I made a terrible mistake - bought V2 before reading forums/reviews

Nobody will buy from you? How about $70 for it :slight_smile:

that’s kind of sad that your experience has been so poor

I found how to do the LFM20 - the process is ridiculous to discover, but every easy to actually do once known (it is a super fast double click on the button to exclude)

I concur everything you have said - same exact experience thus far

UPDATE (DAY 3):

  • I have had a busy weekend so I have been doing a couple hours of install each day
  • The ‘Smart lights’ is totally better to INSTALL, but completely useless TO ME without POWER ALLOWANCE! Who actually sat around a table at Smartthings and said, “OK, we have a new hub and new software - what should we eliminate? Power allowance? The most favorite thing for most people about smart lighting? OK - LET’S DO IT!”
  • Garage doors installed but TOTALLY useless without the ability to do routines with them
  • My D-Link Cameras: HAVE NOT WORKED SINCE DAY 1. Was this just a placeholder for this much-talked-about “future update”? DON’T advertise something that you haven’t tested
  • The new app thus far: I actually really like it - especially the “feature device” thing for each Room.
  • The battery backup feature is REALLY COOL and much needed
  • The local storage feature is REALLY COOL, but I am waiting to see how reliable this truly is

In the meantime, this will do that function for you.

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Thanks - already using your code! Found it yesterday. Upset that it is just one big code - would be nice if it was for individual lights (i.e. ability to code each light separately vs. grouped)

Oh, you want a version that you can keep adding more lights/time pairs?

Yes, exactly…would make it much more flexible

Not more flexible, maybe just easier to install a number of times. It’s actually more complicated. I’ll look at it, but not too hard, because I’m sure that ST will fix Smart Lights soon.

Well, unless I’m mistaken I need to have the same amount of time (e.g. 2 minutes, let’s call this X) set for all the lights I select, right? But, quite often different lights need a different X

I hope they do update it. It’s one of many things though, so I won’t be surprised if it doesn’t get prioritized, because there is a TON missing from the software

Of course. You simply install additional instances of the app. There is another subtlety about this: If you select multiple switches, the time will be from the last one turned on. You would do the same in Smart Lights if they hadn’t left it out – a separate lighting automation for each switch to turn off after some minutes.

As far as I can tell, they only left out two elements from Smart Lights that used to be available in the shortcut apps of Lights & Switches: this one (Light Power Allowance), and Turn of after motion stops (not paired with Turn on with motion). These are tiny snippets of code, a few lines each. I think they’ll show up in the next release of Smart Lights, whenever that is.

AH, I never realized that. Thanks for informing - I’ll just get multiple instances and customize accordingly. Thanks!

These little apps are actually tiny snippets of code in the cloud, linked by their subscriptions to device events (in this case the “switch.on” event) based on your selections when it is installed. I have as many as 20 instances of some apps, each with their own devices, times, dimmer levels ,etc. Each instance is unique, but they all run the same code base.

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Ok, I’m confused about this…

I have a door sensor on my front door. When it opens my foyer lights come on. When the door closes they stay on, but turn off after two minutes.

This was all by using smart lights…

What exactly am I missing about this discussion? ? ?

The only way you get the turn off after is when turned on by… So for your example it’s turn on by the door opening and therefore has it turn off after x.

Some people turn lights on by other means, apps, switch etc and want them to shut off after x minutes of say no motion.

Ahhhhhh, I see. I haven’t tried that yet. When ever I’ve wanted a light to turn off (front porch light) it has been in the app.

Thanks for clarifying. I appreciate that n

One thing I have done with my system is to stay away from switches unless I absolutely had to. I like being able to control my bulbs individually, so, I control everything via the bulbs… plus, quite literally every light in my house, except for the bedrooms, is on a 3-way switch.

The main problem I’ve run into, coming over to ST from wink, is the loss of group control.

One example, that goes way back in my HA life, is turning on a fan in a “water closet”. You turn it on with the switch when you think clearing the air would be good, then you want it to turn off automatically 10 minutes later. Smart Lights can’t do that (right now, until they fix it). So you need this little app to turn it off.

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Another very common one is a light that turns on because of an arrival event. A lot of people want their porch light or entry light to come on when their presence is detected from their phone or the SmartThings Arrival Sensor, and then automatically turn off again after, say 10 minutes.

The current smart lights can do that if the person is detected with motion or contact sensor, but not if it’s triggered from an arrival sensor event.

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