Dear SmartThings developers: we need randomized lighting

Please, for the love of god give us a way to simply control lights in a random on/off sequence based on sunset/sunrise/fixed times and using the existing home/away/night location mode. This I feel is such a basic function and is sorely lacking. The “no worries while away” seems like an attempt but it uses fixed start stop times and does not tie into the location mode.

I’d like to able to set ST to AWAY and have an automation randomly cycle selected lights from sunset until midnight

Thank you

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Yes: many people have requested this feature. Hopefully they will add it eventually.

Meanwhile, if you happen to use Alexa, they do offer randomized lighting as a free feature under their Guard options. Some community members are using that as an alternative for now.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=G8W367YLULTRSB2S

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I don’t use Alexa but some of the light switches are TP-Link which offer some randomized options too. This takes you out of ST and needs to be enabled/disabled on a switch by switch basis so not ideal but it’s a clunky solution if I’m away for an extended period.

I get the impression the “no worries while away” was defined by a recent college hire who’s not had to stress with reality of leaving a house unattended. It’s so poorly implemented as to be useless IMHO. Yet, just one more tweak to add randomization, sunset/sunrise and the existing global location mode would nail it.

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You can find a very good solution from @Mariano_Colmenarejo here

That’s a good option for those who have a SmartThings/Aeotec hub. :sunglasses:

The other options mentioned so far: the official “no worries” feature in the app and the Alexa Guard option, do not require a hub. Nor do the TPLink Kasa WiFi switches already mentioned. (All Edge Drivers require a ST/Aeotec hub or dongle.)