Simple solution to turn off lights after a specified period?

SmartApps & Automations Automation Ideas
1

I thought this would be straightforward but I’m stumped. I have ST that controls lights in my backyard and front yard. I’ve installed a Night Owl surveillance system that detects motion and issues an email to IFTTT when a camera detects motion in the evening. IFTTT issues a turn on command via the SmartThings channel to turn on the backyard lights, flawlessly.

Now how do I program Smartthings to turn the light off after a period of time. I’ve looked around and all the solutions require a trigger. I could brute force it and have a routine that triggers every hour to turn off the outdoor lights, but that would be a lot of routines, doubled by the use of front and backyard lights.

Suggestions would be very welcome.

Thanks,

2

Does Night Owl / the Camera ever send a message that the motion has stopped? You could trigger on that to turn lights off if it did.

3

That would be nice, but no, the Night Owl only generates an email on detection.

4

  1. have Ifttt turn on a virtual switch. Have the real backyard lights follow the virtual switch. ( you can use smartlighting for that.)

  2. use the power allowance option to have the virtual switch turn off anytime it has been on for X period of time. Power allowance is a smart app in the marketplace under smartapps, then lights and switches.

This is an old screenshot, but I don’t think it’s changed:

image.png1536×2048 122 KB

That way you can still do whatever you want to with the real backyard lights on other schedules, etc. but that particular IFTTT recipe will turn them off again when you use it.

4 Likes
5

Thanks, that works perfectly. I don’t know why I couldn’t find it on my own.

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6

I had not thought of that! I have several applications for that “technique”. Good Stuff!

1 Like