IRIS-Smartthings migration notes from a IRIS user

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I have completed most of my conversion from IRIS to smartthings.

I have two systems, one on my boat, and on at my home. For the boat I selected a standard current production smartthings hub. For my home I selected the ADT hub.

From a conversion standpoint moving compatible devices from IRIS to smartthings is easy. All you do is remove the device from IRIS, then reset the device per the manufacturer instructions, then add it to smartthings.

I have so far moved
Smoke/CO alarms
Water sensors
Motion sensors
smart plugs
Sirens

The process is easy peasy.

Now… Some differences you will notice.
With smartthings there are two applications. I know it sounds silly, but right now you will need both applications. Just download them both and be done with it.

IRIS users will strongly prefer the new app, as it has a IRIS like look and feel. There are just a couple of things (like re-naming a device) that do not work in the new app yet.

For the “standard” (non ADT) hub you will need to use a automation called “smart home monitor”. In this automation you will be able to place sensors into the different alarm categories (Away, Stay) which are the same as “full” and “partial” in IRIS.

In the ADT hub you do not get this programability. Contact closure sensors are in the “stay” and motion sensors are added to these for the “away”. One thing I have not found how to do is to exclude a contact sensor from the alarming. This would be handy if you had a contact closure on your mailbox for example. I’ll be working on that later.

the old “rules” has been replaced by “automations” The REALLY cool thing here is that you can set more complex rules than in IRIS. You can have AND or OR functions. For example if A AND B AND C are true ten do X, or you can set up if A OR B OR C are true then do X. That is a Very powerful addition.

I’ll post more as I learn more, but my first impression as a IRIS user is whay did I not choose Smartthings in the first place.

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Good feedback! You can rename device in the new app, it’s just kinda hidden. Go to the devices tab, tap the 3 dots in the upper right, choose edit, tap on the device and then tap the device name.

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You can permenately exclude sensors by changing the mode the function as. Contact sensors can be set as Perimeter, Entry/Exit, and No Response. You can use this option to have a sensor on your mailbox and not use it for security.

You also want to adjust this value for difference between doors and windows. Your windows should be setup to Perimeter so they don’t use the entry exit delay. The entry/exit delay value should be on doors you would come in and out when setting the alarm before leaving and used to disarm it when coming home.

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OK, How do I do that on the ADT hub???

Thanks!!!

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Thanks, that worked to change the name!!

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The new smartthings app seems to be having a problem with getting to the ADT Security settings right now. So open up the Smartthings Classic app. Click on the “ADT” in the upper right corner of the ADT Security dashboard. Click on the Gear in the upper right.

Now you should see all of your sensors. If you click on a sensor you will now see the configurable options for the sensor. it varies based on the type of sensor. This is also where you would configure the sounds and TTS for each sensor.

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OK, Thanks!!! I just tried it, and it works.

Another new-old app issue.

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Thanks for the info. I will be doing this tomorrow! I ordered the Smartthings/ADT Kit from Amazon for only $100. I haven’t received my payout from Lowe’s yet, but I’ll spend that on something else. Please keep us posted on your progress.

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Thanks for your impressions feedback ksanders! My impressions have been mixed. I will put my First Alert and siren on soon. I did put my IRIS keyfob on successfully but have no lights on to try the buttons yet…

Initially it was easy to set up the ADT panel and add the sensors that came with the kit. Where I failed was when I added ADT monitoring to mix. I didn’t perform the “Test” required to complete that portion of the setup by not scrolling down and clicking the “Begin” button. I called customer support and after a couple of hours nearly everything was resolved.

Unfortunately the time was listed wrong time (5 hours off, different timezone?) on the panel even though I put in the correct location in my app. Chat sent me to phone support since they couldn’t solve the issue. Unfortunately, after going through the voice prompts and pressing buttons I was finally returned a voice saying the service was “closed”. Phone customer support is supposed to be open from 9 am to 9 pm on EST on Saturdays. My call was between those times. Frustrated by now, I was ready to send the system back to Amazon.

Fortunately I received an answer from this forum, see SOLUTION. Why I had to do this I don’t know.

In any case, it’s amazing to receive answers from unpaid support and nothing from paid support. I give the paid customer support very low marks but this forum very high marks.

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Greetings! Thanks for the info. I am an Iris user looking to switch to smartthings. It was good to hear your perspective. I have a question that maybe you or someone else on this post might have some insight in to. I currently have many rules set up that activate lights by motion sensors. I have many iris devices, which will be compatible with Smartthings according to their compatibility list. I do unnderstand that if you purchase the ADT version of the Hub then the third party motion sensors and door/contact sensors cant participate in the alarm functions, but they will still work with rules and for other features of the smarthome. Currently I have have a rule with Iris that when the security alarm is triggered it turns on all the lights. If I were to get the ADT Smarthub, would I be able to still trigger alarm events to turn on all the lights? Or does the ADT smart hub only control ADT branded devices for Alarm activity?

Thanks!

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You would need to use a community created app called ADT Tools. Basically it sits on the Smartthings side. When an alarm event is occured it will react and do certain actions for you. They range from turning on lights/flashing lights, activating additional smartthings siren, notifications and more. One thing to remember is it is cloud based so though the alarm side will always work well and function locally. ADT Tools and the actions it will trigger will be subject to Smartthings Cloud reliability. It isn’t normally a problem, but it can happen.

Details about it are here in the release thread

You an also check out Things That are Smart for additional info about custom apps and how to use them.

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The short answer is no, you cannot use the ADT hub to turn on say some lights if security is breached.

Yes there is a APP that you can for now use, but that app is not in my opinion going to be around long. Samsung is in a transition period with smartthings, and it appears that the developer access where you can do things like that is going away, but I have no real first hand knowledge or proof of that.

If you have the “regular” hub (I have both at different locations) you can set up an automation that says …if motion A is detected AND security mode is “away” then turn on smartplug B

What I am finding while programming both hubs pretty much simultaneously is that the ADT hub’s only good points are ADT services and a touch screen to view status, and arm/disarm. Other than that the ADT hub to me has a lot less flexability when it comes to security.

Thats just me but I am literally programing both hubs and trying things side by side.

If it were not for the ADT services that we will be starting subscriptions for, I like the regular hub muchg better.

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Can you clarify what you mean when you say it has a lot less flexibility when it comes to security? From my understanding the ADT Smartthings Hub can do all the same things the regular hub can do, it just the security portion requires adt branded sensors in order to trigger events. Have you found that the ADT hub is lacking features of the regular hub and capabilities?

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That is exactly what I am saying.

with the ADT you cannot for example turn on a set of lights or a school bell outside if a security breach occurs.

There is not a rule available to do that. There is not the availibility to create one in the custom rules if you are using ADT devices. I tried, plenty of times.

The security module to me seems to be ADT dependant, and set up for their monitoring service.

The non ADT units use a module called home monitor that much better integrates into the Smartthings world of devics

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As a further update, the issue with programming the ADT version to use security states as triggers is that unlike the non ADT versions, security state is not a triggerable paramater.

Even under the non ADT model it’s a bit clumsey but it can be done.

For example under the non ADT model you can set a automation where

security state is “away”
AND
Motion is detected on sensor “Garage”

THEN
Turn on module “alarm bell”

Under the ADT version the trigger “alarm state away” is not available.

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Good Feedback

For long term support - I am wondering if I should go for either a Google Nest or Amazon Ring
combination
Big company deep pockets chances of survival of the technology is better

I like ADT Hub - but then I am confused by why you need two smartthings apps on your phone ?

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Did anyone Research IFTTT ?
What is the feedback.

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The problem is that example doesn’t make any sense. Why wouldn’t you just use SHM to do that action instead of trying to trigger it outside of the security module that is on the system. I agree that it would be nice for Smartthings and ADT to allow you to manage more on the Smartthings side with the alarm component, but

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If you are refering to my example, SHM is not available on ADT hubs.

Am I confusing you with the author of the ADT tools app?

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Nope I am the one that has built the ADT Tools app

My point is that the below statement does not really many anything.

That is like trying to create a security action outside of a security application. This negates many of the beneficial functions a security application would possibly provide. On the non ADT Hubs SHM does this for you and any such rule would likely not do anything for you. Something else you should consider is the fact that the Location Alarm State if that is what you are referring to is also only present with the older version of SHM that is available from the legacy platform and runs from the Groovy platform. That is the platform you have been vocal to avoid. If that is your argument then ADT Tools 2 would be more then capable of doing exactly what you claim the ADT Panel can’t do. If you use the Smart Home Monitor that is part of the new platform the only thing you can have it do for integration outside of the SHM app is create an action when the alarm state changes between disarmed, Stay, and Away. That won’t help you in a alarm event. Now within the new SHM App you can have it turn on lights, create a audio notification, and turn on sirens.