Help - Automation Scenarios Poll

Hello guys!

I would like to kindly ask a few minutes of your time to fill this small poll. As a domotics’ enthusiast and student working on a domotics use case, I would like to know how frequently the following scenarios appear on your automation rules.

Thanks in advance for your time!
Humberto

  • I have automations that involve multiple devices and conditions. For example, Turn on the lights of a room IF motion is detected AND its ambient light is LESS THAN 40 lux.
  • I have automations that require do some action if a device remains in the same state for a period of time. For example, Send a notification when a window has been OPEN for an hour.
  • I have automations that require to react to the absence of events. For example, Turn off the lights of a room after two minutes WITHOUT detecting any movement.
  • I have automations that require to detect a particular sequence of events. For example, Detect when I arrive home is determined by the following sequence of events FrontDoorMotion_ON -> FrontDoor_OPEN -> EntranceHallMotion_ON.
  • I have automations that require ignore some repeated events within a period of time. For example, Send a notification when someone presses the doorbell, but do not fire a new notification after every doorbell press. Each notification must have an interval of at least 30 seconds.
  • I have automations that require wait for a particular number of events before doing some action. For example, Send a notification if the boiler fires three Floor Heating Failures and one Internal Failure within one hour. Each notification must have an interval of at least 60 minutes.
  • I have automations that their conditions are based on specific historical data of a device or multiple devices. For example, Send a notification if the electricity consumption at home is higher than 200 kWh in the last three weeks.

0 voters

Note:

  • This poll has no intention to spam this community.
  • I’m also open to hearing other scenarios where you have to use different patterns.
1 Like

Interesting stuff!

As you may know, this forum is specifically for users of the Samsung SmartThings ™ Home automation platform, and one of the advantages of that platform relative to its competitors is its ability to support very complex rules.

How to Get Started Creating Complex Rules in SmartThings (2017) (SmartThings Classic)

Two of the most popular complex rule categories have to do with an “unless“ condition. :sunglasses:

  1. For example, turn on the Living room light every night at 15 minutes before sunset unless The television in the living room is already on.

Or

  1. If motion is detected by the front door, turn on the porch light and turn it off again after 15 minutes of inactivity unless the porch light was already turned on by the wall switch, in which case just leave it on. (this one is also called an override condition.)

  2. Another one that comes up a lot, (in particular because the V2 classic version of the smartthings app allowed for it and the new V3 version does not yet) Has to do with putting the same mode/condition on both sides of the IF statement.

This is commonly used with a virtual switch which is acting as a proxy for another condition, but there are other use cases as well. Or if you are changing the location.mode.

For example “if the location.mode is “away“ and Charlie arrives home, change the location.mode to “Home.”” You would use this when there are multiple location.modes and you don’t always want to switch the Mode to home when Charlie arrives. For example, families that have a “guest” mode for when A friend is visiting might have the system in “guest.home” mode. They don’t want that to change just because Charlie comes home. :sunglasses:

Or “if switch A turns on, Turn on the pump switch and turn switch A off again.”

In this case, I think the inability to do this in the new V3 app is probably a bug and hopefully that ability will be added again soon.

2 Likes

Should we vote based on what we currently have (which may be constrained by the platform) or by what we wish to have?

1 Like

HI @JDRoberts

Yes, I have been playing with the classic API as I had some background of Groovy from my bachelor studies

I found the API very good, but as I see, I have to update to the new platform.

Thanks for your time and examples :+1:

1 Like

hi @Automated_House

I’m interested in both cases, so you can take the WISH path :slightly_smiling_face:

I will put a note saying that :wink:

2 Likes

Do you have in mind other scenarios where you need to detect other patterns?

I have a couple of quite complex automations for turning on lights and turning them off based on actions.

My Path and porch light will turn on on arrival and on tripping my front door. but I also want to be able to turn them both on independantly and not have either action override. so i have a nest of If and when commands that cover this. so if one light is on the other will be the only one that is actioned leaving the light on that was onbefore.

I do believe this sort of thing needs to be easier to code but hey its all possible.

1 Like

Hi @Behold81

Thanks for sharing your experience :+1:

Are you using webCore?

Could share a screenshot of that automation?

I would guess that most of your respondents are using webCore. And since webCore is so flexible, I would also guess that number of “patterns” of use are almost innumerable.

Thanks for sharing your opinion :+1:

I don’t think that they are innumerable, but agree that there should be more 7 :wink:

1 Like

Perhaps this is just my opinion, but sending people a PM asking for votes on your poll, and stating “I didn’t send it with spam intentions” means that it actually is spam.

Drumming up poll responses shouldn’t be the intended purpose of PMs.

1 Like

@iridris please I accept my apologies :pensive: for asking your opinion using a PM.
Don’t worry I am not going to send any other PM to drumming up the poll responses.
Thanks again for your time!

You approach people on PMs are asking for people’s time and engagement, you should have the courtsey of giving something in return - surveys 101. The least you can give back is letting people know why you are doing the survey - i.e. what are you trying to learn, or achieve by this info. I think its kinda borderline selfish to ask for info without giving atleast that

Hello @enis

As I said at the beginning of this topic, I want to know how often these scenarios appear on your automations. I think they highlight some of the current weak or complex parts to do with the current domotic platforms.

I thought that the intro of my topic was enough, and the reason for the poll was to get feedback from those that are working real home automation like the member of this community.

Please accept my apologies for bothering you with this

Best regards,
Humeberto