Ready to leave STs

So that begs the question… where would you go? Are there any viable alternatives to ST?

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I’ve had most of the popular automation systems out there. IMO the answer to. Your question is no.

Yes, of course there’re alternatives. You can go Wink or Iris (just to name a few), which are both cloud-based systems just like ST. So you’re most likely to run into the same issues with reliance on internet connection and cloud outages. But because both system are closed and there’s no community to speak of, you’ll probably be in a much worse situation.

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There are a number of standalone alternatives. Universal Devices’ ISY series is a good one, so is Indigo (if you have a spare Mac lying around).

It isn’t fixed just FYI, the sunrise/sunset or daylight savings time offset still isn’t working.

Have you let support know? Unfortuantely we (the community) can’t help with these things. But support is awesome and they will help you asap.

They’re all fixed. Yesterday we found that some of the Sonos scheduling apps weren’t using logic that accounted for DST. That was fixed last night or this morning.

Thanks, it still fired early this morning. I’ll keep an eye on it, and see if it works tonight, and this morning. Did you guys happen to search other apps that using scheduling and make sure they are handling the DST correctly? Just curious.

Yes, we did an audit of all of our SmartApps that include scheduling and made the necessary changes from there.

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What changes? I previously cloned the medicine reminder smart app and made it work for “no motion” in the right time window so I could detect whether the pill box had moved. Now since DST the timing is off 1 hour. It wiuld be helpful to know what to tweak in the code. I guess I could clone it again and re write but I would rather not

Have you checked the activity log to see if it lists any events that could explain these annoyances?

@tyler specifically said ST Apps. If you create custom versions you are off on your own. One way I have found to resync my custom things to DST is to to go into the app’ settings and then press done. If the app was set up right. It will update the schedules to your new location info. Important for those of you living outside of Indiana, Arizona or Hawaii.

@rms62003 I feel like leaving too but I don’t know where to go.

I don’t feel like any attention is being paid to making the basic functions rock-solid and reliable. We have issues with it more days than not. The lights will miss their schedule or the app says they’re in a different state than they really are. We cannot trust that the app reflects reality or that issued commands were successfully executed.

There have always been problems here and there since we first installed ST at the beginning of this year, but I was willing to overlook a lot of them because it new and cool. I was blinded by potential and figured those issues would get addressed soon.

At first my wife was on-board with the automation and remote control, but since it is so unpredictable when the command will succeed she has quit using it. I’m sad to say I’m not far behind.

Since I turned off my ST hub for a night due to the middle of the night Sonos playing, and turning it on again, it has somewhat been behaving itself. My Sonos hasn’t gone off in the middle of the night (GLEEFULLY) and my lights are working. I had two days where the morning report has worked, out of 5. However, only one day has the “I’m Home” Sonos gone off like it should.

As long as I’m not jarred awake at night, and the lights/thermostat and front door lock do as expected, I’m OK keeping with the product. But, if you say that you work with something like Sonos, it should work.

From the replies, I’ll keep it for now. But, I’m still not satisfied with recent performance.

STs is not shy to say this is still labs quality (beta)

It’s a terrible truism but misery loves company and reading this hasn’t made me feel any better but at least now I know I’m not alone. Totally agree with rms62003, scottinpollock, danfelix, scubaaadan. I’ve been in IT for 25 years. I don’t write code. The closest I’ve come recently is copying and pasting an app from Brice at Obycode. (ObyThing Music is very cool and Brice’s support is awesome). I bought SmartThings under the crazy premise that it would do what they say it does and was looking forward to being able to offer it to my clients. I wouldn’t be so upset it they sold this under the proper premise, hobbyists only. My home is less secure now than it was when all I was doing was locking the door with my hand by turning the deadbolt. This product is an annoying joke. Actually it’s more like an addiction. I’ve got over a grand in Things. ST causes me countless hours of aggravation but I stick with it for those brief euphoric moments when It all works. Still praying Samsung money will help.

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Still waiting for someone to show me a better platform that exists today.

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I, too, am an IT Systems Admin for 15+ years. I feel like if I can’t figure this stuff out, how does ST expect the lay user to?

I can say that I’ve experienced a stable platform for the last couple of weeks, other than a couple minor inconvenience hiccups.

IF presence (on Android) could be better, the system would be good, albeit not great. I gave up on the default ST Android presence and installed Life360, so maybe it’s better, but I won’t know.

Support for this product is top notch. They seem to understand my frustrations, and help cool the nerves while offering fixes to anything I’ve thrown their way. That being said, there still needs to be (1) a way to suggest enhancements and upvote features we would like to see implemented, (2) a way to see known issues, and (3) a better, more robust rule builder - finding smartapps, installing, tweaking shouldn’t be the answer. For this, I can say the community rocks.

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I second that! Support and this community is unparalleled which makes me believe in ST. I mostly am into ST and this home automation thing as a diversion to keep me out of trouble (mostly)…

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Or get into trouble with the wife when the Siren goes off on its own. :wink: