Newbie: Where can I hire setup help? (Cleveland area)

Apologies in advance because I know I can’t be the first person to ask this question …

I’m building a new home (Cleveland area) and have acquired a hub and several compatible parts in advance – multiroom audio, thermostat, deadbolts, camera, dimmers, motions sensors, outlets. Instead of frustrating myself trying to figure it all out, I’d like to hire an experienced consultant or developer to help with the basics: connecting everything and setting up some basic rules and alerts. Would love someone to walk me through it so I can get it up and running and tweak it from there.

Any suggestions on where I can find someone in my area? Thanks in advance!

I live in the Akron area. I wouldn’t call my self a consultant but I have a decent setup here I put together myself. I am running the first generation ST hub. I have 9 GE Link Bulbs, a Philips Hue hub with 4 bulbs. 3 presence sensors plus phones as presence sensors, 2 motion sensors, a couple of outlets, a Nest thermostat, 2 Bose Soundtouch speakers and an amazon echo right now. I have a tablet and a touchscreen pc setup in the house with SmartTiles running for easy control of everything.

I would be willing to help you depending on what all you would like done. Any questions shoot my way and we can get your running.

I am east of Cleveland over in Mentor. Mildly new to Smartthings (few months) but have a pretty decent setup integrating a variety of things. Maybe between the few of us we have enough knowledge to get you going :slightly_smiling:

Awesome, thanks guys! I feel much more comfortable now. I have:

7 outlets
7 dimmer switches
4 motion sensors
2 deadbolt locks
1 D-Link outdoor motion sensor camera
1 Zen thermostat
3 Samsung multiroom speakers

Either this week or next the electrician will install the outlets and switches and then the deadbolts will be installed. After that i’ll hook up the hub, camera and speakers, and if it’s OK i’ll message both of you if I run into trouble at that point.

My biggest concern is after that – setting up alerts and functions. A few things I’d like to do:

Motion sensors control lights automatically in different sections of the house.
Each family member gets their own pin to the deadlock and when they enter the house their customized lights come on and a speaker welcomes them.
Phone alerts when anyone enters the house.
Alerts with photos/video feed when outdoor motion sensor is triggered.
Lock doors and shut off all lights with a “Goodnight” mode.
Lock doors and turn down thermostat with an “Away” mode.
The ability to choose which speakers are playing music.
Install a touchscreen monitor with SmartTiles to control all this.

After following this community for a while I’m anticipating some hiccups in the process. As I get closer to moving into the house (about 3 weeks), if you want to provide a quote to come out and set all that up, I’d be happy to entertain it.

Thanks!

The following may also be of interest.

In particular, if you have an iOS device, the $7 third-party rules engine app, smartrules, offers a nice simple way to set up many rules. Combined with SmartTiles, it adds a lot of usability to the system.

http://smartrulesapp.com

On the other hand, the free smart app, Rule Machine, can do many more complicated things but is itself more complex to understand and use.

Both are very popular. Many people with iOS devices even use both of these, using smartrules for anything it can handle, and rule machine for the more complex stuff. :sunglasses:

Guys, a quick update and a few questions:

Most everything is working and I’ve had fun with setting some basic routines. Most practical so far has been keypad locks so i dont have to carry house keys, motion sensors controlling lights from dusk till dawn, and access to a live stream outdoor camera through the Smarthings app. Relying on an accurate status of “things” is spotty. Smart outlets and smart bulbs are dumb because you need to be able to control it remotely and at the switch/lamp/accessory. But if you power down at the switch or shutoff the lamp the “smart” part no longer works.

Here’s what I’m struggling with.

I have a D‑Link DCS‑2310L camera and I can get the stream through the Smartthings app, but Smarttiles can’t access the feed – it’s just a “JPEG cant be found” image. I followed some directions for Generic MJPEG video streams but couldnt get it to work.

through the D-Link site I cant figure out how to limit motion notifications to certain hours – i have it set from midnight to 6am but it sends me email notifications all day when it detects motion. i also would love a rule that when the camera detects motion from midnight to 6am the camera feed automatically opens on my tablet.

Is there a way to integrate samsung multiroom audio speakers into smarttiles so i can start pandora and control various speakers without opening the samsung multiroom audio app? or can i start pandora and then pick what speakers i want from the native app without opening samsung multiroom audio app?

i’ve got the Kwikset deadbolt keypad locks all set up and love them, but i can’t find any good SmartApps to use them correctly. i want certain lights to come on when the code is entered and door is unlocked, and a welcome message to be played on the samsung multiroom audio speakers. no idea where to begin here.

any help on any of these issues would be greatly appreciated.

I know this was posted way back in may…but do you still need help with this? i live west side suburbs of cleveland myself and use smarttiles with ODOT cameras on it…i had the same issue as well but its working now. i may be able to help with the other things too if not too late.