I have an automatic routine that turns on outdoor lights at sunset and off at 1130 pm while turning them back on at 515 am and off at sunrise. All work except they don’t get turned off at sunrise. Is there some issue with using sunrise these days? Sunset works, so why not sunrise? I’ve tried a few things to get it to work, but it doesn’t (although TBH it’s intermittent). Thoughts? Thanks.
Check your local sunrise time, probably is before 5:15am
Thanks, but sunrise is later than 515. I believe it’s always later than 515, which is why I used it.
Maybe delete and recreate the routine?
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Thought about that, but there are two time, one sunset, and one sunrise trigger for about ten lights, so I’d like to avoid having to redo it all. I did disable it/enable it to see if that worked. That worked last week I think when it started acting up. I tried it again. Not sure if it’s gonna work. I might create a routine on SharpTools to cut them all off if they are on after sunset just to be sure. I’ve done this with other SmartThings rules because they are not always reliable. Thanks.
You don’t have to delete your routine actually. Just create a new, additional one to switch off one device as a test. That way you can see if it works. If it does, well, you know what you have to do.
Can you post a screenshot of your Routine?
You’ll be surprised. Yesterday was at 5:16am, today is at 5:15
Check any weather app. The Weather Channel is what is used by SmartThings:
Not in Charlotte NC. Sunrise was 609 am EDT. The earliest it’ll be in June is about 609 am EDT. And it worked correctly today for some reason. Maybe because I disabled it and re-enabled it?
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I need to get an app to take a scrolling image of it. It’s about four screenshots otherwise. It is miraculously working again, though. Go figure. Thanks.
I’ve noticed an issue since the last hub update was announced related to a virtual device and sunrise.
I have the Virtual Calendar Mc device (Mariano Shared Beta Driver)
I have a routine that should fire when the Virtual Calendar Device has a Sun Rise Offset to Local Time of 90 minutes. It has not run for several days, not sure when it stopped but it seems to have been around after the notification of the last hub update (We will begin rolling out Samsung SmartThings Hub firmware version 0.57.14 starting on 03-June-2025.) but my v2 Hub is still on 000.056.00011.
I can’t use a normal routine because the max sunrise offset is 60 minutes, hence the use of the virtual calendar device.
I disabled the routine and created an identical one and the new routine also doesn’t run either.
I have another routine that should run tomorrow that uses a Local Month & Day offset from the same Virtual Calendar device so I’ll see if that runs. If it does run that seems to point to being an issue w/ Sunrise somehow and not the Virtual Calendar Device/driver.
Hi, @baboss
Please let us know your results. Since this is a custom driver, I had to install it to understand a little more how it works and it seems it calculates the sunrise and sunset times based on the values in the settings of “Latitude” and “Longitude”. So, it would be different from the feature in the Routines page, again, I’m speaking from the lack of knowledge on how this calculates the time exactly.
It would be helpful to see the routine’s configuration. For that, we need access to your account and the name of the Routine:
- Confirm the email account registered in the forum is the same one you use for SmartThings. If not, please share it with me over DM
- Enable support access to your account:
- Go to the SmartThings Web (my.smartthings.com)
- Log in to your Samsung Account
- Select Menu (⋮) and choose Settings
- Toggle on Account Data Access
- Select the time period and confirm - In this step, please select “Until turned off”, once the team finishes, we’ll let you know so you can disable it again.
Of course, the routine started working the next day.
In the meantime, my hub received the latest update. Only reason I knew was because my hub powered off or was in some weird state where I hate to cycle power on it to get it back up.
Things have continued to work thankfully.
Yes, email account for forum is same for SmartThings.
I have enabled account data access.
The routine is named “Open Chicken Door 90m After Sunrise”
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So, to continue this sage, my lights didn’t turn off at 1130 pm. My automatic routine is one of those time based routines, the ones where you can set multiple times. Mine are 5:15 am on, Sunrise off, Sunset on, and 1130 pm off. I’ve been having trouble getting the routine to turn the lights off in the morning at Sunrise, so I created a separate routine to run at Sunrise and turn them off. They got turned off this morning. Not sure which routine actually turned them off, though. However, I noticed that they’d been on since Sunset last evening and didn’t turn off at 1130 pm. I’m beginning to think that these multi-time routines don’t really work and that I’ll need four separate routines again, like I used to have.
Hi, @rcbjr2
Do you mean the ones that look like this?
If so, we need to consider the following:
- The first schedule you define there is the main one that others will base on. Because that’s the one with an actual time reference.
For example, if we configure the first schedule at 01:00 am and the second at 01:00pm. The main time reference will be Midnight + 60 min. Then, there will be a “sleep” command for the amount of time between 01:00 am and 01:00 pm. After such time has passed, the next action will be executed.
- If you modify the rule in the middle of the day and the main schedule has passed, it won’t execute again until the next day because all timers are reset.
If you continue having issues with it, we can investigate further.
No, it doesn’t look like the routine you mentioned. It’s one of the “Daily routine” automations. I screenshot it on my laptop. I also exported the JSON code from my laptop. I’ve attached both PDFs. I hope this helps explain it. In a nutshell, it’s this
515 am – turn on some lights
Sunrise – turn off same lights
Sunset – turn on same lights
1130 pm – turn off same lights
Sometimes sunrise works; sometimes it doesn’t. I thought that 1130 was working, but it hasn’t been lately. As far as I know, everything was working a couple weeks ago. I didn’t notice any issues until we started seeing lights still on after sunrise. I’m not up at 1130 to check if the lights didn’t get turned off, but I looked at history, and noticed they weren’t getting turned off. History doesn’t go back all that far, so I can’t go back and check on weeks of history.
Thanks.
P.S. I can’t upload PDFs, so let me see what I can do to upload images later. I probably won’t be able to upload the JSON code, though.
Here are images of the routine from my Pixel phone. I noticed that there are a different number of lights in each group if that matters. Likely because I add and subtract Xmas lights each year, with the controller sometimes controlling my fountain during warm months. P.S. These might not have uploaded in order, but on my phone, they display in the order of 515 am, Sunrise, Sunset, and 1130 pm. Thanks.
No problem, I can see it on my side if you open support access to your account:
- Confirm the email account registered in the forum is the same one you use for SmartThings. If not, please share it with me over DM
- Enable support access to your account:
- Go to the SmartThings Web (my.smartthings.com)
- Log in to your Samsung Account
- Select Menu (⋮) and choose Settings
- Toggle on Account Data Access
- Select the time period and confirm - In this step, please select “Until turned off”, once the team finishes, we’ll let you know so you can disable it again.
See more information about this access here: https://support.smartthings.com/hc/en-us/articles/36170233944852-Enabling-Account-Data-Access-for-Support
Let me review the info you’ve provided and I’ll get back to you.
Quick question before the experts resolve your issue. I see Xmas stuff and I think seasonal/short term usage and how some have mentioned packing those items until the next season. Are all the devices in the Routine still connected and online?
They are all still connected. I just move plugs around at Xmas time. However, having said that, when I’m looking at the routine, sometimes the icons on the left turn to a broken orange circle, which makes me think some connection is lost, but then they all come back.