General Feedback

General Discussion
1

So I’m basing all of this feedback after about 10 minutes of playing around with it. One of the benefits of living in the Bay Area I guess. I’ll note that I followed Jeff’s advice and didn’t plug in any chainsaws or oxygen supplies.

Getting everything started up was extremely easy. Plug in the hub - easy. Getting the things recognized - easy.
Getting the damn multi-sensors to stick to the door - damn hard. It stick fine when closed and the first time I open the door. However, the first time I close, one of the two gets pulled off. I believe the magnets seem to have something to do with it; if I close the door slowly enough, I can watch the magnet pull the sensor off the door.
On the USB plug: it sticks out funny. Can you rotate the plug 90% (so it sticks out what is now the side) - it sticks out funny now.
Damn multi-sensors not sticking.
There is a pseudo-bug in the iOS app. If you enter the Support chat while on the phone, the text box (which I couldn't figure out if it was closable) covers the text you have been typing in.
2

Does it use an adhesive I assume to stick to the door?

3

I agree that the double-sided tape that they provide with the sensors is not sufficient to stick to anything.  One of the multisensors fell off my door and broke (I think I’ll be able to fix it, one of the battery terminals came off of the PCB, some solder should fix it).

I went with my back-up plan: gorilla glue :).

4

Here’s my feedback after 1 day of usage:

No LED's on Hub - "does it work?" while installing
I managed to power my Hub from the USB port on my Linksys EA3500 router! Saves a wall socket, power adapter and is probably more energy efficient
I can't seem to change the temperature on my multi sensor to Celcius...
How to change sensitivity of for example the accelerometer in the Multi Sensor? It would be nice to differentiate between a tap or shaking like crazy, same for otehr sensors
Right now it can be hard the smart app I'm looking for - say I want to make an outlet go on when I shake my multi sensor, how do I know in what category to look, and even then find the right app?

For the rest: yaaaay smarthings!

Also did I understand correctly that we had to wait till may 1 before we get developer access? (even as a developer backer)

5

Second the no LED on hub thing.  Made me test it out with a different outlet until I noticed the LED flashes briefly when you first plug it in.

Don’t get me started on that damn tape for the multi-sensor…

Right now I’m seeing a bit of unreliability in one of my multi-sensors.  Open/close state doesn’t always get updated correctly.  It’s only happening with one of them though.

6

Looks like some good 3M double sided tape and some goo gone will be in order for when my kit arrives…

7

We’ve heard our 3M double stick tape isn’t doing to well. Sorry bout that :frowning: It seems to depend a lot on the surface, but we’re going to source stronger tape too.

There actually is an LED on the hub thats in the back where it looks like a reset hole, but its not. It’s just not in the firmware yet :p. Nothing a future update can’t solve ha.

 

@jorisa No need to wait so long :smiley: I made sure you have developer access now. Go crazy!

8

Why not screw holes on the Multi-Sensors to allow for a really secure mount? The current design seems a little wussy for a home security product.

I would additionally or alternatively, 3M “Command” brand, damage-free tape, since it does not peel paint nor require goo-gone upon removal.

9

3M “Command” are so awesome.

10

A few thoughts 30 minutes into my setup, mostly about UI and documentation:

Renaming a hub isn’t an easy thing to figure out - I’m not even sure you can! When I click through to it, there should be an interface allowing me to change the name.

The Installed SmartApps listing should have the “add smartapp” icon at the top. It’s the first place most people will look to add more. The icon itself isn’t obviously an add apps icon - interconnected circles doesn’t imply add to most people. Add a + sign to it, and it’ll be a lot more obvious.

Better  basic documentation is really needed - spend more time writing text about basic things. Some basic stories would be great:

  • I’m at work, and I want to set up a location profile that says “while I’m at work notify me if the garage door opens, the front or rear door opens, or flood sensors go off” and “when I’m approaching my house and the garage door opens, if it’s past 8 PM turn on the living room lights”.

  • I’m at home, and it’s past bedtime. How do I make things automatically happen at night? How do I create a quick button to enter night mode when I want to go to bed early?

  • I want to key things to happen if presence Tag A leaves the house or

  • Notify me if presence Tag B arrives

Overall - I’m pleased so far, and can think there’s a lot of room to grow in positive ways!

 

11

Regarding “basic documentation and simplicity”…

I agree; but let me comment on what I think the “vision” is:

The use of the parameterized “App” model is to ensure that no problem is declared “too complex” in advance.

In other words, the common consumer will definitely not be developing Apps, but rather just filling in the blanks for the App that makes sense for each of their Scenarios (literally … these are super “Scenes”, where Scenes are what the basic Z-Wave, etc., remote controllers offer to define a bunch of lights on or off with certain dimming levels, or similar).

There are not many Apps yet, but soon the most obvious and common Scenarios will be defined with well-parameterized and well-documented Apps.

- Presence Tag Thing "Dad" in range, and if nighttime, turn on light:  Sounds simple, but the documentation, of course, will explain how to fill in the blanks with the tag name, time options, and the specific light switch.

 

I have some lingering doubts about complexities of the system or object model that may be difficult to resolve. I plan to raise some of these to the Knowledge Base and/or Support.

For example, I believe that the model should support the definition of “Sets of Things” (not Groups, since Things can only belong to at most one Group, and I think Things should be permitted in any number of Sets and Sets could be nested or overlapped)…

This would permit the above example to read:

- If any of Set of Family Tag Things re-enters range, and if nighttime, turn on Set of Arrival Lights:  This adds a layer of complexity... or maybe makes things easier because it utilizes reusable Sets which are defined outside of the App (i.e., Set of Arrival Lights might consist of Set of Downstairs Lights, Set of Outside Lights, Set of Security Lights (which are a user defined selection of lights that might belong to Downstairs and/or Outside Lights...!)...

Anyhow:  This is just an example of how the model makes SmartThings very powerful for developers (and makes developers like me antsy about little quirks or missing features of the model…) and, in turn, should permit the development of extremely User Friendly Intuitive) Apps that all start to look consistently similar to the Consumer.

It is a worthy goal, but Abstraction of the Physical World into the Physical Graph and then into Intuitive Apps is a process that will take many real-world iterations (Beta testing?) to shape.

…CP.