How to use same time of day-based color temperature regardless of which bulb is switched on?

SmartApps & Automations webCoRE
#1

I want to use Automation section from the New App in order to achieve the following:

  1. Change the color temperature to 2700 kelvin if the time of the day changes to Sunset, when a SmartLight is switched on
  2. I don’t want to create a rule for every Smart bulb, or for every room.

What I did was the following:

Screenshot_20200331-190510_SmartThings
Screenshot_20200331-190510_SmartThings1080×2220 230 KB

The issue is, when one SmartLED is switched to ON, the others will be switched to on also.
Is this a logic issue, or how can I achieve something like: when the a LED is switched to ON, to get the color temperature regardeless of the room, and not to switch other LED’s to on.

Thanks

#2

Hey there!

Thank you for reaching out for assistance.

If I understand correctly, for example, you want certain lights A to turn on and change in Saturation but for Lights B to remain turned off. You would need a trigger and condition for each action or you could create a scene.

It may just depend on tweaking your settings to get your desired effect one example would be:

Have you tried adding a scene to just simply turn lights A on. And then build your automation off of that?

if the time condition is Sunset, and Lights B are off, then trigger lights A scene to turn just those lights on.

You may have to create an automation turning lights A on at sunset and turning lights B off at sunset. It just depends on the options available with your intergrated device.

Don’t forget you have the help of other linked services such as IFTTT to assist you with creating your perfect “if condition, then trigger” automations.

I hope this message finds you well!

^SamsungZell

#3

There isn’t any way to do this with the standard features except by creating a separate automation for each Bulb, which I know you said you did not want to do. And scenes are not going to solve this issue either, Although you may use them inside of another logic.

I think it may be possible to do with webcore, which is essentially a scripting language for smartthings, but you will need the help of some of the grandmaster coders to get it set up.

Hopefully one of them will see this thread and make some suggestions, or direct you over to the webcore forum for more help.

If you’d like to read a little more about what webcore is before going That route, see the FAQ:

FAQ: What is WebCoRE? (And what was CoRE?)

#4

As I understand it, what the OP is saying is that they have two lights, light A and light B.

At Sunset you could have any of the following:

Both lights are off
Both lights are on
Light A is on and Light B is off
Light A is off and Light B is on

What they want to accomplish is that at sunset any light that is on or is switched on changes its color temperature. But any light that is off stays off.

(I suspect the “that is switched on“ is going to have to be a range of time or a location.mode or it won’t really make sense. Because what if it’s an hour after sunset and the light is switched out then? I assume they would want the default color value applied in that situation. But maybe I’m wrong on that part.)

And they want to do that all in one automation without having to create a separate automation for each light.

And potentially for many more than just two lights, that was not specified.

So really they are asking if there is a way to save a variable, the desired color temperature, and apply it only to lights which are already on at a specific time of day. Not to lights which are off. But without knowing in advance which lights will be on and which lights will be off.

I don’t see how Ifttt is going to be of any help in the situation. But I think it might be possible to do in Webcore. I will leave that discussion to the experts.

:sunglasses:

#6

Thank you for your response. But what I want, is a basic scenario with smart lights IMHO.

For example if you have smart lights all over the house, when is day time, the lights to be more white, in order for a human to be more active, and during night time to be more yellowish, in order to relax. I thought at least this should be a basic scenario. Imagine if you have a candelabra(with 6 bulbs) in each room and other lamps, if you sum up the bulbs, it can be quite tricky to do a different rule for every bulb, or room. Also maybe in the same room, you would not want that all the lights to be on, in the same time, so I can’t include them in a group.

If I create 2 automation rules with only one bulb, all is well:

  1. when the time is daylight, and when I switch the bulb to on, it will change the temperature, to white
  2. when the time is night time, and I will switch the bulb to on, it will change the temperature, to yellow

The problem is when I add to the same automation more than 1 bulb, because the result will be:

  1. Regardless of which bulb will be turned on, then all others will be turned on and change the color temperature.
    The result is very stupid, all the lights in the house are turned on. I don’t see any smartness in this, sorry

I don’t want all the lights to be switched to on, just to change the temperature, only when the user switches them on.

What’s the purpose to have smartlights if you must tune the color or the temperature manually, for each of them?

Maybe it’s a logic that is implemented wrong. Why the automation setting doesn’t verify the status of the bulbs something like:

  1. LED 1 is turned on, change the temperature
  2. Check the other bulbs status, if status is set to off, do nothing.

I consider this a basic automation, not a complex one.
I tried the logic the other way around, with the bulbs status set to off, for example:

  1. if time of the day is after sunset and the bulbs status is set to off, then change the temperature to yellow

Result:

  1. If any of the lights are turned on, the others will not turn on
  2. But when I want to switch off the same bulb, all the other bulbs will light up, and regardless of which bulb I try to turn off then, they will remain on.
  3. I can only turn off the bulbs, by disabling the automation

Please help with the logic, the functionality is there but implemented wrong.
Can I report this to any Smartthings devs?
Thanks

#7

Thanks but I think this should be a basic scenario, included in the standard features IMHO, I don’t see this as a complex scenario.

Why changing the color or a temperature should require any tinkering ? The functionality is there in the new app, but how it’s implemented is wrong.
Just saying.

Any other hints are appreciated, or maybe you know any Smarthtings developers to point them to my issue here?
Thanks

#8

Hi,
In the new app you have the functionality to include a period of time, and by default we have Sunset and Sunrise.
I created 2 automation rules, one for Sunset and one for Sunrise. They work, but the results is acceptable with only one bulb. If you add more bulbs, then all the lights will light up and then the temperature will change correctly. The only thing that is wrong here, is that all the lights will be switched on. Else the temperature changes.

#9

I managed to do what I’ve intended with Sharptools. Many IF’s, many trials and errors but it works.
Thank you SharpTools
If someone knows how can I export the rule, I can post it here for any reference

2 Likes
#10

From the web based SharpTools.io Rule Engine? (Or the SharpTools Tasker plugins?)

#11

I have used the web based rule engine. But after you create the rules, you can access trigger them via the app also.

1 Like
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