Is there a way to turn on devices in a specific order?

I want to turn on multiple devices with one command/shortcut/app. However, they need to be in a specific order. So, the PA goes on first to prevent pops that may blow speakers followed by the speakers, amps, etc. Then, when turning things off, the PA goes off last.

For the life of me I am unable to figure out how this could be accomplished. I would prefer not learning this deviceā€™s development language. Truth be told, my interest in SmartThings was to use my smart home and not spend countless hours tinkering / developing like I did with the system my ex wife now ownsā€¦

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I had to read that last line a few times. :grimacing:

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This canā€™t be done with the stock / standard SmartApps that I know of.

SmartThings uses parameter based customization of manually written Groovy scripts.

This makes it really powerful for programmers, but non-programmers are at the mercy of whatever SmartApps have been published; and these apps are not based on standard templatesā€¦ So if one SmartApp does guaranteed sequencing for a particular function, it may be the only app with that nice code.

That said: Community developers and SmartThings are always on the lookout for new SmartApp ideas and someone like myself might offer to code this with or for you.

Generally prefer ā€œwith youā€ because I like evangelizing.

Yeah this cannot be done and even when you set up modes to happen when different things happen, i.e. When someone arrives to change modes and then open the garage. It will open the garage and then change modes. So then the siren is set off in the garage as we are driving in. I just wish ST would not execute anything until mode changes if you were to have modes change as in this case. More times then not, mode changes first before executing other commands.

Guess SmartThings runs everything asynchronously with no option to block until event completion confirmed.
I think we could write some busy-wait code, or similar, to implement blocking, but this would have to be manually inserted into all applicable SmartApps.

Itā€™s a forking mess :laughing:

If you use Android I think you could set something up with Tasker and Sharptools. You should be able to create a virtual switch which sets of a chain of actions in order with wait times in between each task. I donā€™t have much experience with either tasker or sharptools but it looks possible.

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Although Tasker and Sharptools bring some great unique abilities to SmartThings; I personally donā€™t think this is the optimal solution in this scenario if all the devices are controllable within the SmartThings environment. The sequence would depend on the availability of the smartphone; whereas if using a SmartApp, the sequence could be initiated by any number of SmartThingā€™s trigger options.

I know I am responding to an old post.

I had a need like this. I have a home recording studio that I pop in and out of as the time allows.

I set up a motion sensor and a single zwave outlet to trigger a script in an Arduino Nano that will control the power up/down sequence using relays.

When I walk into the studio, the motion sensor starts the Arduino script (the Arduino is always powered on). The Arduino script turns on all of my studio gear - mixer, sound and midi equipment. Then after a 10 second pause, the second part of the sequence powers on the studio speakers.

The Smartthings script will turn off the Zwave outlet after 20 minutes of no movement detected. This will trigger the power down sequence to turn the speakers off first and then the rest of the equipment.

Itā€™s worked flawlessly for three weeks now.

Itā€™s possible this could be accomplished with a couple of Zwave outlets and a WebCore script. I solved it before I found WebCore (Iā€™ve only had Smartthings for about a month).

Yes, two years ago, which is when the previous post in this thread was written, the options were much more limited. :sunglasses:

These days this is done with webcore:

That sounds like a really nice solution thank you for sharing. I have been
out of the ST community for a while now. Back in the X10 days I used all
sorts of things pieced together using Ocelots for IR integration, Homeseer
and Elk to control door access and the alarmā€¦

It ended up having lots of lots of relays, scripts, code and ultimately -
maintenance. My current automation interest level is not in tinkering to
get things working or keep them working, which I used to enjoy. I honestly
donā€™t even know how I had time twenty years ago do mess with all that
stuff! I am going to keep it simple for now and wait for something with an
integrated way of performing a very simple function like this.

WebCore sounds interesting, Iā€™ll be sure to check that outā€¦

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