Smart Home Monitor - Feature Requests

[Squares (Rodrigo Cuadros)]

@borbs

SHM should not arm if an open/closed sensor is open or a lock is unlocked, unless you override it. Example reply from SHM: “System not ready to arm, Patio Door is open. Override?”

I definitely have to second this requirement.

[JDRoberts]

I have tablet monitors in several places in the house. And I have a lot of people coming and going, including healthcare workers. I want to monitor open/close sensors in multiple places, like the linen closet, the front gate, the window in the Guestroom.

I don’t want these to look like “call 911” situations with big red “intruder alert” messages.

On the other hand I don’t want it to look like “everything’s OK” with green is either.

I want yellow “somebody take a look at this” messages on the dashboard.

I used to have that with shortcut groups. I need it back with SHM.

I would like an option on each custom alert as to whether it should show up on the dashboard level, and whether it should show up as a red or yellow condition.

[swindmiller (Scott Windmiller)]

@JDRoberts, If you go into SHM and swipe right once does that give you what you are looking for?

[smart (Ron S)]

These are the steps.

On the dashboard:

Click on arrow:

Swipe right:

[JDRoberts]

@swindmiller

@JDRoberts, If you go into SHM and swipe right once does that give you what you are looking for?

Unfortunately no, because the custom alerts don’t show on the events page. Only alerts from the “security” category show on the events page and then they will show up with the big red “intruder alert” message which freaks out the healthcare workers.

Since a picture’s worth 1000 words here are the two alternatives that the SHM gives me. Neither are acceptable at my house.

OPTION 1: CUSTOM ALERT. TEXT NOTIFICATION, BUT NO DASHBOARD STATUS CHANGE. DASHBOARD IS GREEN, EVENTS PAGE IS EMPTY.

First possibility: set up the gate alert as a custom alert. Smart things knows that the gate opened, and will send a notification to my phone, but the dashboard shows “everything’s OK” and there is nothing at all on the events page even though the gate is open.

The gate is open

But the dashboard says everything’s OK:

And the events page is blank:

OPTION 2: ADD THE GATE SENSOR TO THE “SECURITY GROUP.” IT WILL SHOW UP ON THE EVENTS PAGE, BUT THE DASHBOARD IS RED AND PEOPLE IN THE HOUSE FREAK OUT OVER THE RED MESSAGE

The events page is OK

But the status message is causing more problems than it solves:

So I want the option for a custom alert to say whether it should show up at the dashboard level, and I want a yellow status message, not just the red “intruder alert” or the green “everything is OK.” I want a yellow “review required” top message.

We had this in the previous version of the mobile app with shortcut groups. You would get a little yellow checkmark on the dashboard to indicate something was open. I want that equivalent functionality back.

[av8rdude]

My Dashboard looks exactly like it did before the upgrade to Android version 2.0. I still have all the categories plus the added category of Smart Home Monitor.
I discovered on my daughters iTouch that you can enable or disable these old categories. It looks like all yours have been disabled.
The only way to get them back is with an IOS device. Look for the settings on the IOS version of the app on the Dashboard page.
Cheers!

[geko]

@av8rdude

The only way to get them back is with an IOS device. Look for the settings on the IOS version of the app on the Dashboard page.

I believe that as soon as you delete all old Dashboard apps, that option will no longer be available. When you create a new location (e.g. for V2 migration), you won’t see old Dashboard apps either.

[av8rdude]

Aha, my iTouch has the older version of the IOS app since it does not support IOS 7. So the option is still there at the bottom of the dashboard screen. There is a setting to turn them on/off.

[JDRoberts]

@av8rdude

Aha, my iTouch has the older version of the IOS app since it does not support IOS 7. So the option is still there at the bottom of the dashboard screen. There is a setting to turn them on/off.

Right, once you get the new app, you can’t add additional things to the groups, and once you delete the last thing in a group it’s gone forever.

[swindmiller (Scott Windmiller)]

I get it now and see your issue. My hope is that this is just a preview of what’s in store for SHM. I love the way it integrates with the app and everything it does, but like you do not like what it doesn’t do
I just created my first custom alert for my shed and side gate, I want to know no matter what if either are opened no matter if I am home or not. Now I see what you mean, I have no way of knowing (quickly) if one of them is still open after I receive an alert.
Like I said SHM is a fantastic addition to the app and I really hope they continue to build on it.

[drshaw]

Status Change Notifications!!! Major oversight without that. Aren’t people interested to know if their alarm system has successfully been armed or disarmed without having to manually check? (And getting a notification on the routine running that changes the status is not an acceptable work around. For starters that’s only when it gets invokes automatically and the push you do get isn’t really saying what the alarm status is).

[brianlees (Brian Smith)]

@scottinpollock

There is a fundamental flaw in SHM with respect to the smoke detector section. In the county where I live, hard-wired smoke detectors are required by law. Since I am aware of no “connected” hard-wired detectors, my system needs to be connected to SmartThings via a relay and contact closure device.

The ‘flaw’ is that only conventional, ‘connected’ smoke detectors are recognized as a device that can be added to the smoke section.

Scott, I have my door sensor (Ecolink) connected to my hard wired. I then just went into the IDE and used a custom device type that included the smoke detector capability and it was recognized by SHM as a smoke detector.

[scottinpollock (Scott)]

@brianlees

I then just went into the IDE and used a custom device type that included the smoke detector capability

Thanks Brian… I know there are a number of workarounds (all requiring either a custom app or device), but I am trying to simplify much of my setup towards the goal of local operation, of which SHM is a profoundly appropriate candidate.

I have been having this discussion with @Ben regarding the heavy handed exclusion of selectable devices in the SHM categories; in this case, contact closures; which could easily represent a smoke or leak detector. I am reasonably certain this is to KIS, but feel there would be too many users that would have to avail themselves of the IDE in order to get their setups integrated into SHM, which is decidedly less simple.

Perhaps just ‘approved’ device types for contact closure with smoke and moisture capabilities are all that is needed to address this issue, but again, if KIS is what they’re after, it would be simpler to just allow a contact closure device to be selected in the SHM smoke and leak sections.

Your thoughts?

[John_Locke]

In addition to a few already mentioned (notifications on state change, entry/exit delay, warning when arming and open sensors), there is one big thing that I miss:

The “right now” screen doesn’t actually show what’s happening right now, i.e. does not live update? I really like to be able to look at one screen and track what’s going on in the house (the door was opened, now someone is in the living room) - but it’s not nearly as powerful if it doesn’t refresh automatically.

Additionally, related to entry/exit delays, I would really like to see a separate state for system alerted, but full alarm not yet triggered, to remind the user to disarm the alarm and give them a chance to do so before full on 110db sirens start to fire, i.e. indicate with lights, strobes etc that you better disarm the system soon or bad things will happen.

[drshaw]

Feature request: have it actually work.

I’ve created a custom rule to alert me if any door is open for longer than 3 minutes. Doesn’t work. At this point, is anybody trusting it? I have zero confidence and this is the one app that needs to work flawlessly. Anybody trusting it with smoke/water detection?

[JDRoberts]

@drshaw

Feature request: have it actually work.

I’ve created a custom rule to alert me if any door is open for longer than 3 minutes. Doesn’t work. At this point, is anybody trusting it? I have zero confidence and this is the one app that needs to work flawlessly. Anybody trusting it with smoke/water detection?

I have a ticket in because my custom alerts do not send notifications if I put a time limit on it. They do send a notification if I don’t put a time limit on it.

Support told me that other people have reported the problem the other way around and that “they’re chasing it.” Which I assume means not everybody is having the problem.

Definitely Put in a ticket, the more people who are having the problem, the more resources that will be assigned to fixing it.

[jkorza]

I have a two story house with motion sensors upstairs and downstairs. At night I arm the alarm system so that if any door sensors open, the alarm goes off.

I used to have it setup with another user app (that I can’t find now after upgrading) that if the upstairs motion sensor was activated, it paused the alarm system for the downstairs motion sensor for a user-set period of time. So you can go downstairs, get something to drink, then head back upstairs and the alarm will reset after a period of inactivity. The open/closed sensors stayed active.

Having a motion sensor to back up your door/window sensors gives you a secondary level of security. But I can’t have the alarm going off every time someone wants some water or a piece of cake at midnight

Having pause events based on activities gives you more movement through your home without having to change things manually.

[brianlees (Brian Smith)]

@jkorza

I used to have it setup with another user app (that I can’t find now after upgrading) that if the upstairs motion sensor was activated, it paused the alarm system for the downstairs motion sensor for a user-set period of time. So you can go downstairs, get something to drink, then head back upstairs and the alarm will reset after a period of inactivity. The open/closed sensors stayed active.

Yep, this is something I would love to see.

[ffingers (Tony)]

@drshaw

I’ve created a custom rule to alert me if any door is open for longer than 3 minutes. Doesn’t work. At this point, is anybody trusting it? I have zero confidence and this is the one app that needs to work flawlessly. Anybody trusting it with smoke/water detection?

Had this issue and it has since resolved itself…no idea why. I have a custom alert setup to notify if my door is open for 5 or more minutes. I added both push and SMS and they both started coming. Then dropped off SMS and I think push are still working. So yes…it works, I just don’t know how consistently right now.

[drshaw]

Yes, it seems as though it was a backend issue as my alerts have started working magically as well.