value of following that “intuitive” need and definition. In other words, I would like to implement Scenes as closely to the definitions you have provided as possible.
We can clarify and discuss here, spin off a focused Topic with practical implementation as the goal, and/or Private Message or offline email.
Next, just a small point… you state:
Please note that there is at least one other working controller (with 7-Buttons), and discussion for scene or action actuator keypads (especially traditional in-wall ones) is popular.
Thanks again,
…CP / Terry.