I’m trying to figure out how to set up a Custom rule in the SHM that doesn’t set off the alarms and sirens. No matter what I do, I seem to get the alarm triggering.
I have a typical SHM setup for the “Security” monitoring that looks at different open/close and motion sensors (so not the “use all” but specific ones) for the Away and Stay profiles and that works as expected. However, I wanted to create a Custom monitoring rule that would monitor outside (vestibule) doors to know when they are opened (or closed) but not set off any alarm. To do that I created a Custom monitoring rule that looks at just those open/close sensors during the Away/Night modes and just have a push alert - so no alarms or lights. I get the push message when the vestibule door opens as expected. But, unexpectedly, what seems to happen is that the main Security rule is somehow tripped and the alarms and lights fire.
Not sure what you can do differently in SHM but you might want to consider Notify Me When smartapp as an alternative. From your description, it would work well for this scenario.
If the switch is active in SHM it will trigger an intruder alert regardless of what your custom rule does. Remove it from SHM in both the Away and Stay modes and simply let the custom rule do its thing.
Right, the point is that is exactly what I have done, I think, but the alarm seems to trigger. Something like this: Sensor A is set up in the Security default rule for Away and Stay to trigger an alarm. Sensor B is not selected as part of the Security default rule but it is part of a Custom rule to provide a push alert only (no alarms) and record video. Sensor A triggers an alarm in Away or Stay, which is expected. Sensor B also triggers an alarm, which is unexpected, because it is only part of a rule that does not have alarm actions.
I think that there must be a bug in SHM here or something not well documented but looks like it does not work as it should.
I’m having no issues with the Notify Me When SmartApp but it doesn’t have the option to record video so it’s not as ideal as just using the centralized SHM service.
Can you trigger Sensor B by itself without an alarm?
When SHM triggers it might be also running your custom rule after the trigger and that could cause you to think Sensor B is also creating an alarm. ???
Yeah, so what I did was delete the Custom rule and installed the Notify Me When app and set up Sensor B there. So, basically what you were saying and it doesn’t trigger the alarm anymore - just a push notification as set up in that app. I really have no idea what is going on but I think that there is something up with the Custom rules. Just wish I could use it to keep things centralized!
Can you tell if it is definitely SHM triggering the alarm, and if so is it definitely your custom rule or is it the Security rule?
Is ‘Sensor B’ definitely not part of any other automations that could trigger the alarm (remembering SHM in the ‘classic’ and ‘new’ apps are two different SmartApps)?
Update: You added an update while I was typing. That does rather point the finger back at the custom rule.