[OBSOLETE] Device Monitor - Get Notified if Devices Stop Reporting

Unfortunately, they decided to go the other way…(increasing cloud dependency). As for transparency, since v2 code went “undercover,” things have gotten much worse, but lack thereof has always been an issue.

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Just installed this and am very pleased so far :slight_smile: I couldn’t use my Nest Protect as it doesn’t really send much - haven’t seen a quieter device :wink:

I would also like to be able to add light bulbs, but with a different dead interval - maybe 24h or above. I have outdoor lights that are supposed to go on and off at night and found them gone for two days this morning. No wonder why my lights were on yesterday when I came home :wink:

Great job, thank you!

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Thanks! I really prefer the simplicity of this app over others that are out there. Hopefully this won’t change that simplicity:

I’ve got some updates that I have added.

  • New app icon.
  • App layout has been changed to make it more organized.
  • New method of event detection. I am using a method that attempts to only get events that a device sends. This should improve accuracy of the app! For example, if you have a process (like pollster) that runs a refresh on a device every 10 minutes. The old system (and other systems?) would see that as an event from the device and would incorrectly detect it as being active. I have been testing this new method for several months and it has been working well.
  • Option to be notified if a device comes back online.
  • Option to be notified if battery devices are low on battery. Threshold is configurable.
  • Ability to exclude devices from battery or event checks. This is useful if you want to only check battery events on a device, but don’t care about event checks for example.


Oh, and @ady624, I have two instances of the SmartApp installed as I have a couple different requirements as well. One is 24 hours and one is 72 hours.

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This looks great. Love the battery check too… Also would be nice to have the app touch enabled for ad-hoc checks. I could really use that feature after a hub reboot to get a list of my failed zigbees. It would save me a lot of time walking around the house with my phone in one hand and the ladder in the other…:slight_smile:

Speaking of false-positives. I didn’t check the code, but if you select a contact, only checks the open/close events? Likewise for motion, does it only check for motion active/inactive? Or checks against any of the capabilities the sensor may have?

So not looking to make one out to be better than the other, as I don’t know.

However, I am currently using Simple Device Viewer. My use case is to notify me when batteries reach a threshold and when devices age or cannot be contacted within a certain threshold. Need a way to stay on top of a hundred plus devices and their batteries.

How does this compare to Simple Device Viewer for that use case for those that know each?

@SBDOBRESCU If you click on the “Device Status” link it will actually do an ad-hoc check and then show you the results. You only have to select a device once and the app will check for all events. The only reason I have them broken up into categories is because SmartThings doesn’t give you a way to list “All Devices”. I wish they would.

@JH1 I am not too familiar with Simple Device Viewer. This app will definitely do what you require, so it might just be whichever interface you prefer. This app does only look at events that are sent from the device, which makes it pretty accurate. I don’t think Simple Device Viewer does that, but I could be wrong.

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Oh, ok I see. That’s pretty nice. The only thing that might be better is to tell Echo: “Alexa send me the list of dead devices”. And instantaneously to get a text with expired devices. Well maybe not for @JH1 because he doesn’t like Alexa. :slight_smile: I can totally see this working with @MichaelS 's app. Don’t you :slight_smile: (just kidding around)

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I would have to root through the code to see HOW he detects that a device is ‘dead’…Again, Alexa can’t notify you on the fly when something happens…you have to ask…but what I have been toying with is a ‘message queue’ which would allow other devices or even SmartApps to post to a ‘queue’ that Ask Alexa would keep track of…then you can ‘ask’ if there are any messages in the queue, which would then rattle off messages.

This WOULD require that many of the app developers write these items in a specific format (probably a sendLocationEvent). This could be our “Standard” to bridge SmartApps. This is how CoRE and Ask Alexa currently pass information back and forth…

Something to think about…

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Yeah, what I was suggesting is:

Me: Alexa, send me the list of dead devices
Alexa: ok, check your message app.

I can see this as a macro for kicking in the check of @erocm1231 s app, not necessarily lifting up his code in Ask Alexa…Food for thought for interconnecting smart apps.

I know @bamarayne would love this too :slight_smile:

wow… how am I just finding this. I have been worried about knowing if a battery was low (dead)… this just sooo solved that little concern… now if @MichaelS can figure out how to “Ask Alexa”…

It is currently possible to ask alexa to run a similar report, but I’d rather have it automatically executed and notified when a battery is low. Or maybe I misunderstood your point.

Is it possible to have one app trigger a method in another app? I guess it could be done with a virtual switch, but I am wondering if there is any other way . . .

@erocm1231

Are you using askAlexa or CoRE ?

Those two apps talk to each other.

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Michael @MichaelS and Adrian @ady624 it would be so nice if we have a block of code for CoRE and Ask Alexa integration that developers would add to their apps to enable compatibility. @erocm1231 s app is a prime example for Ask Alexa. There are other apps that would make sense to integrate with CoRE. Just starting the conversation. Maybe we need to move it to a new threat so we don’t trash Eric’s thread too much.

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I was thinking if I did want to integrate with something like askAlexa. So a user could say “Alexa, let me know which devices are inactive”, and it would trigger a method in my app (which could then send a notifications of inactive devices).

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Yes, please start one.

In my ‘good night’ routine I have it do a report on all kinds of things…doors open/closed doors/windows, battery levels, etc. If I hear nothing then that means all is good…However, the concept of ‘dead’ devices would be better handled by a dedicated tool that just reports back to Ask Alexa instead of bloating the app more…I am not a fan of re-creating the wheel if one already exists.

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The way I envision this integration is as follows:

  • I develop a Ask Alexa message queue
  • This queue would ‘subscribe’ to sendLocationEvents that were keyed specifically to Ask Alexa
  • Items that are queued would then go into a State variable, to be played back based on various parameters

So, simply enough, and technically I am already partially doing this with CoRE; when you create a new piston Ask Alexa ‘listens’ for the creation event via the sendLocationEvent, then adds or removes the Piston name from the overall list.

Edit: I have put this on my Ask Alexa Roadmap to investigate…

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The Simple Device Viewer works the same way and only looks at events sent from the device.

The Simple Device Viewer also looks for state changes because there are a lot of devices that wake up at regular intervals, but don’t generate events if nothing has changed. That feature makes it more reliable in some ways, but less reliable in others which is why it’s optional.

The purpose of the Simple Device Viewer was to provide a simple way to view your devices by capability and I recently added a web interface for it, but the device monitoring functionality was only added because people requested it.

When it comes to monitoring devices, it looks like Device Monitor offers some features that the Simple Device Viewer doesn’t have like letting you know when the device is back up.

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