OK, I’ve just plugged in my new Smartthings hub, installed the iphone app and added a few test devices (switch, light, sonos).
I can use the phone interface to mess with these deceives, but I can’t find anywhere to setup rules, for example.
I want to set up the switch so when its pressed it makes the sonos box play radio 2 and puts the lights on.
I’ve looked at “rountines” but they seem very limited and guided for specific use cases.
Surely there is a basic rule builder, if this then that style stuff?
SmartThings is very powerful, but not very intuitive. Coders and tinkerers tend to really like it, and people looking for a plug-and-play solution often feel overwhelmed.
In addition to the official methods detailed in the scheduler FAQ, there are some nice third-party rules engines of the type you probably expected. So if you just want a short answer, you can take a look at those:
I had kind of assumed that a rules engine was pretty much the heart of any home automation controller. But if there are 3rd party ones I’ll look at them, or at least I would if I could find the app store or even the place to install 3rd party stuff.
Sorry for sounding somewhat useless, but I’ve spent ages looking through the user interface and I can’t see anywhere to install 3rd party stuff.
It’s really strange for the 21st-century. I don’t have any explanation for why there isn’t an official one.
As far as the two most popular third-party rules engines, One is a regular iOS app that you get from the I tunes store. So that installs like any other regular app for an iPhone or iPad. There’s a light version that’s free so you can try it out but only lets you set up one rule. And then the regular one costs 8 bucks which many people, myself included, find well worth it. But of course you have to have an iPhone.
The other is totally free and runs in any web browser. So you don’t need to install it at all, you just go to that website and sign up for an account. So it will work on any phone that can access the Internet through a regular browser.
That makes both of those pretty easy.
Information at the topic link I posted above.
There’s also a new community rules “machine” which is totally free and gets installed through the regular SmartThings custom code process. I really like that one, also, but both the installation and the interface are much more techy than the first two. So I don’t know if you’re interested in that one, but if you are, it’s also mentioned at the engine link.
Thanks for the reply, I tried smart rules but I got “client is not associated with a smartapp in location XXX”. This could be related to the problems I had getting it to accept the Welcome Code, it took 2 days of messing around with customer support to resolve this, in the end I had to create a new email account and a new smarthings login, not a fantastic start.
Anyhow, I’ve spent a lot of time messing with this and pretty much gotten nowhere, time to cut my losses.
I’ve messed around with Jeedom in the past and that seemed to do what I wanted, but its in French, maybe Ill just learn a new language on the whole it seems easier than Smart Things…
Understood. By any chance are you in the UK? UK accounts currently have that location error issue with a number of third party services, I believe including SmartRules.
I’m in the UK, that seemed to cause the problem with the initial activation, but from what you’ve said it also causes other problems (probably the reason I couldn’t get SmartRules to work).
