I’m relatively new to SmartThings, I’ve gotten the Simplisafe smart app and device added. My Smart Home Monitor is also changing to reflect my Simplisafe status, but there are two things I’m still confused/wondering about.
Is it possible to get the mode to change to night mode when SS is set to home? Since night is the only time we use the home setting.
How can you change the mode based on your smart home setting? Not sure why the mode is staying set to home while SS and SHM are both set to away? Is there something I’m missing?
Install the companion smart app listed in the first post. It’ll sync your SimpliSafe alarm state with SHM. You can then use routines to automate arming / disarming your system.
This is a a great add on to Smartthings. I just got an amazon echo and want to add a virtual switch to turn on the “HOME” alarm setting in SS. I have been searching the forums and trying to use the the companion smart app for about an 1 hour to create a routine. In the companion app I have the following options
Select alarm system:
Alarm is selected
Control these switches - Select switches:
Lists all my switches
Turn on switches when SimpliSafe state matches:
Select on state (off, away, home)
Turn off switches when SimpliSafe state matches:
Select on state (off, away, home)
Notifications
Send a push notification?
Assign a name
Set for specific mode(s)
Choose Modes (Away, Home, Night)
Ultimately I would like to tell the echo “turn on alarm” but can figure out how to use a routine to turn on “Home”. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks.
Your smartapps and device handlers run in the cloud not on your hub. There are many cloud to cloud integrations on here that work without a hub as it is just there to physically connect zigbee/zwave devices to the cloud. If you are just dealing with IP devices or cloud to cloud communication there really is no need for a hub.
I am interested in using smartthings geofence capabilities to arm/disarm SS using my phones location
Seems like this thread has moved to exclusively using SHM in ST. When I first setup your code with @foxxyben, the feature set worked well for me to use Alexa. I use Alexa to run a routine to turn off lights and set ST into Night mode and that would trigger SS to set the alarm to Home mode. Did the opposite for morning time and when we leave.
Now it seems like the new companion app is all geared towards using SHM which I won’t use, not near reliable enough for me
To use ST, SS and Alexa as I was initially, is it possible with your companion app? Seems like @foxxyben is not supporting his any longer
@Toy4Rick - My smartapp is still available if you want to use it. I’ve switched back myself as I REALLY don’t like SHM. I’ve even added a few tweaks here and there and it works fine for me. Have at it if you like. It’s even integrated with the github integration: https://github.com/foxxyben/foxxyben-smartthings
When I started modifying the code that @foxxyben wrote it was based off mode state. At the time SmartThings was having massive issues getting modes to change properly, reporting different states or flat out not working. I re-wrote the companion app to integrate with SHM as you can trigger SHM from routines and worked fairly reliable. Shortly after SmartThings had yet another meltdown and SHM turned into a heaping pile of crap. I’ve debated re-wrting the companion app again but recently there are more reports about modes not working properly. At this point I’m not sure what the best course of action is. Personally I only use routines to change SHM status, which also changes my SimpliSafe state (I never use the SHM module as it always errors out) in a fully automated fashion. This has been working nearly perfect for me for several months.
@Toy4Rick suggested to merge the two, I found it very difficult to sync SimpliSafe, SHM and mode states to make it reliable. A three way sync will almost always result in a conflict and IMO security needs to be reliable as possible.
I’m open to suggestions on how to make this better, but keep in mind the sevear limitations that SmartThings employees might make it difficult to achieve.
I’ve been using the app and device handler to link SHM and Simiplisafe, and its been working well.
Right now, changes to SHM / Smart things will make it over the Simplisafe, but there’s no good way to send messages the other way. That is, changes to the Simplisafe system don’t make it to Smart Things unless you poll()
As a result, some people have turned to pollster to simply poll the system every few minutes.
However, I implemented a different work around that doesn’t spam Simplisafe severs…
1: create a virtual switch
2: link IFTTT
3: set up push notifications to your phone from simplisafe. So any time simplisafe changes, you get a text message. This might? require the 24.99 plan.
4: Every time you get a text message that says, “simplisafe”, use IFTTT to flip the virtual switch
5: little smart app to run poll() every time the switch is flipped
Ultimately, this creates a flow that enables changes on the simplisafe side to make it to your smart things hub.
It does require IFTTT, though.
FWIW: I’ve found IFTT to be great for integrating my google home into smart things. It can take any text phrase spoken into google home or google assistant (e.g. your phone) and issue a command to smart things. Turning on/off lights, running a routine, etc is now all on voice command from your phone…
Unfortunately controlling any type of lock, security or life safety device goes against the Amazon and Google TOS. For a good reason. There was a reported case where people where breaking into houses shouting “Alexa unlock front door” or “Alexa turn off alarm”. You can see why I’m hesitant to add this feature lol
I like this push setup through IFTTT. Can you tell me how you set up your IFTTT account recognize you got a text from Simplisafe? Also, is it possible to set it up to look for certain words, like “away mode” or “home mode” which will trigger different virtual switches?
I’ve been using the SmartApp and Pollster to check my Similisafe status every minute, but most of the time that isn’t enough to disarm SMH after SS has been disarmed and I end up getting notifications that there has been movement. A push system more like this is what I’m looking for. Ideally I’m trying to get my SS status to drive my ST mode without having to poll every minute.
@ tobycth3 - LOL I’ve read about that problem before, and I was thinking about it when I set everything up. Since each command is written by hand, you don’t have to set up any routine that disarms your alarm system; just set up routines to ARM the system.
@ eschey
1: I have my simplisafe system to send me a text message any time the alarm changes. I have the 24.99 plan, and on the simplisafe website, you can set up “Instant Smart Alerts Settings” under the monitoring tab. Any time the system changes state, it sends you an email or text message.
2: Next, set up a virtual switch on your smart things hub. You have to use the web interface IDE to create a “simulated switch”. Mine is named something like, “Virtual Simplisafe polling switch”.
3: Allow IFTTT to trigger this switch. You have to link smart things to IFTTT and tell smart things what devices IFTTT is allowed to access.
Configure IFTT to respond to text messages. Right now, I have an IFTTT app that runs anytime I get a text message with the word, “Simplisafe” in it. This covers all the messages that simplisafe sends me. It also includes anybody who wants to chat about alarm system, but that’s pretty rare.
At this point, you now have a virtual switch that will turn on any time simplisafe your simplisafe alarm changes state or sends you a message I wrote a small smartapp that responds to a switch by performing two things: turn off the switch, and call poll() on a specified device.
In practice, it takes about 5-30 seconds for the text message to arrive on your phone, and potentially another 5-30 seconds for the poll() to execute.
Depending on your polling frequency, it may not save THAT much time.
I just feel bad about spamming simplisafe servers every minute of every day, all night long.
If you want the code for the smartapp, let me know and I’ll try to figure out how to paste code into a post…
I am using the $15 plan but did a quick hack to use the SimplySafe fob for remote access.
Two relays are used to jump the buttons (Away and Off) on the fob, and the relays are controlled by NodeMCU by following
Then the fob can be controlled by HTTP POST request. One way to do that in Smartthings is to use the HTTP button:
Then I can use a single virtual button to arm/disarm SimpliSafe. I integrated it to my daily routines (Goodbye, I’m Back, Good Morning, Good Night), and use the smart app in this post to check the status(thanks @tobycth3). I’ve tested it for more than one week, and it works great.
@tobycth3 First of all thanks for all the time invested on this app, the results are impressive… It definitely shows you have some great developing skills!
Trying to get my ST intergrated with my SS and reading virtually all the thread, I’ve logged onto simplisafe and got my info (https://simplisafe.com/account2//sid//control-panel). Lets just say my ACCOUNTID = 123456, LOCATIONID = 654321
1.- Logged into SmartThings API got my ZigbeeID. Lets just say it’s D012A (shorten for ease)
4.- Hit Create. No need to update the preference section. Then click Published > For Me.
5: Go to My Devices > + New Device button
For name enter anything other than “Simplisafe” I used "Simplisafe Alarm"
For Device Network Id I entered my LOCATIONID. In this example it would be 654321
Type: I selected “Simplisafe” from drop down list
Version: I selected Published
Hub: I selected my Smartthings Hub. Mine was called “Home Hub”
6: Went to My SmartApps on SmartThings IDE > CLick + New SmartApp > From Code and paste the code from SimpliSafe Alarm Integration (cloud to cloud) under the title COMPANION SMARTAPP > Create > Publish > For Me
7: Went to SmartThings App on IOS/Android > click on My Home > then Things > Looked for the Device you added. Mine was “Simplisafe Alarm” and clicked on it > Clicked on the Settings Cog > Entered username and password > clicked Done
8: Go back to SmartThings App on IOS/Android > click on Marketplace > SmartApps > My Apps > SimpliSafe Monitor > Tap to set Alarm > Select the device, mine was “Simplisafe Alarm” > Done > Set any additional settings here (I haven’t looked into this yet) > Hit done
At this point in time I have my SS in “Home” mode, but I cannot see that status reflected on my Smartthing app… I tried clicking “Off” but that triggers nothing on my SS.
I’ve virtually gone thru the entire thread and found that the ZigBee ID needs to be entered… But I couldnt find where that needs to happen… Nor if I’m following the correct steps… Would you mind guiding me a little bit here?
Thanks in advance for the help! Very MUCH appreciated!
@tobycth3 I just tried that, made sure the UserID and password were OK… Tried rebooting the Hub, also logged off/on to my Smartthings App again… Still no luck… Smartthings still cant read the status (Home) of my SS… Any other items you suggest I check?
I could try removing everything and re-adding, would you think that would be helpful?
Smartthings still cant read the status (Home) of my SS… Any other items you suggest I check?