I'm Stuck - Lights won't auto turn off

i basically only have 3 rooms setup so far. 1) Wife’s office, 2) My office and 3) Mainfloor bathroom. I have finally got auto lights on to work with sensors thanks to the fine folks in this forum. But I am struggling with how to get them to turn off. But the strange thing is that I have got the Main Floor bathroom to work perfectly. All of the entry motion sensors are Hue Sensors. They are mainly positioned closely to the door entry to trigger the lights. The 2nd sensor in the room are Iris Motion detectors that are programmed to turn off without activity after x number of minutes. I think I have identical setups in all rooms but only the bathroom seems to work. My office and wife’s office do not work. Any ideas? Should I delete the Iris motion detectors and re-pair them?



Hey man, not 100% sure which apps you’re using in your screens. I’ve moved all my automations across to Core… Super flexible app… Check out this topic for some background…CoRE for Dummies (How to get started and make your first Piston)

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Thank you - I think I’ll give that a whirl. I am using the standard smartthings app on iOS. As a test in my Automation, I removed the Iris sensor and set the Hue Motion sensor to turn lights off after 1 min. No dice. Then deleted the automation and set it up again and set the Iris sensor to turn off lights after 1 min. No joy.

A couple tips:

  1. It looks like you are using routines to control lights on and off. While they proably could do this, they are meant more for situations where you want several different activites to occur. i.e. turn off lights AND lock doors AND change mode, etc. I’m not sure why the one you posted has the mode being changed to Away. Are you actually gone from the house 100% of the time when motion stops in that room? I’m guessing not.
  2. What you are looking to do is much better handled by the app Smart Lighting. It can be found in the marketplace in the Smart Things app.
  3. @BlackCatPeanut reccomendation of CoRE is good, but and this point in your Smart Things learning experience it would be like trying to fill a cup with a fire hose. Start with Smart Lighting.
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lol. Although I appreciated the recommendation, i spent about an hour there and it just didn’t take. I will give Smart lighting! Also, thanks for the tip about the Smart Thing app. I think i assumed that since I have a smartthing hub, the app is probably the best choice for everything. Sounds like not. Thanks.

You are correct almost everything has to be done in the smartthings mobile app. Just be away that everything the app and system can do ARE NOT obvious. There is alot of supported app and utilites hidden from view and not obvious to the new user.

Smart lighting is part of smartthings. If you open your app and select marketplace then smart apps you will find smart lighting and other useful app in there.

You might find this link useful. It has alot of information. Somew of the info and screen shots are behind the updates but still applies.

To use smart lighting to control your scenario. I would make 2 rules one to turn the light on with motion and another to turn the light off when the iris sensor see’s no motion. Just be aware if the iris sensor is not very close to where your sitting it will not see you move if you sit in a chair. So it will turn the lights off on you unless you tinker or find a second input to help keep it active.

Most people get around this using Core as it is very versatile and you can program in a delay before the light turns off where the sensor has time to see you again.

Hope that helps you get going and able to get your lights working. If not ask more questions.

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[quote=“TN_Oldman, post:6, topic:83456”]
Hope that helps you get going and able to get your lights working. If not ask more questions.
[/quote]Wow - thanks so much TN! This was amazingly helpful! Trying this now…

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Hey ST Peeps - well, this turned out to be excellent advice. Using the Smart Lighting App was the way to go. I really do want to try CORE but I am not quite sure I need it just yet. We’ll see. Thanks everyone.

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