[OBSOLETE] Google Home Helper (2016)

The only way to cancel it is to go into the macro you created and click done at the top of the page… However there might be a way to set an ON command to initiate the timer and then create a OFF function to turn it off…I might look into that if it doesn’t work with the current code.

Having an issue lately with one of my Google switches. It executes half of the automation, but not all of it.

I have it set to turn off 1 light and dim another when I say “OK google, time for bed”. This flips a switch Google momentary switch through IFTTT to run a routine in SmartThings. (Yes, it’s overcomplicated because I want the phrasing to be natural and not say “turn on goodnight”).

Right now it turns both lights off instead of dimming one and turning the other off. This was working fine for well over a month and has now stopped. When it was working both lights would turn off, then the dimmed light would come on at the proper level. If I go into SmartThings and run the goodnight routine it works as expected, but pressing the virtual momentary google switch in the “my home” section of SmartThings results in both lights going off, as it does when I speak it to google home.

Would appreciate any ideas or help.

Three things come to mind. First, in Google Home Helper, you may have not disabled the off piece of the control. The other thing is that another automation may be in conflict with this one and performing another action. Finally, depending on the level, the light might still be technically on but not have enough power to give visible light…if you are at 5% for the dimming level, maybe change it to 10 or 20 just to ensure it still works as you believe it should.

Have a look in the mobile app for the history (Recently) of the device that is simply going off and see if you can see what app is turning it off.

Let me know what you find.

Thanks for the help @MichaelS.

  1. How do I check this?
  2. I don’t see any that would conflict. I’m still early in my HA, so I don’t have much set up, and the only other automation for that light is to dim on another phrase via GH and IFTTT (which works as expected), and to come on upon arrival between sunset and sunrise.
  3. Dimmer level is set to 10.

Again, this light dims fine with another momentary google switch through IFTTT that was set up at the same time as the problematic one, and this problematic onenhas worked fine in the past.

The assumption here is that you are using Google Home Helper with a Control Scenario, correct? If so, go into the scenario and ensure the “Switch States To React To…” is set to On Only (see: http://thingsthataresmart.wiki/index.php?title=Google_Home_Helper#Control_Scenario)

For number 2 it is still important to look in the RECENTLY for the dimmer on your mobile app to see what activated it and the reaction. For example it you don’t see an implicit OFF then the light is probably technically still on a 10% but may not be visible. I have lights that I have to set a minimum of 15 to 20 to just see light from them

For the 3rd option I would set the light to go to 50% from a full on…if it STILL goes off then there is something else going on which will need screen shots of your app and maybe even the Live Logging in the IDE.

I wasn’t using it in a scenario. I’ve made one to see if that does the trick.

I do see the off command when the routine was executed, but no set level like I do for my other momentary switch. I would expect based on that, that it’s not an issue with being dimmed to 10%

I know it works at 30 so I’ll try that just to confirm

Thanks again, I’m new to all of this still!

Seems to be working now with the scenario in place. Thanks!

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Glad it working!

Worked intermittently last night. I can’t get a handle on it for some reason. It seems like it’s just randomly missing the set level command.

When I tested at 630 it worked. When I tried to use it again at 11 it did not.

Working sometimes and then not others is a function of SmartThings. However, you still need to ensure the trigger is ONLY functioning in the ON state…it almost looks like the off state is triggering something…

Not sure if this helps, but here is the settings in the scenario. I don’t think it’s SmartThings because I can run the routine itself and it works as expected. It’s only when I introduce GHH and IFTTT that it has this issue.

Is it possible this is related to the routine being tied to an on/off
switch? I have had good luck with creating all of my triggers as momentary
push buttons and having it respond to on only. There’s always a possibility
that the virtual switch gets out of sync with actual conditions where a
momentary push button will never have this issue. The downside is some
situations require more virtual buttons.

@gregg098, these are set up with momentary because I had those issues with them as a regular on/off

To that point, however, I would love to see just Google Switch (dimmer) put as a substitute for the momentary switch to see if that helps…I am also curious about if IFTTT is triggering the switch more than once.

@MichaelS if that were the case I think I would see it with my other routine that is similar. That one has never failed to work.

The only differencen the two is that this one turns one light off and dims the other, while the other switch just dims both lights. Both were set up the same way on the same day and worked fine. I would also think I’d see IFTTT more than once in the “recently” section of good night trigger (screen shot above) if it were hitting it multiple times? Just a thought. I can try to change or rebuild the switch differently.

I would kill the scenario and start over (just that scenario…not your whole ST environment :)). I have never seen this before but starting over will give us a clear playing field. From there I will ask some pointed questions that will need to be answered as we troubleshoot the whole process. You will need to be savvy with the Live Logging and such.

Let me know how you proceed

May have stubbled across my issue. I use the “switch activates a home phrase” smart app from IFTTT and somehow the on and off states were blank. Testing seems to work now that I’ve changed it. I’ll give it a run tonight and see what happens.

This is needlessly complicated, going to have to remove some of these moving parts.was the first thing I set up when I got SmartThings.

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Yeah…that sounds like it could do it…and trust me…once you do this for a while it will become second nature.

Good luck and let me know if you continue to have issues.

Thank you for another great SmartApp!

Feature request:

  • Motion sensor support.
  • Filter Report Output option (similar to Ask Alexa)

I have my Google Home setup as a ST speech device with this DTH and I wanted to use it as my main voice reporting device throughout the house without having to use multiple devices (Echo + Android phone with LANnouncer).

Thanks for your time!

So basically copy the Ask Alexa reports if possible? I can certainly put those on the roadmap. Thanks for the suggestion.