How to keep app refreshing device status constantly

General Discussion
1

Hi,
I wanted to know how it would be possible to make the Smartthings app constantly refresh the device’s current status by programming it into the device handler. I would appreciate any help.

2

Hopefully this is a WiFi device? The easiest way to crater a mesh network is excessive polling. :disappointed_relieved: You will also kill the battery life on battery operated devices. Z wave and zigbee home automation are intended for tiny messages sent infrequently.

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3

Well I have a ZigBee device. I found that the status on the app will self correct if I press the refresh button. So I am not trying to do excessive polling on the device, but rather simply just make the Smartthings app constantly refresh the device status automatically. Is there a way to do this?

4

As @JDRoberts stated constant refresh is not recommanded for 2 reaseons.
1)Battery Life.
2)Slower responce times from your ST devices on the hub.

However, there is are two ways:
1)CoRe or Web CoRe.
2)Polster community polling app.
https://community.smartthings.com/t/pollster-a-smartthings-polling-daemon/3447?u=lmosenko

5

I would first see if there is a better Device Handler…

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6

What’s the specific brand and model of the device? Or if it’s a device that you built, what’s the device class and is it battery-operated or mains powered? The main question is why isn’t the device sending a status update to the hub. Push status is almost always more efficient then pull in a mesh network.

Also, I’m not sure you really mean “constant update,” which is what would cause most of the problems. If instead, you got “instant update” or something close to it, that should solve the problem that you’re seeing.

As long as the device tells the hub when its state changes, the SmartThings mobile app should stay in sync with it, and usually with much less negative impact on the network then the hub continually having to repeat a query for something which in fact may not have changed.

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7

Several comments:

  1. When the “status” has not changed, check the recently tab in the phone app. See if it has the correct status. (I have had cases where the status was changed/updated, but the main page and current details page do not update. If this is the case, contact Samsung and have a problem ticket generated. I already did, but it self-corrected prior to being investigated.)
  2. If the above is not true, consider calling a ‘refresh’ after each command (except refresh) sent to the device.
  3. You can also force a refresh (but recommend every 15 minutes) if the device handler is for some reason not automatically refreshing the device. I do it as an “updated” routine that uses “unschedule()” followed by “runEvery15Minutes(refresh)”. The go to phone app setting page for the device and select ‘done’ to activate.

Impacts on battery, hub performance (for you), cloud performance (for all) if you unnecessarily over-poll.

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