[OBSOLETE] "Pollster" - A SmartThings Polling Daemon

Quick Question… Is there anyway to turn off logging so it does flood my activity stream with events?

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In the last couple of days pollster no longer has the option to select “weather Station”. I only noticed because my dim per lux level stopped working. I have uninstalled / reinstalled with no improvement. Anyone else having a similar issue?

Pollster = The end of my device subscription handler (lag / never firing) frustration. It goes against every programming bone in my body but it works. I shoehorned my code that I knew would work if the device subscription would ever trigger, but it never triggered when I needed it to.

I work in Industrial automation where we poll devices in measures of milliseconds, so I’ve been jumping out of my seat waiting for things to happen, then never happen at all.

So @geko cheers to you!

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Been there, done that. I suppose you’re familiar with modbus. :smile:

I am familiar with it, and smile every day that I don’t encounter it. :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

I am unable to see my SmartWeather Station in Pollster when I select devices to add to a group. Am I missing something?

A device must have capability "Polling" declared in its definition section for the Pollster to see it. Interestingly, the Smart Weather Station has poll() function but does not declare capability "Polling". I don’t know if it was removed intentionally or accidentally. Maybe worth while asking support.

This question has already been answered a few posts back.

@geko, have you considered adding support for calling refresh() for devices that have capability.refresh and not capability.polling?

Has anyone used this to get the status of a hue bulb if they hue app is used or the wall switch is used? I have been trying to get this to work and the SmartThings tile never updates.

I hacked my instance of pollster to do just that…
Works great.

can you share your code for your hacked version?

Since many devices support both methods, be sure to select only one device for each method (polling or refresh)

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I seem to be running into the same problem. This used to work, but no longer does as of about a month ago. Looking in live logging, pollster finds/polls the bulbs and returns the appropriate sate (on: false), but when I check the ST tile for that bulb, it hasn’t changed it to off.

@geko Any thoughts on why this may be?

Pollster does not “return” anything. All it does is it kicks device in the pants by calling its poll() command to give it a chance to update itself. If the device is not updating, the problem is with the device handler.

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That helps, thanks! gonna have to mess with the hue device type handler then and see what can be done.

Have you had any luck tracking down this problem? I would really love to have this functionality with the Hue Bulbs? I am not sure where to begin looking at the device handlers.

Pollster Version 1.2 is Released.

What’s new:

  • Added ability to update devices that provide ‘refresh’ capability (thanks to @Mike_Maxwell).
  • Added “Poll Now” feature. You can now start the poll manually by touching the app icon.

About Pollster

Many SmartThings devices rely on frequent polling to update their status periodically. These devices have ‘polling’ capability and implement poll() command that the SmartThings polling engine calls approximately every 10 minutes. The polling rate is not user-configurable and may not be frequent enough for some devices. Also, the SmartThings polling engine has been known to have bad days now and then, when it works intermittently or stops working for hours and even days.

Pollster works behind the scenes and periodically calls poll() or refresh() command for selected devices. Devices can be arranged into four groups with independently configurable polling intervals. The polling interval can be as short as one minute.

Installation

Pollster is available in the “Convenience” section of the Shared Smart Apps in SmartThings IDE.

  1. Go to “My SmartApps” section and click on the “+ New SmartApp” button on the right.
  2. On the “New SmartApp” page, fill out mandatory “Name” and “Description” fields (it does not matter what you put there), then click the “Create” button at the bottom.
  3. When a new app template opens in the IDE, click on the “Browse SmartApps” drop-down list in the upper right corner and select “Browse Shared SmartApps”. A list of shared SmartApps will appear on the left side of the editor window.
  4. Scroll down to “Convenience” section and click on it.
  5. Select “Pollster” from the list and click the red “Overwrite” button in the bottom right corner.
  6. Click the blue “Save” button above the editor window.
  7. Click the “Publish” button next to it and select “For Me”. You have now self-published your SmartApp.
  8. Open SmartThings mobile app on iPhone or Android and go to the Dashboard.
  9. Tap on the round “+” button and navigate to “My Apps” section by swiping the menu ribbon all the way to the left.
  10. “Pollster” app should be available in the list that appears below the menu ribbon. Tap it and follow the setup instructions.

Pollster is also available on GitHub:

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This is a very useful app - thank you for writing and sharing it. I am still new and after installing my first light, I was sad to see that the status wasn’t tracked well. This app solves this issue. Thanks so much.

I didn’t write it or have anything to do with it. But thanks :smile:

Thank @geko