Bypassing Devices for weeks/months/ seasons?

(Leo Taylor) #1

I’m new to Smartthings, though already I have 18 modules and counting on my Samsung Hub.
Back in 1984 I co-designed an X-10 system with Motorola 680x controller. It had 16 X-10 modules plus some direct connect inputs and outputs. It ran virtually non-stop for 33 years but I decided it was time to move up to the modern world.
It has been a rocky road!
There are a few functions in my old system I have yet to duplicate. One is what we called Bypass where all scheduled events for a device could be programed as blocked. I could block for a day, a vacation, indefinitely, even block if a input is active.
Things I want to block include:
Sprinkler systems, whole house fan, basement fan, and heat. I never had to erase scheduled events when not needed and when seasons changed I just removed the bypass.

How do people do this in Smartthings? Do they erase the Automations then re-tap them all back in next year? I assume you don’t erase the device and re-pair the next year. Do they unplug the modules to save power and prevent accidentally watering the lawn when there is snow on the ground? Do modules loose their pairing if unplugged awhile? Should I label the modules so I put them back in the right pairing?
On the whole I’m Happy with Smartthings, I was up and running several of my devices in a week or two. Connecting to my old thermostats and rain sensor took longer!

(John) #2

Take a look at webCoRE. You can block by any time period, temperature, LUX, etc.

(Leo Taylor) #3

Thank You for the quick reply.

It looks like I’ll need to learn to program ST beyond what comes in the APP. I’ll need to join/read the developers side of ST and perhaps learn Groovy. I don’t mind doing that, after all the Home Control System I used all those years had 24 KB of object code written in 6800 Assembler, no high level languages in those days!

First step is leaning how to load an extension onto my Hub.

I don’t know if you were reading BYTE magazine in the 80s. Our HCS was bought by Steve Ciarcia and became a 3 part article in Ciarcia’s Circuit Cellar Apr/May/Jun 1985. BYTE was 500 pages per issue back then and I saved those three months that have Bill and My names in small print . We must have designed it pretty well, not many electronic appliances run 24 hours a day for 33 years!