Earlier this week my garage door (controlled by a mimolite) opened unexpectedly (more details and a screenshot of the event logs at https://medium.com/@mbaker/my-iot-garage-door-opened-when-i-wasnt-home-9c9c9cbc6e17). My wife came home to an open door and due to an earlier notification from SmartThings I checked the logs - sure enough there was an on event that occurred immediately after three ping commands being sent to the device (all four events within the same second). I did contact support at the time and they were helpful but were not able to offer a definitive answer to whether the ping commands were related to the opening.
I’m curious if anyone else has had similar issues with devices unexpectedly turning on, has any suggestions on how to mitigate this in the future (an automated close command if the door is open for more than x minutes? I have small children so don’t like the idea of that), or can recommend an alternative device for remote door opening.
If you check the first bug reports in the community – created wiki, you’ll see that devices firing randomly does happen occasionally. It can be any device. There isn’t really anything you can do about it. If you want to set up Routines or Core Pistons to actors corrections, you can, as a sort of belt and suspenders approach.
I was told by someone that they had this happen a huge amount of times, so they installed a z-Wave switch in line somewhere that turned on the control line to the door prior to pressing open, then a CoRE piston to turn that switch off after door close. So it now prevents the door from opening on its own. It can also be applied to prevent the door from closing when it shouldn’t. I assume it is a low voltage relay of some sort.
Thanks for the replies/information - it’s a little concerning that this can happen and unusual that others reported a similar issue around the same time. Thanks again!
There was a firmware update a few days ago that would’ve caused the hub to reboot. Most people didn’t see any problems, but it’s not uncommon for that process to introduce a few temporary glitches, and sometimes that might be a device operating unexpectedly.
In particular, if you have a routine that causes the garage door to open when you return home, the reboot process might cause your account to think that you had left and then returned. It just depends on the exact timing of things.
But it can also just be a totally random occurrence. If you search the forum for “poltergeist” you’ll see discussion of various reports.
If you search the forum for “poltergeist” you’ll see discussion of various reports.