My sliding door (in rental condo) shuts off the ac if left open then turns back on when closed, luv it.
Problem is app for ac doesn’t run local. So if internet goes out (on the island, happens a lot) while door is open (ac off) then door is closed while internet is still out, ac doesn’t get turned back on.
I can fix that by turning ac back on remotly once internet is restored (usually within minutes).
Problem is despite the sensor (zigbee) executing locally the app shows open even if I hit refresh so door may be open or closed, I wont know until doors status is changed.
Shouldn’t the hub keep track of door status even if internet is out then sync with cloud when internet is restored?
If not, any suggestions on how to know status of door activity/statues after internet outage?
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tgauchat
(ActionTiles.com co-founder Terry @ActionTiles; GitHub: @cosmicpuppy)
#2
It “should” … doesn’t mean it does…
I presume you’ve tried various experiments and confirmed that the DTH is local?
Battery powered sensors are likely to only send their State once upon each change in State. If the Hub fails to relay that information to the SmartThings Cloud (immediately, or sometime after the internet is restored…), then that is perhaps a concern, or perhaps desirable.
I recommend watching Live Logging as well as refreshing the Device details page (under My Devices), just to confirm that there is no state update. https://account.SmartThings.com
Keep in mind, though, that perhaps deferred local events from the Hub are actually discarded on purpose.
For example, let’s say that you are set up to open the garage door when a Presence Sensor becomes Present. Unless both DH (and the SmartApp) are local, then let’s say the Presence Sensor (local DH) is present at 6pm, but the internet/cloud is not available until 3am … do you really want the Garage Door to open at 3am? No - you want the event or the action to be discarded, right?
Trigger-Something has to happen
Condition-The state of something
Trigger example:
If door “changes” to close…This will only be true and evaluated for a short amount of time. If the door stays closed, it doesn’t matter because the evaluation period is over.
Condition example:
If door “is” closed…This will always be true as long as the door remains closed.
I don’t know what rule engine you are using but I suggest you use webCoRE as you can specify if your rule is Trigger based or Condition based.
If door is open
Then turn off ac
If the door is closed
Then turn on ac
The above rule will be more likely evaluated once internet is restored. If you had “changes” to…then it wouldn’t be evaluated once internet is restored.
To shed a little bit of light, @tgauchat is mostly correct.
Having events received while the hub is offline sync up to the cloud after power is restored is something that’s been a dream feature for a while, but isn’t currently supported. We’ve tried to implement a sort of stop-gap procedure in the interim for situations exactly like yours where we try to poll critical devices once a hub connection is restored, but a lot of these devices are real battery sippers and aren’t necessarily “awake” to respond to these polls (or refreshes). I think (don’t quote me on this, other users can verify) that our SmartSense Open/Closed sensors work correctly with this behavior (i.e. contact status should be correct within a minute of internet being restored). If it does, the event would show up when power is restored and should trigger the cloud automation.
Another issue for you is with the AC not running locally. In order for an automation to run locally (without a connection being necessary), both the trigger and the action must run locally. My only suggestion would be to find a way to hook the AC up to a simple on/off switch (I’m envisioning a window unit). Most of those run locally, so if the contact sensor reports correctly, that automation should still fire even without a connection.