More dropped routines, scheduled actions... How do any of you trust something as critical as your home security to the ever failing ST environment?

Shortcuts are not reliable and at times does not reflect the correct state. It is supposed to go away but some people inherited it from v1. This issue has been there since v1.

Autolock is a built-in feature on the lock itself. Itā€™s already accounted for in the battery management.

My very first home automation project was adding a front door lock with autolock so I could be sure the door would be locked after all the various people who come to the house left, including my housemates friends. That was to make sure my service dog couldnā€™t let himself out. He needs a person to undo the deadbolt, then he can work the lever handle.

Schlage has a nice feature on some models where you can temporarily turn off the auto lock if you want, so if youā€™re doing something like taking out the trash you can just leave the bolt drawn back instead of leaving the door partway open. Choice is good. :sunglasses:

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[quote=ā€œJDRoberts, post:42, topic:29498ā€]
Autolock is a built-in feature on the lock itself.
[/quote] This fulfills my need for backup. Now a lock is more likely in my future.

This was my fear, but yes, lucky you :slight_smile: . They should really bring these back in some form. My main concern is that should they really work? Yes, they stayed, but I think they are done. If it were my setup, Iā€™d get rid of them. I donā€™t want anything that ST (or someone) isnā€™t actively concerned about on my system. Thatā€™s just me.

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Dear Sir, I actually use that darn thing to turn off group of lights even now! :wink: it should have been there in v2 fully supported and was extremely useful if not reliable. There are couple of things I would really question ST regarding usability. I deal with this every single day in Wall Street with every top name you can think of. Itā€™s usability plus the functionality. Majority of complaints we get is about ā€œwhy isnā€™t the most obvious things on my dashboard or easiest to reachā€? The system can handle your million dollars trade successfully but I donā€™t have an easy way to tradeā€¦ Then wellā€¦ There is another platform is their answer.

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I hate to say it, because itā€™s not fair to you, but youā€™re my go-to guy, JD

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I use the Scalage Autolock feature as well. It is the only reason I would allow ST or the Wink hub to control the lock. Iā€™ve never trusted Wink or ST. Now that Iā€™ve been thru both systems, I am thinking Insteon is the final system. It functions locally and doesnā€™t rely on a third-party server out on the internet. Wink and ST are just a fun hobby platform IMO.

Ohhā€¦ I like that. How do you turn off the auto lock? Is it a pretty easy thing?

Generally Iā€™m happy with my Kwikset but I bought it at the time because I found a great deal on a used one. Iā€™d probably put more research into buying a second one though. The two things that donā€™t thrill me about Kwikset (in case someone is searching for info later) are these: (Keep in mind: This is a lever door opener, NOT a dead bolt)

  • Always unlocked from the inside. Even when the lock is turned and canā€™t be opened from the outside, you can ALWAYS just open from the inside. This isnā€™t a huge deal for me and my family personally, but I can see this being a big problem for people like JD and his service dog or families with younger children that you donā€™t want to worry that they might open the door and wander outside.

  • 30 seconds is the biggest time for auto lock delay. Ideally Iā€™d like to change this to 60 seconds or even 90 seconds. Some times I canā€™t always get out of the car and get to the side door in 30 seconds. I can do a little working around this with smart apps, but it would be nice to just set it for 90 seconds.

I think heā€™s most peopleā€™s go-to guy here! I know Iā€™ve learned quite a bit from reading his posts. Lots of knowledge, and a good ability to explain it to others.

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[quote=ā€œaWanderer, post:46, topic:29498, full:trueā€]It functions locally and doesnā€™t rely on a third-party server out on the internet. Wink and ST are just a fun hobby platform IMO.
[/quote]

What sort of custom app support does Insteon support though? Thatā€™s been one thing Iā€™ve loved around ST is being able to tweak or create apps to solve specific issues or tasks I wanted done.

I had Insteon, wouldnā€™t go back. Good luck. I have a bunch of this stuff Iā€™ll be putting up on eBay soon.

That is correct. In the lock manual, the average usage to ā€œpreserveā€ the batteries, is 10/day. We are far exceeding that average. I am so glad that in six months or so, ST did not open once my Kwikset ā€œaccidentallyā€ā€¦

Iā€™ve never had it either, but JD has reported it, and Iā€™m sure others have too.

For meā€¦ probably about 5-7 times a day would be about the high end.

In my case i have a couple ā€œbackup routinesā€ to minimize the effects of routine failure. I have a Day and Night routine that basicly just change my mode from Home to Nighttime at sun rise/set. I have several other smartapps that run or not depending on what mode it is. I have a backup routines Day Too and Night Too that trigger 10 mins after sun rise/set if iā€™m in the wrong mode. IE Night too only triggers a mode change to Nighttime if the mode is still Day, so the Night Too routine only triggers a mode change to Nighttime if the Night Routine failed to run at sunset.

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I know, I was probably shielded from accidents because I was using custom device and appā€¦

Iā€™m not sure of the custom app support. Not something I am really interested in anyway. I mean, if it has it, great. If not, fine. I just want a reliable system and if not at least one that doesnā€™t rely on a server on the internet. I have no experience with Insteon. Maybe itā€™s worse, I donā€™t know. Going to try it anyway.

For the record, ST has never unlocked my door ā€œaccidentallyā€. Only issue I have had is with automationā€™s not working or disappearing

I have been doing home automation for a few years (x10, zwave, etc) and I was really excited about Smart Things (v1)- but I ran into the same issues; SmartThings just isnā€™t reliable enough to trust to turn on my porch lights every night. We live in a ā€˜transitionalā€™ neighborhood and a lack of illumination is almost an invitation for the neighborhood kids to investigate.

I transitioned from the SmartThings v1 and tried a Wink hub as it was on sale with some GE bulbs; it feels to be more consumer-oriented (SmartThigns v1 was for Developers) but has been very reliable; the only time it has missed a schedule in the past 6 months was when my WiFi router needed a reboot.

I re-enrolled all of my z-wave switches to Wink but I had to keep the SmartThings online for my WeMo switches (and Amazon Echo integration)- and I still have issues with the WeMo devices and the schedulerā€¦

I am planning on purchasing a SmartThings v2 (if I could ever find one not in a ā€˜kitā€™) and seeing if it works better than the original and work towards a single hub.

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I had relatively few problems with my CT100, major one being the first device itself arriving DOA. :laughing:
I could never get routines to run reliably. However, when substituting events combined with geofencing it worked out quite nicely. Recently, geofencing detection was lagging and it only catches me coming when I am practically outside of the door.

Does anyone heard back from support about this? All I got was ā€œDeveloppers are looking at itā€ followed by total silence.

Also, I am getting weirder and weirder behavior. Some of my schedule are actually ā€œworkingā€, meaning that I see them being started as supposed but doing nothing. I having a routine that run at midnight that set one of my thermostat to 17C.

When I look at the log, I see that the routine sent a ā€œsetHeatingSetpoint command to SALON(T)ā€ which is usually followed by a ā€œSALON (T) set heating set point is set heat temp to 17ā€ but this morning the second message wasnā€™t there and the thermostat was still at 19C.

Even if I am not using SmartThings for much, mostly lights and two thermostats, all of this unreliability is getting extremely frustrating. You canā€™t even imagine how much my wife is getting mad about the whole automation thing (mostly at me for installing something she believe we donā€™t need). I probably wonā€™t ever be able to sell her the idea of installing another system nowā€¦

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Platform update is comingā€¦

The topic you are referring actually refer to this one:

Seems like the platform update was released. Still, this morning, my schedule adjusting my thermostat didnā€™t workā€¦ againā€¦

I deleted the routine and recreated it then I restarted my hub, just to be sure. Weā€™ll see tomorrow.

Also, I created a backup routine exactly the same that run 5 minutes later, just in case. The problem is, this routine has a green icon instead of a grey one. The hell if I know why. Also, if I open it to edit it and just tap done without changing anything in it, it just disappear from my list of routine and I must recreate it.

Another annoyance in the Android app, as soon as you edit a routine that use a schedule, if you set or change the time when you want it to run (ā€œAt specific timeā€), as soon as you click ok on the minute settings, the routine get saved (at least) and you are sent back to the SmartApps list. So if you had anything else to edit in that routine, you must go back to edit it again.

The list of problem in that system is getting longer with every releaseā€¦

Me looking at my SmartThings hub.
Me looking at the window.
Me looking at my SmartThings hub.
Me looking at the window.

Temptation is risingā€¦

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