Smart Lighting automation with timers not triggering reliably

SmartApps & Automations
21

Sorry to bring this up again but anyone find a solution to the problem? Does deleting the smartapp, re-adding the schedule work for you?

I have a light automated switch which control a water pump on my balcony to irrigate my plants every morning for a minute. It runs well for months but all the sudden, the light automation did not send the off command to the switch (observed from the list of events). My pump went for 9 mins before I noticed it and turned it off manually, ending up flooding my balcony and my downstair neighbors balconies.

I guess I have to buy an extra water presence sensor to detect the timer malfunction to shut the pump off? And extra water absorbent bags to make sure I dont flood my neighbors anymore?

22

You are pretty much correct, the whole thing is unreliable.
I had my heating working via this and it frequently left the heating running for hours and hours. So I had to manually turn it off.
Also using this as an alarm system gives me false alarms from the motion sensors. So pretty disappointing all round.
Now my lights have stopped automating too. Its never ending


1 Like
23

Seeing that this issue has been reported in the forums forever, I am regretting my recent V2 purchase. Have my front light’s set to turn on when motion is detected between 11p and 7a. They turn on with any motion any time.

24

Just figured out why. The initial hub setup process must not have populated my timezone and location. I checked the website and they were empty. I updated my location through the app and everything seems fine now. The web admin now shows my zip code and sunrise/sunset times.

25

Yeah, in SmartThings’ defense, this has been pretty reliable for at least 4 or 5 months now. Around the time these posts were made, they switched the scheduling system on the backend. Then sometime in late Spring/ early Summer (if I recall correctly at least), there was basically a week or so of catastrophic failure, but since then it’s been pretty much fixed.

26

I have the same issue, I tried to reset everything but still, seams to be a software problem.

27

i think this topic is related to my problem.

I, too, am using Smart Lighting app to control my rear deck and the rear deck lights.

The premise for this automation is just to test smart lighting app’s capability and determine its limitations:

So it’s suppose to behave as such:

When the door is opened for the first time during sunset, the light is programmed to come one. But, let’s say I close the door and manually turn off the rear deck lights. If I reopen the door and it’s after 11 PM EST. The lights should not come one. But during my test it does come on.

The conditions to the program when the lights come on should be TRUE during sunset and before 11 PM EST. The lights should not turn on after the door is re-opened and it’s after 11 PM EST.

see attached log screen shot and the code

Notice the log activity shows “null” value for ‘timeWindowStop’.

You can clearly see what’s programmed there’s the “ending time” set for 3:00 AM UTC (i.e. 11 PM EST):

Any ideas from the community would be well received.

Thanks

28

I just got a SmartThings with a Black Friday sale. I set up a Smart Lighting automation to turn on a light for a minute if a certain door is open, during certain hours (nighttime).

I have an edit update from my previous post. Before I mentioned that the light sometimes turns on when I open the door during the day, and it sometimes won’t turn on when I open the door at night.

For some reason, the timing restriction started working reliably. I don’t know if it was a software update or the phase of the moon, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed.