Modes and 3 teenagers coming home late?

Need some help…I have goodnight mode set each night at 11 pm. I have 3 teenagers who all come home at different times after 11 pm. The alarm changes to home mode after the first one returns based on their presence sensors. How do I get it back to goodnight (armed) mode without me waking up or relying on them to manually rearm it?

Do you have motion sensors or contact sensors? You can run a routine to change back the mode when things quiet down (motion) or something opens (contact) or just a timer after each arrival sensor comes home. For something more flexible, you can use CoRE. It all depends on what other devices you have. I am doing something like this to arm my security system after my son comes home late at night. ST arms my security system, locks the doors and turns the lights off when we sleep.

In my house once it’s in sleep it won’t change out until time restrictions are met, something like 4am to 9am.

I am doing something like this. Luckily I can count on my daughter to push a button on her minimote or phone to run her own goodnight routine which puts everything back where it needs to be.
I used Alexa Helper to make a momentary button she toggles.
I had thought about using core and just doing it automatically. Say presence met, all her lights off, ect…

Since all her lights are on smarthings she toggles them off from her bed anyway. So she just pushes a button or toggles one on phone. (Since it’s glued to her) plus she’ll do the standard get online before bed deal anyway.

I just take advantage of the teen/young adult standard do minimum required attitude. She does the one button cause it’s easier and quicker than reaching for several switches.

I have motion and contact sensors. A timer after each person arrives, while in night mode, would be perfect. We also have 4 Labrador Retrievers so working with motion sensors has always been a less than ideal situauion. Any suggestions which app would include a timer?

Thanks.

If you don’t want to get involved with CoRE, which would be the quickest way, then you will need to set up a new mode. Say ‘alert’. When someone arrives and you are in Home mode, then run a routine to change the mode to ‘alert’. Then have another routine set to automatically run when things quiet down, that would change the mode back to home. With pets around, this might be problematic.

As an alternative, you can use a uDTH set as contact. When someone arrives, flip the switch to open the contact. Then set the uDTH to automatically turn off after x mintes. And when id does, use a routine to change the mode back to home

With CoRE would be the easiest. If someone arrives after 11pm, then wait x minutes then change mode.

Let me know if you need help with any of the suggestions.

Thanks guys. I will dive into Core and see what I can do with it.

We don’t have teenagers, but we are three housemates, so we have some similar issues. And we have one housemate who can’t be counted on to do anything on his own!

One option that wouldn’t require any other devices would be to use a virtual switch as a timer. You would need one routine for each person coming home. And a virtual switch as a timer. And one additional Smart app to change the mode back when the timer runs out. So it’s a little clunky, but you could set it up without needing any other physical devices.

When Charlie arrives home after 11, turn on the timer (virtual switch). The timer automatically turns itself off after 10 minutes or however much time you want it for. When the timer turns itself off, Change the mode to armed.

Same thing when Michael arrives home after 11. His arrival turns on the timer. The timer turns itself off. When the timer turns itself off the mode changes to armed.

And so on, one routine for each person.

It would probably be safest to have a separate timer for each person as otherwise if Charlie comes in at 11:15 and Michael comes in while the timer is still running at 11:23, the mode would probably change back to armed at 11:25 and Michael might not have enough time to get through the door. So one timer for each person is more work to set up, but probably has a better result.

Again, these are virtual timers. You don’t have to buy anything else or use any other devices than the ones you are using now. :sunglasses::alarm_clock:

There’s an article in the community create a wiki on how to set up a virtual timer for a light. You just want to use point two, which creates the timer.

http://thingsthataresmart.wiki/index.php?title=How_to_create_a_virtual_timer_for_a_light

Then you will need another virtual switch to subscribe to the timer turning off which changes the mode.

There is already a smartapp in the marketplace section of the SmartThings mobile app that can have a switch change the mode. So you can just use that one. You’ll only need one switch to change the mode no matter how many people are in the house. (You’ll also need to turn the switch off again after the mode changes so it’s ready for the next person.)

Like I said, clunky, but it should work and it won’t cost any additional money or need additional physical devices.

I’m tired right now, so someone else will have to help you with the details if it’s not clear how to set this up.

I just realized that your post says " mode,"but Just in case you actually meant Smart Home Monitor Alarm Status, you can still use this method, but you would have to use a routine to change the arm status. Basically anywhere I’ve said “change the mode” you would substitute “run a routine that changes the smart home monitor alarm status”

.1. Create a virtual switch to change the mode. I’m going to call this “the gatekeeper switch” to distinguish it from the virtual timer switch. Like the virtual timer, this will work best if there is one gatekeeper switch for each person.

.2. Use the smart app from the screenshot above to assign the gatekeeper switch to change the mode back to armed. ( if you want to change the smart home monitor alarm status instead of a mode, there’s a similar smart app in the same section that runs a routine instead of changing the mode. You would use that one.)

Three. Create a routine that turns the gatekeeper switch off again

.4. Create a virtual switch to act as a timer for each person. (See the wiki article)

.5. Use smart lighting to have the person’s gatekeeper switch turn on when their virtual timer turns off.

.6. Create one routine for each person that turns on their virtual timer when they arrive home between 11:00 PM and whatever end time you want.

That should do it. No action required on the part of the person arriving home, the virtual timer automatically triggers the gatekeeper which resets the mode. But, like I said, not exactly elegant. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

CORE would be more work to set up initially, but would probably be much easier to manage and keep track of all the various pieces. So I would definitely recommend core if it looks like something you would want to use. But it would be possible to solve the problem without it if you needed to.

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If you go the CoRE route, take a look at the following, as an example:

It does what you want in that it prevents modes from switching due to the coming and going of present sensors. The key is to restrict your actions with “Only execute on condition state change”. So, for example, if you are already in goodnight mode, your teenagers can come and go as they please (with your approval, of course :laughing:); you’ll still be in goodnight mode because the state of the condition didn’t change (because someone was already home).

BTW, there are plenty of examples in that thread (started by @bamarayne) to get you started in CoRE, hopefully :slight_smile:

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