A lot of work but I think I see. Basically, if you use ST directly on the device it causes the OFFLINE issue. The virtual switch works around it – whatever WebCORE is using to to to toggle on and off doesn’t mess up the device.
I’m curious about this. When you say “toggle” I assume you mean, if on then change to off, and if off then change to on. So you’re saying if you turn the scene from on to off, it causes the scene to run, the same as if you’d turned it from off to on?
I’ve created an automation so that when the virtual switch is turned on, it first turns the “off” scene off and then turns the “on” scene on.
I also thought about using the automation’s ability to auto-off the scene after 10 seconds. But I actually like the idea that either the off or the on scene is active all the time.
Thanks for sharing the piston. I’m still confused by this. I can’t work out how this could work. It would seem to me that only every second time the switch was turned “on” would the “Plug On” scene be activated.
I’m not sure if I’m making myself clear. Let’s say that the “on” scene is not active and the virtual switch is off. I make the switch go to “on” and so the “plug on” scene also goes “on”, because it’s being toggled from “off”. Now I make the switch go to “off”, and the other bit runs. Cool so far.
Now, I make the switch go “on” for the second time, and so the “plug on” scene now goes to “off”, because it’s being toggled from “on”. Now, as I understand it, turning a scene off won’t do anything. So this second “on” for the switch seems to achieve nothing except change the status of the pseudo-switch from Tuya.
I was able to add BlitzWolf® BW-RC1 IR blaster to ST finally. Pretty cheap way to make my "air conditioner “smart(er)” . Thanks for all the advices on the chain.
Weird thing is I added the IR blaster to smart life and added the air conditioner in there, but it wouldn’t pop up to ST. Then just for trying I tried to add a tuya device and after that it suddenly popped up in ST as a switch and the name was straight away “Air Conditioner”. Seems to work great. Still needed to add a virtual switch and sync that with the “air conditioner” switch so I can add it to webcore. All the scenes I made in Smart life came too to ST, but are offline, but don’t need em right now.
I can’t explain, but it is simple and works. I have it working for 2 bulbs and 2 plugs.
It keeps every thing in sync if you control everything from Smartthings. If you use Smartlife it will get out of sync, but a simple toggle in Smartthings will resynchronize it.
I’m going to try it out because my automation doesn’t work, and I get the light coming on then going immediately off. It’s as if turning off the “off” scene turns on the light.
And this generaly technique works - I implemented this in the app automations rather than using a webcore piston. It seems that any change to the scene will cause it to run. So when I change the “ON” scene from on to off, or from off to on, then it will activate that scene.
Perfect, thank you.
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In Smart life I just created a ‘tap-to-run’ with the option “reverse switch” instead of On or Off so I wouldn’t need to create two different ones. Do you have that option as well on yours?
Sorry, I removed all of my Smart Life plugs in favor of the ST plugs. And I deleted the Smart Life app.
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Anyone have any idea of the Novostella flood lights will work with this? They support Alexa and Google Assistant. I’m having major issues with Smart Life refusing to turn off my landscape lighting using the Sunrise automation and it’s annoying to the point that I’m thinking of dumping all my lights for ones that reliably work in SmartThings. I really like the Novostella’s as they’re BRIGHT and CHEAP, but if they can’t be controlled fully/reliably then they’re not worth it. I’m just tired of fighting them.
Hi everyone. I have managed to link some of my SL devices to ST successfully using the tap to run/scenes and they work fine for triggering SL devices from ST.
The main thing I was trying to do was the other way around. So I would like to trigger ST automations from SL devices. To then be able to trigger Alexa routines.
Does anyone know how or if this can be done?
Thanks,
David
I combine each pair of SL tap-and-run automations into a single simulated switch in ST. You can do this with automations or WebCore.
You can then use the simulated switch like any other ST device to trigger scenes or automations.
If you create an Alexa simulated switch you even trigger Alexa routines.
I think the OP wants Smartlife events to trigger something in Smartthings. For example, a switch or bulb turns on in Smartlife, it can tell Smartthings that.
The only way I’ve been able to figure out how to go in that direction (smartlife TO Smartthings) is IFTTT. Because the smartlife tap to run “scenes” come over as offline devices, they can’t trigger anything on the Smartthings side. I might be missing something here though but if anyone wants to chime in with ideas I would definitely be interested.
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Tim, the problem is that many Tuya/Smartlife devices for NOT have IFTTT Integrations. None of the 5 Tuya/Smartlife devices that I own have IFTTT Integrations.
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Tim,
I don’t know how to trigger an action in Smartthings form the Tuya/Smartlife apps when using Tuya/Smartlife devices that only have integrations using Tap-Run-Automations work around.
You can do it for devices that have full Smartthings integrations. You need to keep the device refreshed in WebCore so Smartthings sees the changes that originate from the Tuya/Smartlife apps.
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Thanks @Paul_Oliver I’ll have to try that out. Should work for my bulbs but not my fan sounds like.
The refresh process will result in a time delay, depending on the refresh rate you choose. WebCore discourages refresh rates of less than 30 sec.