Feature request, Smartthings working more days than not

Same story every couple of days. The hub is up but nothing works.
Will you ever fix this POS?

No, you should probably sell it and get something else, I hear the Wink hub is ultra reliable :wink:

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Lots of really good feature requests from you, Magnus (@Sineira), but might as well be frank with you that SmartThings has not been responsive to a wide range of requests we’ve made over the past 3 years.

Not because they don’t want to make a better product: It’s just that they have to prioritize. And obviously “nothing works” is more important to fix than other issues.

Figured you’ve been here long enough to notice that some real progress has been made and at an accelerating rate – this week Hub V2 launched for pre-orders, and, rumor has it that Amazon Echo integration announcement before the end of the week, quite likely!

I’ve more than once suggested that ST publish their issues and accomplishments list, but someone wisely said that could backfire, as we’d see a lot of “good” feature requests that are never addressed for reasons we won’t understand, and the rest we’d take for granted.

So @Benji has the right idea: If you think there’s something better, give it a try. And, in the meantime, the open nature of SmartThings has enabled the Community to support each other and develop some really super workarounds to solve some of the problems and even implement some features (e.g., http://SmartTiles.click is a browser based interface; something that has never been on ST’s priority list, so, well, no problem, it’s available from a 3rd party developer.).

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The problem is that there are no real improvements.
The stability is the same as always (non-existant). It’s actually gotten worse again in the last couple of months.
Maybe I should wait and hope that a new softwware release will fix it. But they are so tight with information who knows.
I would never buy the new hub if they don’t correct the basic stability.

Adding in new features while the core of the product doesn’t work reliably, not to mention has an awful interface and logical structure not even a mother could love, is not really relevant.

I agree the web based interface is a must though. I have used it to try to figure out what is wrong. I can see the hub sees the sensors triggering but then does nothing. No way to see if it’s a fault in the hub or non-responsiveness from the cloud.

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There are a lot of logs you can view on your own at the IDE login (graph.api.smartthings.com) or you can ask Support@SmartThings.com for assistance.

Myself and quite a few of us have honestly experienced tremendous improvement in stability and responsiveness. There was a specific 1.5 hour outage last week, but I’ve had no other problems. Even my schedules fire on time.

It’s often a tough call whether to stick with a product with known issues that is improving or start over again with an unknown product.

I hear Staples Connect is among the most reliable in this market, but SmartThings will surpass it with Hub V2’s new local processing architecture… Just wait for the first in-the-wild issues get shaken out,I think.

You’re obviously frustrated and since your experience here is not what is expected or what we strive for (obviously) you should have it fixed. I am assuming you have contacted support. They can help to diagnose the issue and get you a new hub if it is faulty. They are very helpful and add real value to SmartThings. I hope if you do reach out you can help provide pertinent info rather than state things like “nothing works” as that isn’t very helpful.

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Naw, I’d go with Belkin Wemo. I just love the factory reset feature

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I must admit, I was being a of an idiot and poking fun. Thank you @tgauchat for saying what I actually should have said in a mature way.

Honestly there are so many issues on every platform (I have Wink) that makes me realise, it’s not just the hub that’s causing them. There are so many variables that could affect the performance of your entire system as a whole but when something doesn’t work, we blame the one device that connects them all, perhaps unfairly.

Think about ZigBee for a second, which operates on the same frequencies as WiFi and BT and many other devices, it could be something that’s messing up your ZigBee communication. Got any mobile phones from Europe/Africa/Australia/Asia laying around? In fact most global mobile phones these days all have the capability to use GSM900 which covers up to 915MHz… I’ve never heard of it happening but maybe it can be screwing up your Z-Wave devices occasionally?

Then comes your internet connection, I would say that a vast majority of routers out there are so poor, that they are causing so many issues that they don’t realise with their internet access, that when you introduce something like home automation hubs that start exposing those issues, people again automatically assume that it’s the ST hub.

Like @Ben has said, give them a bell and see if they can see what’s up? With Wink I have ZERO visibility into the ACTUAL logs (unless I root it). Last time I submitted a ticket to Wink it took a week to reply and the person who responded ignored pretty much everything I had just written and just wrote a generic reply.

Giving ST a chance to at least have a look into it is only fair and at the end of the day, maybe you’re having an issue that they have never come across before and if they’ve never seen it before, how can they fix it without your help? :slight_smile:

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I’m not really sure what I should write or say to be helpful when nothing works i.e. when the hub is acting like it’s dead.

It might be good if Smarthings published helpful tips on what info to collect in that email we’re supposed to send.
That could improve the data you get from your customers.

Yes I did send an email and a brief description of what wasn’t working.
It started working again (partly) after rebooting the hub twice. For some reason the motion sensor in the garage didn’t work and then worked even though I can see it triggering by using smartiles event history.

How about the LED color? What do the logs say? Is anything controllable? The support team has also created a lot of support documents in the Knowledge Base, including some great troubleshooting content.

For the garage motion sensor, it could be out of range or at least benefit from a boost of the mesh network by plugging in another device between it and the hub.

Being very precise about what is not working is the best approach. If you have multiple things not working it is good to mention them if they are related. Typically its best to work on 1 problem at a time. including make, model of the affected devices, distance from hub, names /w links (if possible) of any smartapps involved.

EXP:

[quote=“Sineira, post:1, topic:20878, full:true”]
Same story every couple of days. The hub is up but nothing works.Will you ever fix this POS?
[/quote] Doesn’t give anyone a whole lot to work with but…

I have a Enerwave ZWN-BPC motion detector that should turn on a light connected to a GE 45609 through “lights and switches”. Both devices are in my garage ~50ft from my hub. Every couple of days this stops working and i have to reboot my hub to resolve.

This anyone who has the time to help a lot of insight into your environment and can help you come up with a resolution. In this situation it’s probably a range issue, but a zwave repair may also fix it. Due to all the metal and other misc items in a typical garage zwave or zigbee range can suck.

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sidjohn1, well, nothing worked. If they had a half decent troubleshooting system they could pull the log from my account and check it themselves.
Instead they just have a lame “send us an email and we’ll see” system.

And this is the level Smarthings operate at. It’s just not very well thought through and implemented. Always excused by,
“nobody has time”. It’s all a matter of priorities and it comes across as if they don’t give a shit but buy the new product instead, it will be out “soon”.

homeseer is a good option and is very reliable. price is high, but twice a year there is a 50% off sale. interface looks like its from the 90’s but with any automation system; you shouldn’t be interacting with it much as things should automate themselves. i have both and use ST for IoT related cool tricks, and HS for automation.

Yes, but there was nothing for “My hub is pretending to be active but nothing works”.

The odd thing is the garage sensor worked just fine for six months and then now doesn’t work all the time at the same time the hub is misbehaving. And it’s only 6 feet from the hub separated by a wall. Batteries are replaced.

If this was a MUCH more expensive wired system then yes, logs would tell the whole story, but alas this is not the case. Anytime you are troubleshooting a wireless solution logs are only apart of the picture.

If no body has time why have 6 different people respond to this thread all in various attempts to assist. If you just posted to complain then you are probably right “Aint no one got time for that”, but if you want to try to resolve your issue through the community use the example above and be as descriptive and detailed about your environment.

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Heck… I’ve Skyped with a few fellow SmartThings Customers over the years so we could walk through a particular problem while screen sharing to view the logs…

Frankly, SmartThings tech support can’t offer that intensive option right off the bat… It wouldn’t scale.

But as said above, if there’s a specific problem, it’s much easier to be enthused about solving it and seeing if that gets you a big step closer to satisfaction and understanding of ST’s strengths and limitations.

Feel free to PM me.

Have any new environmental variables been introduced? Things like a new Apple TV, game system, SONOS, etc. I ask because ZigBee operates in the same band as wi-fi devices and has been know to be disrupted by these things. How far fro your router is the SmartThings Hub?

NOTE: I am doing this mostly of an example of how support might go about this. Me troubleshooting on the forums is neither practical, scalable, or the desired use of the forums, really. But hey, I am here to help.

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This is what I’m thinking, he’s introduced a new WiFi device or a neighbour has moved in or a new wireless network was created nearby or something.

If it was all working fine and then just suddenly fell apart, something else changed around the same time that you may be able to pin point.

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We are trying to develop an actual IR extender device and also device handler to handle the SmartThings --> IR translation, and hopefully this will be in demand from the marketplace.

We already have a Z-Wave-to-IR product.

From
Daniel C of Remotec

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