I was looking to give the whole home automation thing a try when I wanted a simple chime to play when a door was open and stop when it closes. I was thinking I would start from this and gradually automate more and more, but I am shocked to find even this simple case doesn’t work reliably. About 10% of the time the chime doesn’t turn off and just keeps playing after the door is closed.
Given a simple on/off switch can’t work reliably what hope is there for anything more sophisticated?
What device are you using for the chime? And are you using a contact sensor for the door?
I’m using the standard open closed sensor and an Aeon labs siren (with tape over the speaker to make it a bit quieter). There doesn’t appear to be an z-wave door chime on the market at present.
As much as we want it to be 100%, SmartThings is nothing close to that yet. I adjusted my expectations a while ago and gave up on certain projects. However, there is still quite a lot you can do.
My rule of thumb is assume it WILL fail and fail at the worse time. Thus, select your projects with that in mind.