Frustrated by the state of things

Yeah, this just make me think that is time to bring back my v1 hub. My local processing is disabled anyway, so maybe that would fix all of my problems too…

Same here. I’m just shy of 200 and everything generally works as intended (I’m knocking on wood just to be safe). I use Smart Lighting (30 or so run locally). I have a random wierd thing once in awhile, but by and large, it’s easily functioning 99% of the time. As for Android and iOS, I think the Android app is crap (it’s better, but still hangs). The iOS app seems to be more stable. My phone is Android, but I do have an iPad. Upgrading to Hub v2, even though it was painful due to the volume of devices and apps, in the end, everything works better (it gave me the opportunity to clean things up and re-think a few things). It was bumpy in the beginning. I have not needed to change things for awhile - things have been pretty stable. I’m creating a few new apps for myself, but overall things are good.

Hey … you and @bravenel are off-topic! This is for the frustrated folks! :grimacing:

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Ha ha, yeah. As I was reading this, I started wondering… if this system is so wonderful and reliable, then why is support too overwhelmed with call volume to get back to customers with legitimate issues? [/rhetorical question]

It’s the community trying to support those who are not having such a good time. Maybe there are commonalities to those having bad experiences. Maybe there are commonalities for those having good experiences. There are some very valid reasons those with near 200 devices are having a better experience. A person who can afford 200 devices probably can have some things that might help

  • High End Networking Gear
  • Modern Electrical System
  • Stronger Mesh From Device Density
  • Magic Makes It Work Dust

From your live log screenshot; your setup has a lot of moving parts.

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Absolutely true, though the screenshot is somewhat inflated due to duplicates being created every time I deleted and re-added a Routine.

Edit: And where can I buy this magic dust? :open_mouth:

It is wonderful, and reliable is relative to your mission and the risks you take installing non-qualified “code”. It impresses me what we can get, and what we do with our systems.

On that subject, I want to throw one more thing out there… many, if not all of us are using community code. While I love that code, I know that it’s not all perfect. Yes, ST should be able to handle it, but there is nothing stopping someone from getting in a switch loop, or weird failures where their commands are being killed because they execute too long for various reasons. Open systems are a double edged sword. There is one way (a terrible way, the “walled garden” way) for ST to increase reliability, and I for one don’t want to see it happen.

Let’s use the openness to help enhance reliability. I’ve been thinking about creating some SmartApps to help diagnose issues, but haven’t really had the time yet. I think there is an opportunity there. One thing I was looking for was a cloud logging system. I created a DebugDevice SmartApp too (way simple at the moment, not releasable). I’m sure there are other great ideas…

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After you cross 120 devices @ben will appear in your house and hand it to you.

After 150 devices, you get @ben and @slagle

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On a more serious note, if you are having troubles, there are plenty of us on the forums that are willing and able to help. As @ben noted earlier there are over 500 very engaged users in the community.

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You have hit the nail on the head there, Brian. Here’s my take on it. If ST is going to use the “openness” of the system as a selling point, they can’t turn around and dismiss (or send tickets to the “low priority black hole”) simply because something is not on the official “Works With SmartThings” list. OTOH, users of the custom handlers/smartapps should not become part of the problem by stubbornly washing their hands of all responsibility, and insisting ST “fix it” (yesterday). IMO, if a person is savvy enough to write and/or install the custom stuff, they should be responsible enough to routinely check up on it and verify that nothing bad or odd is happening. Likewise, when they open the inevitable trouble ticket, they need to be involved as part of the solution. That said, I think it’s perfectly reasonable (though not preferable) for Support to ask any of us to temporarily use the “off the shelf” stuff as a troubleshooting aid.

And I do like your idea debugging-type Smartapps.

Well I’m also in the centurion+ club, and will likely exceed 200 by year end, and have at least 30 Smart Light instances, and my automations are also working, and aside from the occasional “I forgot the state of things” farting noises that emanate from my hub after a platform update or a failed node, or whatever the heck graph is puttering about with in the background, I’m good.
What’s not good for me, and hasn’t been since V2 app, is just that, the V2 app crashing. I’ve since migrated to a Note 5 and an S2 tab, and while these crash and recover quicker, the crashes are only slightly less frequent than they were on my Droid maxx…
But also, My setup doesn’t relay any of the features that have been notably broken recently, dimmer levels, flapping time zones, calendar scheduling…

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This is too funny!! Mesh density is a valid point, it helps.

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Custom device types really have nothing to do with eevents not firing
correctly in the back end. Most of the bugs seem to be back end server issues.

Being in the centurion club has nothing to do with how things work. You could have 2 or 200 things but if you stumble into issues like we have seen in the past 3 weeks, you feel it the same way.

I am too in that club, and it didn’t feel well when some of my lights didn’t turn on when the motion was active. @Mr_Lucky and @bridaus, the problems are not with custom apps and devices.

They are actually more reliable than official apps in many aspects. When my lights didn’t come on when motion was active, was the Smart Light that had an issue. When I want to dim my lights, I use a custom app for that. If I don’t want my lights to turn off while I am still moving around, I use a custom app for that. When I want to open my garage door, I use a custom app for that. When I want to change my hue scene in the livingroom, I use a custom app for that. When I want to keep my lights on in the bedroom because I don’t want the motion to turn them off while I am reading, I use a custom app for that. The list goes on and on with what you can achieve with custom apps and device types.

This is the best part of ST experience and it works great! I wouldn’t give it up for anything. And if a routine doesn’t run, well, that’s an official app. They’ll fix it sooner or later…

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I have seen that exception several months back but could never figure it out. It went away of its own. Cannot be Harmony related as mine was not hooked up then.

Same here with 90 plus devices with just one or two routine failing post poltergeist infestation. Clicking Done fixed those. Never rebooted the hub for 15 minutes. Just one reboot from IDE.

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I still have my unopened new in box v2 SmartThings hub sitting next to my active v1 hub. I’m deciding which relative I hate the most to give my v2 hub to for Christmas this year. :scream:

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Usual trend shown via research is “mother-in-law”. :wink:

“Happy wife, happy life.”

Unhappy MIL not a good first step. :wink:

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