Set multiple dimmers to different values with one click

[JDRoberts]

As others have mentioned, there are two different approaches to this, but since you’re new to SmartThings I just wanted to clarify a bit.

As you’ve noticed, the official features will only support one dimming level per automation, which is pretty annoying. But people can and do set up one automation for each light, all using the same trigger. That will work, it’s just more effort to set up and it can be a lot more effort to keep track of what you’ve done with everything.

The alternative is to use core, which is a community created rules engine, essentially a scripting language for SmartThings. Very powerful and allows for all sorts of sophisticated automations. If you have a technical background, you will probably like it very much. Even if you don’t, there are many community members who will be glad to help you set up any specific rule.

FAQ: What is WebCoRE? (And what was CoRE?)

CoRE (now WebCore) is a very powerful community – created rules engine for SmartThings. It allows you to set up stacked conditionals like “If A then B but only while C and not if D.” Setting it up can be quite complex, but there are many community members who will be glad to help you. For example, here is a piston that one member created to notify him if the dog had already been fed twice that day and he picked up the dog bowl for a third time. He needed this because he has a large family and people didn’t always remember whose turn it was to feed the dog. [image] The original version of CoRE Has now been replaced by a new version, WebCoRE, which moves the data entry to a web interface. This allows for flexibility and an architecture that requires more memory than is av…

So those are the two basic choices. You use the official features and set up one automation per device all using the same trigger or use core and set up one automation that does everything you want to do.

If you want that trigger to be an Icon in the mobile app rather than a button on a physical device, you will also need to create a virtual device to act as that button. That’s pretty simple, and once you’ve created it it will show up on the list with all your other devices so you can use it as an icon in the mobile app, to trigger a routine, etc. Here’s the FAQ for that:

FAQ: Creating a virtual Groovy Device [OBSOLETE]

Need a FAQ for the simplest version of this: a virtual on/off switch. Maybe even two FAQs, one for why you would want one with use case examples and one step by step how to for creating one in ST. Thanks! 2023 Update Since groovy will be going away soon, so will groovy virtual switches. See the new FAQ for on the replacements: FAQ: Creating Virtual Devices Without the IDE