Perplexing - Really like Smart Things system, but the problems! Your perspective on Smart Things please?

Your experience is encouraging. If ST is heavily dependent on the back end server and the internet connection I could see how some people could be experiencing difficulties. My internet connection is usually fast and reliable so a small experimental setup might useful to see for myself how robust ST really is today.

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I think I trigger the alarm more by forgetting to turn it off than it does miss fire! haha

P

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Not yet.

Here’s where I see us at

Transition to new hub: not complete
Transition to new app UI: not complete
Local light automation: pretty reliable
Everything else: somewhere between "oh great it’s working this (hour|day|week) and hot mess of randomness

Not ready for grandma, but ready for a hobbyist or HA enthusiast. Then again, pretty much everything else on the market is in the same place.

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Welcome to premature release of the V2 SmartThings platform :slight_smile: its all yet to be finished - we are all paying customers who are unbeknowingly beta testing it for them . . . Thats how i best describe it :wink:

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It would be very nice for those who have trusted SmartThings to be able to ‘right the ship’, to get an update on what steps have been taken in two months since @ben posted this?

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In my opinion, the really frustrating part is the large number of “small” problems/gaps sprinkled throughout the platform. ST seems to follow the 80% rule on everything they do.

All things considered, I thought about returning the hub early on, but before I did I decided to monitor the competitions forums, can’t say that it’s any better. In fact, ST seems to have an edge for now, but it won’t take much for someone to leap frog past ST. All it would take is to offer the same functionality that ST originally promised and keep it stable. In ST’s defense this seems to be an unattainable goal by all the vendors in this space.

Then there’s this…

Is Samsung pouching/straining current ST resources for future device functionality? It this point I can’t help but wonder if ST has now become an Alpha test of future platforms.

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That’s not what I get by reading this…

“With Samsung Smart TVs working with the SmartThings technology, we have an opportunity to reach millions of households,” said Alex Hawkinson, CEO and Co-founder of SmartThings. “Applying this technology into current household devices is a major step forwards that will make it much easier for everyone to experience the benefits of a smart home.”

You can’t just rub the ST hub on a TV or USB Stick and it magically integrates. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

You have to port the platform to the new hardware, which most likely involves coding firmware for new chipsets and form factors. You then have to regression test existing functionality on the new hardware. Assuming it’s even going to tie to the same ST cloud, will they spin up a separate cloud instance and charge a subscription? Samsung has share holders…

…and don’t think for a second somebody hasn’t injected new ideas and features into the new devices which require further development.

I really like ST, but I think we’re getting jerked around a little bit. They could have most of the basic annoying issues fixed in one cycle/iteration. That fact that they haven’t seems to indicate our user stories are at the bottom of the backlog. I’d like to see their JIRA instance, it might be enlightening (for all of us).

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That assumes they have one.

/salty

They do.

But it’s probably not worth much more than a dry-erase white board since there are so many bugs, the entire system is a moving target. :confused:

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So ST support can go 2 ways:

  • Massively upgraded by Samsung so it becomes more professional while staffed by less capable and enthusiastic hires,

  • Massively overwhelmed and unreachable because of all the new neophyte customers.

I suppose the 3rd option is to massively dumb down ST for smart tvs. Or hire Every one of us as help desk personnel

Have you ever contacted Samsung support for anything? My experience is not good. To put it into perspective, current ST support is far superior than what I experienced with Samsung. So there is the fourth option, they upsell SmartThings without overhauling its infrastructure so those who care about HA will continue to support each other here, while the masses buy an expensive TV and never get the stick or they get sick of an unreliable system and give up.

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For some perspective on how the base will grow:

Samsung sells 2 smart TVs a second. Almost 6 MILLION TVs in NOVEMBER alone.

What’s ST’s current install base? Orders of magnitude less than that.

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@Greg1 My perspective of SmartThings is a little different than what you will see in the community. Up until a couple months ago, my setup ran like clock work. Very reliable and consistent and I was very happy with the platform. Around the time of the v2 launch, the platform did (and continues to) experience hiccups. Having said that, while annoying, they have not been that bad for me. It is pretty rare that something in my setup misfires. Maybe it has to do with the devices I use? Not sure, but most of my devices are Z-Wave and work great. I have seen that a lot of complaints in the community have to do with Zigbee devices. That is just an observation though, and I don’t know if it has any merit. My point with this is that you have to use reliable devices to expect reliable results from them. (obvious, I know)

My SmartApps and routines are pretty solid at this point (knock on wood). It feels like things have improved a little bit. Not to diminish anyone’s experiences, but I wonder how much of the complaining in the community has to do with low quality devices, local and WAN network issues, etc. I feel like things will get better, but the platform is not quite there.

The thing that makes me stick to SmartThings is honestly the community. It is fantastic and filled with talent. I credit SmartThings for keeping the platform open enough for the community to thrive. I love that SmartThings has the tools for me to easily create or modify SmartApps and Device Handlers. I often find a thing or two that I would like changed on either of those things, and I can do it in a matter of minutes.

One thing you could do is try out the platform. Just make sure you buy devices that work with other hubs (like Z-Wave). If it doesn’t work out for you then worst case you have wasted $99 (and the time spent exploring SmartThings, but that can actually be enjoyable).

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Knock on wood, say three prayers, throw salt over your shoulder and that’s how you keep your system going, there is no certainty that your system will work again tomorrow :wink:

SmatThings runs on superstitions because at any time you can be served a curved ball that knocks down your system.

My set up has been solid for the past few weeks, BUT after stripping it down to avoid known bugs, time outs, external APIs, etc. This should not happen. If you add ANY of the devices listed on the ‘connect new device’ list your expectation is that will work, unless you are forewarned at the time of inclusion with big red bold letters:

***this device is known to create instability of your system **** proceed with caution ****

Unfortunately I didn’t see that note when I added Wemo Switches, Sonos speakers, Harmony hubs, LIFX bulbs and other devices that may destabilize your system.

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I love the helpful and friendly attitude among the ST community members, the willingness to share and help and solve. And the encounters I’ve had with ST tech support have been snappy and responsive and professional. I think they’re good people with good intentions.

All that said, a product that’s been on the market this long that still has such significant problems is unacceptable and doesn’t bode well at all for the future of the platform IMHO. The slow pace was understandable before the Samsung buyout, but I’d assumed that buyout would result in vastly increased resources devoted to fixing the product. Apparently that’s not the case.

Samsung is doing a lot of talk about their IoT expansion in 2016, while ST remains buggy and awkward and IMHO just not worth the effort when other solutions can be put together that work perfectly and blow ST’s functionality out of the water. I’m wondering if Samsung is committed to keeping the platform alive at all, or if they’re gonna move in a different direction.

The only things I have remaining on ST are one door lock and one electrical switch. They’re only still there because I haven’t taken the time to figure out how to unpair them from ST so I can add them to my main HA ecosystem.

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@SBDOBRESCU @jnschemm I figured someone would take offense to that statement. You are right, there are a lot of smart and talented people in this community (which I stated is one of the things I really like about SmartThings), but there are a lot of people in the community that aren’t as technically capable. I’m sure most of the complaints are legit, but they just don’t line up with my experience. Maybe I’m in a different data center, or a different cluster or even a different blade in the same datacenter. I don’t know, I just rarely have problems.

Also, I am not new to SmartThings, but have been a customer for almost 2 years. I’ve been with it through several ups and downs. I also have a lot of experience with other HA products. Generally people feel inclined to post their negative experiences in public forums like this, and I merely wanted to state that mine has been somewhat different. I have a lot of scheduled events, and they rarely get missed.

On the other hand I don’t think the platforms performance as a whole has been acceptable. And like I said, it feels like it is getting better, but it is not quite there. If you choose inter operable, quality devices, you aren’t married to the platform. It isn’t a one way road and almost your entire investment can be moved over to another platform if you plan things right.

As for trusting SmartThings as a security system, I would not. There is not a home automation system on the market that I would trust with my home security. I have been extremely spoiled by a dedicated security system that has a 100% reliability.

I am merely saying that my experience is different. So many people complain (it is just human nature), I felt that a differing opinion could add to the conversation. There are a lot of improvements that need to be made, but the openness and the community are what keep me sticking around.

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Gawd help us all. We’re doomed … Might as well party like it’s 2012 (end of the world)…

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Do tell. I’m listening. :neutral_face:

Edit: Adding nifty meme for effect.

There have been a few posts by those that are lucky enough to not have had major issues, producing theories as to what they are doing right and possibly what others are doing “wrong”…

But the reality is there are dynamics/variables not only out of our control as end users, but they are also completely unknown to us. These theories have never added up to much as far as I can tell.

And yes. There are several on here that write code, better code that ST writes for sure, as well as extremely competent and knowledgeable end users that know their LANs well, use only ST certified devices, etc and yet they still have issues - so NO… the complaining is NOT a result of failures due to incompetence or insanely borderline configurations.

ST is broke in many ways. Your experience can only be described as luck.

In your post you state, and I quoted it, that you don’t use it as security device. That’s great, and it certainly explains why you haven’t had the bad experiences with Smart Home Monitor, but this is a CORE product for ST and it is broke. You may not trust it and therefore don’t use it, and while I don’t trust it - it is part of my security strategy and I do use it as I am hopeful it will one day work properly. ST apparently does to as they are asking for 19.95 a month to monitor it.

At times, I think folks can be dismissive of using ST as a security device and the thinking might be 'Well no, sh*t, use a REAL security system!" - but this is SOLD and marketed as exactly that. So we need to push ST to fix it, not to dismiss those that use the product for what it was DESIGNED to do.

Now, that being said, I currently have security in layers. And it is unlikely that will ever change, just evolve, depending on what I can get out of each system and therefore how much i can rely upon it. .

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