Reading logs to determine why my switches trigger

Devices & Integrations
#1

I just installed two jasco switches and set up a few smartapps. The apps don’t seem to be firing but I can turn the switch on and off from ST.

Weirdly the lights turn on and I cannot determine the cause. I am looking in graph api to see the log on the specific device. It doesn’t really show anything so I can’t see what is triggering the device to turn on (it is happening several times).

#2

Hi @BBoy486,

When looking at the event log for the device, click on “from Device” or “all”. That will hopefully give you more info.

Look for the “source” to be:

“DEVICE /physical” - manually being used.

“DEVICE /digital” - used/triggered by ST through the phone app or SmartApp. If by a SmartApp, one of the next two events should be there too:

“COMMAND” or “APP_COMMAND”. Look in the “Displayed text” column to see what sent the command.

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#3

This might be of interest. SmartThings has multiple logs you can check:

#4

Thanks. Still hard to see what is triggering it.

rawDescription Smartthings motion Front door Lighting sent on command to Front Door Flood Light Z-Wave Switch

Breaking this down:

Smartthings motion Front door Lighting – I don’t know what that is. I have a motion sensor outside but it is called: SmartSense Motion

sent on command to

Front Door Flood Light Z-Wave Switch - this is my new switch (jasco)

#5

It sounds like you probably have a SmartLightng automation called Front Door which is causing the sensor to trigger the light.

Since this probably runs locally, it doesn’t show up in all the cloud account logs. (Only SmartLighting and a little bit of SHM are currently eligible to run locally.)

Try this.

Open the SmartThings mobile app.
Tap the My Home icon (four little square on the bottom row)
Choose Things

Now find your light and tap on its name (not the icon to the left of the name, the name itself). This will open the thing detail screen.

image.png1536×2048 221 KB

Now if you tap on Recently you’ll see the individual device log.

But more relevantly, tap on SmartApps at the top,right of the light’s detail screen to see the smartapps that this light has been assigned to. I’ll bet you’ll see a SmartLights automation there. :sunglasses:

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#6

I tracked down the issue. The smartthing motion sensor has no way to set motion sensitivity like a WeMo motion sensor. So essentially any shadow, wind, leaf was setting of the motion sensor that I had running through a smart app.

It is a little short sighted on ST part to have a sensor that has no control method. So this sensor really doesn’t do anything other then mark everything as motion so it was tripping my alerts.

#7

Most residential “motion sensors” aren’t really detecting motion at all. PIR sensors detect very slight changes in heat, so they almost always fail in outdoor conditions. In fact, many manufacturers say they are for indoor use only for exactly this reason. Just a gust of wind can set them off if there’s a temperature differential.

Did you previously have WeMo sensors outdoors? (I’m assuming from your mentioning of leaves that your current sensors are outdoors.)

If your current sensors are outdoors, you might want to consider putting them into a zone where three or four have to set off at the same time before an event is counted. Mike Maxwell has a good smart app for doing exactly this. It might be worth taking a look at.

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