New user.. confused as f

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#1

Im a new user of smartthings, but i dont know if this relationsship i gonna stand against the tides…

Feels like there is a lot of limits to this system… My wish is to have more automation power! To be able to program light settings that go beyond on off! Maybe some party vibe with flickering and cycling light, but for now i dont see where to go for that in this world… People are talking about smartapps, but in my smartthings interface i only see two apps and i dont see the possibility to add new ones or browse user inputs… is that at all possible? Peopel also write about classic versus new app, but i only see one ( im on android). I read about webcore, but honestly i dont really understand what thats about, and if its only for hardcore coders or normal people as me aswell…

should i sell the unit, or is there any chance that i can make it do what i wish for?

please help me out…

Per

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#2

With regards to webcore, it is very easy to use once you have set it up. On the webcore wiki page there is a video right at the top of the page which explains everything about it, as opposed to someone having to re-explain it all here in text.

#3

The Classic app has gone the way of the dinosaur, so it’s just the new one now.

I would look into smart LED strips like the Inovelli. You can have varying light patterns with those.

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#4

thanks… im gonna look into it!.. dont know why, but it has been a pretty steep climb, finding everything needed to get started with the smartthings!..

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#5

looks great this one… does it have this capability on its own or why do you recommend this? sorry for the newbieness…

#6

No worries. No, the Inovelli is Zwave and needs to be connected to a hub like SmartThings. I think there are others that don’t need to be, but I’m not familiar with them.

I have a number of these strips and they work well under the breakfast bar and over the kitchen cabinets.

#7

The best way to get cool party light effects is to buy a hue bridge and lights that work with those (the hue brand has the best color renderings, but there are less expensive brands that work with the system as well, including IKEA and INNR) and then get any of several third party hue special effects apps.

There are lots of apps to choose from. Here’s a good recent article covering several. :sunglasses:

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What does all of this have to do with SmartThings? :thinking: Nothing. SmartThings is dismal at party lights, no matter which route you take to creating automations. It doesn’t have a good “groups“ feature and it doesn’t have dynamic scenes, both of which are pretty much essential for real party lights. It also doesn’t do groupcasting, which is a technical term that has to do with getting a group of lights synchronized rather than creating an unintended “popcorn effect“ where one light in a group changes color before the others. It can’t sync light changes to music.

So for your purposes, I would return the smartthings hub and shift to the Hue ecosystem. It doesn’t handle as many kinds of devices as smartthings does, but you can always come back to SmartThings later (it has an integration with Hue) if you decide you want to buy a smart washing machine or something else hue doesn’t support. :wink:

For now, for great lighting effects and a really good app to manage them, smartthings is not what you want. And nobody does it better than Hue although it does cost more than some of the other options.

Yeelight is a cheaper alternative which tries to promise everything hue does, but it doesn’t have as many features, it’s harder to set up effects, and, worst of all, it disconnects a lot. It’s worth considering, but this is one of those cases where you do get what you pay for and hue is just a better system.

Here’s a review of yeelight if you’re interested.

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#8

We also need to ask what country you are in as the device selections do vary.

Hue, INNR, LIFX, and yeelight are available in both the US and Europe.

Inovelli uses zwave which, like mobile phones, operates on different frequencies in different markets. Inovelli only makes devices that work for the US frequency, so you would have to have a US frequency hub to use those.

Also, some countries make it illegal to use zwave devices of frequencies assign to other regions, because they might interfere with local first responder communications. So it’s generally best to stick with the hub that is made for your region.

https://products.z-wavealliance.org/

#9

Thanks for the explanation, i think im gonna go buy a hue and get started… :slight_smile:

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#10

Have fun! :tada:

#11

by the way im from denmark!..

i think im gonna keep the smartthings hub! any way that theese are gonna work together? anything that smartthings is especially good at?

#12

There’s a Hue/smartthings integration which is good at the things smartthings is good at, mostly turning the lights on and off when other events occur. But you can’t activate hue scenes or any of the fancy disco stuff from the smartthings side. You still have full control from the Hue app or a third-party hue app, so you don’t give up anything by adding smartthings. But having only smartthings doesn’t give you party lights. :wink:

What smartthings is best at compared to the competition is letting you set up really complicated rules, like “turn on the front lights when someone approaches the house and it is between sunset and sunrise and then turn them off again after 12 minutes unless it is between December 1 and January 10“ (so you don’t ruin the effect of your fairy lights Christmas decorations. :snowman_with_snow: ) that’s what webcore is good for, by the way. rules that are that complicated are not part of the official features, It’s just that you can do that with custom code if you want to.

Or of course if you have a Samsung smart television or smart appliance.

Here’s an FAQ on what I mean by complex rules:

How to Get Started Creating Complex Rules in SmartThings

And here’s more about Webcore if you’re interested:

FAQ: What is WebCoRE? (And what was CoRE?)

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