I have been around awhile reading threads and I think I have made a comment or two in threads, but now I have more questions.
Has anyone found a smart lock that works with a storm door? When the weather is nice, we like to open the front door and lock the storm door. So sometimes it gets left locked. This would obviously defeat the purpose of having a smart lock (August) on the front door. We mostly use the garage door for entry so maybe I’m overthinking this!
The smart lights around the house annoy my wife at times, mostly in the family room. There is one smart switch and the rest of the lamps use smart bulbs. I have a tablet set up using Sharptools in the kitchen, but she hasn’t figured that out yet either lol. What I was thinking of was replacing the smart switch with one that has a panel where she could turn on that particular light or choose from one of several scenes I’ve set up for the family room. Brilliant looks amazing, but so expensive. Orro looks solid and a bit more reasonable. Are there any cheaper alternatives along these lines? This switch is part of a 3-gang box and the one next to it is not being used and covered by a blank plate right now. So it could technically cover two spots. Does the Brilliant ever go on sale? I believe I saw there is a zooz switch where you can set multiple pushes of the on side to control different scenes. Something like this could work, but still isn’t as clear as pressing a button on a screen. Does Hue have anything? But would need to control other brands so that’s probably out. Would be fine if it’s just something that mounts near the light switch, doesn’t HAVE to take the place of the existing switch.
I am looking at adding the Ring security system as we have no security right now and it doesn’t look like there is any way to get full security just using smartthings. I already pay Ring $3 each for a doorbell camera and one of their stick up cams, so going from $6 to $20 to get full security monitoring seems fair. I had already put up some open/close door sensors from other brands on a couple doors and I guess my question here is: does anyone know if these sensors will be seen by Ring? I gather from reading around here that the Ring products don’t play well with smartthings but I haven’t seen a clear answer on third-party objects working with Ring.
Which I guess brings us to Ring and August. No dice? I have myQ which I know connects with Ring, so the garage is covered. But the smart lock working with the security system makes sense to me. Should I move the August to the back door or garage door and replace it on the front with one that does work with Ring? I was kind of thinking one with a keypad on the front side would be nice.
Recommendations on a key fob to use as a presence sensor? Would there be one to trigger the front door unlocking or garage door opening?
My garage door opener is a bit on the older side so it did not come with a battery backup. Has anyone found one that works well with garage door openers? Would need to be on the smaller side I guess, but also able to handle the load.
A couple devices I have that I have not figured out how to incorporate yet. Eufy RoboVac (talks to Alexa so I have a smart switch to start cleaning and send it home in ST). Lumenplay Christmas lights, which connect via bluetooth. Twinkly lights which also talk to Alexa so I can get on/off function in ST but no color control. Any device handlers that would bring more functionality into ST?
That’s it for now I think haha. I may add more to the thread if I think of anything.
In the future, it will be more helpful to other people if you keep each thread to just one topic. That way other people with an interest in that same topic can see the questions and answers. As it is, it’s sort of overwhelming, I wouldn’t even know where to begin.
One quick point on number 3: the ring security system only works with its own sensors as far as triggering a security alert. That’s typical of most UL listed security systems. They are only certified for a specific set of devices.
Oh, and regarding number two, the zooz scene controller is quite popular for similar use cases. You can use the big button on the top just to turn lights on and off, and the smaller buttons for different scenes. It works well with smartthings and is much less expensive than the brilliant.
On the storm door, it depends on the exact design of the door. If you don’t know the brand and model number, can you take a picture of both sides of the storm door lock as well as the door jam. There may be some possibilities, but it depends on the details.
Understand about making different threads for each question. I will keep that in mind for next time.
The zooz you linked looks great. Hadn’t seen that one.
I’ll look into getting the answer or pics on your storm door tomorrow but I’ll honestly probably just move on from that idea. I am actually liking the idea of using a Ring-compatible lock on the front door and moving the August to a different door, giving several possible options for getting in. Seems odd that August doesn’t work with Ring.
Disappointing about the third party sensors not working with Ring, but not surprising. I’ll find a way to repurpose the sensors I already have.
regarding #3 Ring Alarm, it is limited as to what non-ring devices work with it. for example the first alert zwave combo smoke/CO alarm, the mini dome battery alarm, ecolink tilt alarm etc. it will not ‘see’ other non-ring devices. i use it in addition to smartthings.
Ring works with Schlage Z-wave locks. Also in case you don’t like Ring Alarm anymore or planning to add Ring Alarm but want to try SmartThings as security, almost all of my Door/Windows sensors are Ring gen 2. They work flawlessly with SmartThings. I got them as soon as they were released, i haven’t changed single battery yet.
I have add them by scanning little code on the side of the device. Maybe you have to change Device Type in IDE, but they work. I created my own DTH that i just called Ring Z-wave Door/Window sensor
Ring sensors can work with their own base station or with smartthings, but not directly with both simultaneously.
So @milandjurovic71 is saying he uses them with a smartthings hub without using the ring base station. And then you just add them like any other Z wave device.
IIRC when I tested them, the motion sensor joined straight away to the default z-wave motion DTH. The contact sensors (both indoor and outdoor) join as generic z-wave device and changing to the standard z-wave door/window sensor works fine (and locally).
Ok so follow up question on this switch. And there’s a fair chance I’m overthinking this.
This is the case for several of the buttons, but here’s my situation, using button 1 as an example.
I have a ST scene that controls several different lights in my family room. A switch, several smart bulbs, and the ceiling fan light. This particular scene turns them all on and sets the color and brightness of the smart bulbs.
I have assigned this scene to button #1 with one press. So I press button #1 to activate this scene, but now button one is “toggled on” if you will. The next time I want to use the switch to activate this button, I have to press it once to “toggle off” which does nothing to the lights, then a second time to “toggle on” again.
Is there any way in ST, possibly as part of the scene it’s controlling, to toggle the switch back to the “off” state after a short delay once the button is pressed? Or some other way to accomplish this? Or has anyone come up with a way to make this process more natural for others in the house who…“just want things to work” ??
I own three of these. Although I haven’t had mine in ST for a couple weeks now, if I remember correctly when setting up an automation - the automations available in the editor just had, Button X pressed. Turn On, Turn Off, and Toggle were the actions available for each button. I specifically remember I had to do some gymnastics with preconditions (using on/off or the state of the LED) to determine if it was an on or off? Otherwise it was as simple as button pressed - call scene.
Specifically, how are you setting up the automation?
I set up the automations I’m using right now by just clicking on the specific button device on the devices tab and then assigning “pressed” to run the scene. So it isn’t quite like a standard automation but it does show up on the automation tab.
However I do see where if I created the automation from scratch on the automation tab, there are more options available for LED Color, Brightness, and Mode. Now I just need to understand how to make those options work for me haha. I see what you mean about the gymnastics.
I have it setup in place of a switch in the family room and that switch controls an outlet right near it. There is a lamp plugged into this outlet and I’ve always used a dumb bulb with it.
Recently I added a few Hue bulbs and I have one in that lamp now.
Is there a way to keep the bulb in an “always on” state so the hue app won’t call it unreachable when the top button of the zen32 is turned off?
I’m sure I’m missing something obvious but the only things I can think of are plugging the lamp into a different switch or ditching the hue bulb and going back to a dumb bulb in the lamp.
Let me know if this doesn’t make sense and thanks as always for the help!
The short answer is no. If you cut the current to the smart bulb by turning off the outlet that it’s plugged into, then it IS offline and the periodic checks that the Hue bridge runs independently will confirm that. There’s no way to fool it, it’s part of base operations.
On top of that, Hue bulbs, like most smart bulbs other than Sengled, are designed to be always on power. It’s ok if there’s an occasional rare power outage, but if you are regularly cutting the current and restoring it (rather than letting the bulb turn itself on and off) then the “inrush current” each time the power is restored can significantly shorten the life expectancy of what are already expensive bulbs.
So your instincts are right: Use a dumb bulb in that lamp or move the hue bulb to a different outlet so you can control it by radio instead.
It can be setup such that the big button does or does not control the attached load. But then you’d have to create automation to toggle ths state and otherwise control the hue bulb.
Just to follow this through: plugging the lamp into a different switch would be fine but I would still want the top button on the zen32 to control that bulb. Having the top button do nothing and no obvious way to turn on that lamp…is not a wife pleaser.
