Events firing in the wrong modes

SmartApps & Automations
21

any single-tech PIR (infrared-only detection) can false on insects, flying and crawling on the lens. The techniques to avoid it are typically dual-tech sensors (example combo ultrasonic and PIR motion detectors)

and/or redundant sensors in one zone, and alarming only with 2 reports in a period like 30 seconds (called cross-zoning in burglar systems).

At a test, I would try turning on a dedicated light in Night or Away, in problem zone(s) so you have instant indication of the actual ST mode. And turn off the sirens until you have local execution/ hub v2.

22

This time of year, a very frequent cause of ā€œfalse alarmsā€ on motion detectors is air conditioners and ceiling fans going on and off. Obviously that doesnā€™t apply to the events occurring in the wrong modes, but just a general motion detector issue.

23

Funnily Iā€™ve been seeing (for the most until now) that the ST platform has been getting more stable. IMHO once they fixed the missed schedule issue (which I havenā€™t had for a while now until this week) this was a solid platform. (barring the app responsive issues)

What irked me the most is that Iā€™ve been promoting this platform to individuals and businesses. When folks come to my house/business and see the level of automation and the environment ā€œrespondingā€ to the my family and workers - they ALL want it. Iā€™ve even trained folks to deploy the platform for individuals/businesses who want the experience. Recently Iā€™ve had executives from some of the largest hospitality chains inquire if we can customize the system for their guests.

It just IS NOT acceptable for the platform to get worse. Just shows very poor IT and QA. In 20 years in IT if I ever delivered a production grade platform like this to any of my enterprise customers, I would never have another customer return to me.

Iā€™m going to keep pushing the limits to what I can do with the platform and if it doesnā€™t live up to the expectations, Iā€™ll switch (and help my customers switch).

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24

Whoa, way premature! ST routinely flunks WAF, so how in the world could you think it could be used in any production way? Itā€™s one of those things where it truly feels better once you quit banging your head against the wall.

Itā€™s at best in beta, with no production quality in sight. Maybe V2, maybe not. But definitely not nowā€¦

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25

Business opportunities donā€™t wait for suppliers to be risk free (right, @ashutosh1982?).

Early bird, meet worm. :bird: :left_right_arrow: :bug:

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26

He-heā€¦ Make sure you have good liability insurance :smile:

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27

liability ā‰  reliability

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28

Theyā€™re in inverse relation. I.e. less reliability = more liability. :smile:

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30

:)) the other day I found a bug in one of the Schlage locks firmware and reported it to their product support team. They asked me what platform I was using. I said ST, they had never heard of it. I think itā€™ll stay this way for a while.

32

Easy buddy - weā€™re all here helping ST make it better. Just venting a little :smile:

33

Glad to hear that, buddy! :slight_smile:

34

It happened again. This time it was a SMS and push notification. Weird because sometime I only get push. Sometimes the event also reaches the alarm and sometimes I get push and SMS with no alarm

35

I still think (with no evidence whatsoever, of course, just observation) that the failure to execute (as opposed to the executing in the wrong mode) is a musical chairs problem. Some commands are dying buffer death, so it just depends on whoā€™s left standing when the music stops.

This could be happening either in the cloud or in the local mesh.

Again, I have no basis for this, other than QOS observation, but it would fit with the randomness of what works and what doesnā€™t.

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36

Iā€™m guessing the weather tile is his LUX sensor (I use it this way too) and as such, itā€™s not horribly reliable no matter how many things you subscribe to.

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37

Very trueā€¦ Indeedā€¦ One needs to just go for it :smile:

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38

@RBoy ā€¦ I had the same issue as well and reported it to support. They asked if I could reinstall all the smartapps related to motion sensor and alarm triggers. It has not happened ever since.

The sad part is they were not able to debug the issue even though I gave them the exact time stamp!

39

This has been the case for a long time. Makes it appear as though the bug (or bugs) are well known and not fixed. It was support who advised to reinstall apps with broken schedules or broken mode restrictions. And, for whatever reason, that does seem to work. I suspect their focus now is on V2, where these issues would manifest in a completely different way, hopefully without whatever bug that breaks things in the cloud.

40

@bravenel I donā€™t mind the focus on V2, but there is no announcement, hint or idea of when that is even going to be released. I really feel @RBoy pain, i have wanted to start promoting this to family, friends and possibly go out and install and configure it for people.

I just canā€™t. It isnā€™t reliable, it isnā€™t stable, support really, really trips but even now they are overwhelmed and have no chance of keeping up. There are SO many devices out there now, and more flooding the market.

I have a Wink hub, and I might to move to that for some of the pieces that it supports and just move to individual apps to control Sonos, or my Garage door.

I really think the biggest problem with all of this is, there is no light at the end of the tunnel. I know you are hoping that V2 is the answer, but when we canā€™t even get a timeframe or an idea of except ā€œit should be out this year.ā€ It is very frustrating.

I have NOT noticed any of these events firing in the wrong mode though, but i have reduced the automation portion because of past issues and use ST as a ā€œsmartā€ remote with very little automation because of scheduling or because of events not firing and not using it to open any doors or run critical pieces of my house.

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41

Actually, no, Iā€™m not. I was simply speculating about where STā€™s energy is probably focused. Iā€™ve said elsewhere around here that V2 is vaporware. I agree with you that hoping and wishing and waiting for V2 is basically stupid.

On the other hand, V2 (if it materializes) may be their only way out of the mess they have on their hands. Iā€™m not holding my breath. Meanwhile, ST works pretty well for me most of the time AS IS.

42

Iā€™ve had this happen just about every time Iā€™ve reported an issue to them. Absolutely ridiculous that is how they try to ā€œfixā€ issues. No wonder why things are a buggy mess. I still really like Smart Things and have a v2 on pre-order, but if this doesnā€™t get better in six months or so, Iā€™ll probably start looking for alternatives. Itā€™s just so damn unreliable.