Hi, I know I am limited to 3 SHM modes: Armed (away), Armed (Home) and Disarmed but this presents me with an issue.
I use Armed (away) for when I am away, and Armed (home) or when I am in bed - probably similar to many other users.
At home I have a gym in an outbuilding, in normal Armed modes (when away or in bed) I want the gym motion sensor and doors etc to be monitored same as the house, which is fine and I have configured that, however when I go to the gym I would like to be able to lock down the house to an Armed mode - so if an intruder is sensed it alarms me but obviously the gym sensors do not alert.
I have created a new mode āgymā for which I can use but is there an easy way to set up all the alerting and monitoring that comes with SHM for this mode ? I am missing something obvious or is the only option setting up some long pistons in webcore to monitor everything ?
First things first: āmodesā in SmartThings are completely different from the SHM armed states. This does create a lot of confusion, but itās important to understand the difference. See the following FAQ (this is a clickable link)
Once youāve read that, we can get to talking about your specific request.
The short answer will be that you can indeed create a new mode (not an SHM armed state) and then use that with custom alerts in SHM. Whether that will meet all your requirements just depends on the specific details.
But again, start by reading the FAQ and then we can drill down into what options will work best for you.
Was thinking they would have gone with āChange Security State or Statusā in the new.
It will be Security Mode versus Location Mode.
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RBoy
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Given that SHM only work in 3 states, one solution is to create a new mode like @JDRoberts mentioned and then use a custom intruder alert smartapp to create monitoring/alert scenarios you need for those modes.
Hereās an example of one such app (if you have access to RBoy Apps):
Both would be good. Many people, myself included, can process text way faster than video, which is particularly helpful when you are going back to something later. And of course many people canāt see video at all. (and an audio track from a video is rarely as useful, although again, choice is good. )
I did not think it was possible for ST to futher muddy the waters on Alarm State and Mode, however they persevered and succeeded.
Getting back to the OPās original question. Using Zones would be the answer on some alarm systems, however SHM does not support Zones. One possible solution is to create two āLocationsā on one hub. I donāt know if anyone has actually succeeded with doing this, but here is a search that brings up some information. https://community.smartthings.com/search?q=two%20locations%20one%20hub
In SmartThings, a hub is a location. You canāt have just a select group of hub-connected sensors at a different ālocationā as they would still be reporting to the same hub. The threads in the search you included (all pre-2018) are mostly for people who wanted to have more than one hub under one account, very different use case.
Under the new āSmartThings Samsung Connectā app, Devices which do not require a hub, mostly appliances and televisions, can be set up as a separate location, but again that doesnāt fit the use case for this thread.
Yes, but all the ones about two locations and one hub are about Geofencing for presence. Not sensors for intrusion detection. As I mentioned, you canāt split the devices that are connected to a single hub directly (zwave or zigbee) into multiple locations.
I would respectfully disagree: That would just give you the same problem in reverse, because there are times when the OP does want all of the sensors to report together.
The use of modes and custom notifications will solve the OPās use case for many setups, it just depends on the details.
The custom smartapp āsmart alarmā which existed before the official smart home monitor, had zones, for example. And Mike Maxwellās zone manager can also create zones. And you can also use Mikeās zone manager with SHM custom notifications.
There are several different ways to do this, but a second hub is normally only considered if thereās a range issue in getting devices connected to the original hub, and thatās not the problem here.
You can create virtual motion sensors and sync them with your gym motion sensors. Use the virtual sensors in SHM instead of the real sensor. Put in a restriction for the virtual sensors to sync with the real sensors in all mode except gym mode. Also set a rule to have the virtual sensors go inactive when mode switches to gym.
Thatās the only way I think will work if you still want to use SHM.
Hmmm
I already have motion sensors, a simulated sensor, a contact sensor, and an SHM interface on my SHM Delay appās Delay Profiles. All I need to add is a preference āIgnore motion sensors in these modesā and perhaps a āIgnore contact sensor in these modesā and some logic to test the preferences.
I think there are a few questions about this setup that still need to be answered. One of which is simply what kind of security setup is he using. Did he/she implement a perimeter based setup or one primarily based on motion.
When you think about alarms normally there is only a need for three states and they have nothing to do with location it is about presence. Your armed/home or armed/stay is used to disable motion sensors and lean on a perimeter based setup for protection. Armed/a way is simply turn on everything for detection for intrusion including motion sensors. Then of course disarmed.
If you think about it simply as presence there is nothing saying armed stay shouldnāt be used regardless of weather the op is in the gym or main home structure. The only problem with it is if there is a concern the home protection is inadequate without the other sensors. If that is the case though I would suggest upgrading the sensors to improve perimeter protection.
Adding a second hub for the gym could be a very reasonable solution as well as. Having itās own SHM setup could allow for the added flexibility the op wants though it would mean a separate setup to maintain. I would guess that there is a decent chance it would work pretty well without to much hacking to maintain. Some devices that are cloud based can even be seen by two hubs. I had a WEMO plug for instance attached to a ADT Security panel hub and a Nvidia Shield Link hub. It seemed to work fine. That wonāt work for Zwave or Zigbee devices, but could work for cloud based stuff
With all that we are talking about smart things and I am sure a way can be figured out to send notifications, it is likely going to be either custom rules in SHM, or notifications completely outside of it.
The easiest solution will likely be to use two hubs each with their own SHM, but I would still argue if you have good perimeter based security simply use armed stay though.
That works, but only if you no longer want to use those sensors in the regular (non-custom) SHM alerts.
That becomes important because I believe only the regular alerts will run locally and if you are using the official Scout integration ( which ignores custom alerts).
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