I’m trying to figure out a smart way to control the lighting in my man-cave (=office )
I’ve watched around 567 hours of Smart Home vids’ on YouTube, but havent found the one fitting for my issues.
I have the following devices in my Smartthings setup:
IKEA Trådfri motionsensor at the entrance to the room
IKEA Trådfri button at the desk
WiZ bulb.
Aqara door sensor at the back of the house
I’ve setup the motionsensor to trigger the bulb when I enter the room (easy peasy).
I’ve configurede the button to keep the light turned on when I’m sitting at my desk (easy peasy).
But I cant seem to figure out, how to make a flashing light (or other notification when the door sensor is triggered.
Nor can I make a clever solution to the motionsensor at the entrance - which is locked in at 3 minute per default by IKEA, and I would like to keep the option for me entering and leaving the room, without having to press any button.
If you normally keep your phone near you you could set up an automation in the ST app to send you a notification when the door sensor opens. I’ve got this, and also in the my phone settings (Samsung Galaxy) have set it so notifications from ST ignore ‘do not disturb’ so will always be heard
I have a motion sensor right next to me at my desk and because it’s so close to me it picks up small movements and acts kind of like a presence sensor, works really well. It’s also in sight of the door so can pick up when I walk in. Could this work for you maybe?
Hi granite
Thanks for the tips! I’ve already have an automation sending a notification to my phone, however I wont notice this if I’m working on my PC etc. - so something with the light would be preferable. Something that can be “activated” by the button for when I’m at the office only, so the lights wont be triggered, when I’m not in the room.
Hmm, that seems like a good workaround - I’ll try to move it to be more of a “presence sensor” as you call it
When you want something to only work at certain times, in your case when you are in the office, create a virtual switch and use it to indicate if you want something to trigger. Then precondition your routine to flash the light based on if the virtual switch is off or on.
You can set that virtual switch manually via the button or automatically via the motion sensor.
If you want the routine only to trigger when you are in the room and the lights are always on when you are in the room you could use the light being on as a precondition for when you want the routine to fire?
I have a similar setup in my office.
I have a motion sensor at the front door which triggers a virtual switch (autoclose in 3 mins).
I then have an alexa routine which triggers when the virtual switch opens and announces “someone is at the door”
That of course only works if you have alexa in the room.
But if you dont you can get an alexa dot for less than 20 quid now.
Great responses - thank you all!
I live in EU, so Smartthings won’t allow me to create a virtual switch via the app, unfortunately.
Seeing a lot praise IFTTT as a supplement to Smartthings… might give it a go
For this kind of notification at our house we use a color changing light rather than a blinking one. (Even if you’re colorblind you can probably find a color option you can recognize as being different.)
This has a couple of advantages over blinking:
it’s much less annoying than blinking, particularly if you’re doing something requiring attention and you’re going to delay slightly in responding to the alert, like finishing a business call. And it’s still a persistent notification.
it’s typically very easy to create a rule for the color change, regardless of the platform you are using.
it may be less wearing on the bulb itself, although this varies by model.
if you aren’t color blind, you can use it for different notifications based on color. At our house, blue is a doorbell equivalent. Red is an emergency “come find me now” signal, the equivalent of yelling the person’s name.
Of course the downside is color changing bulbs are typically more expensive than plain white. But there are some good less expensive options now.
At our house, we really like the Meross mini table lamp for this purpose. It has tap control, so to change color or turn it off manually you just tap the top. It’s noticeable without being overwhelming. It works well with most platforms, including Alexa, SmartThings, and Apple HomeKit. The white is also color tunable from warm to cool. It lists at about $40 but is often on sale for a few dollars less. It’s available in both the US and UK.
You should be able to create a virtual switch in the android app.
On an android device, go to smartthings app, menu, labs, virtual switch, add virtual switch, configure, save.
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