SmartThings SmartLighting App

SmartApps & Automations
1

So I’ve had my SmartThings Hub v2 since Chrismas now. Almost everything I do app wise is with Smart Lighting. I’ve had a few incidents where the scheduled events just don’t look like they have happened. At least there is no indication in Things> Recently nor Notifications> Activity Feed. Now it is getting worse. I have Smart Lighting set to turn lights on at dusk, seems to be working better, but was touch and go after a software upgrade was pushed to my hub, but the schedule to turn them off in the morning hasn’t been running for a few days now.

Is this the kind of reliability to expect from SmartThings

Is there anything I can do to get Smart Lighting to work consistently?

Brimo

2

yes it is the reliability you can expect for now anyway. Best thing is to not use time based routines until they get it fixed. I use Lux sensors for turning on lights when it starts to get dark out myself.

3

Consistently? Not really. That’s up to ST and fixing the scheduler.

Some things that might help.

  1. After an update or when it seems really bad, try going into the Smart Lighting app and into each automation and hit done. This reinitializes the automation and may fix a broken schedule.
  2. As Matt mentioned, you could try to use a non-time based surrogate event like Lux. Maybe consider IFTTT to trigger a virtual switch.
4

If you read through the forums you will see that there are a lot of issues plaguing ST, especially since the release of the V2 hub late last year.

I’ve got somewhere around 75 devices and my system runs pretty good.
I won’t say that is 100%, but it is really good, especially since the most recent updates.

Now, I can not guarantee that anything I tell you will work for you, as it seems that any problems are inherently unique to each users situation, but there are some things you can try that might help.

I have 13 automation set up using Smart Lighting. They all work really well for me and most of them are using time based automation.

The rest of my automation is done using Rule Machine. I also use a lot of time based automation as well as presence automation.

What I do not use:

Routines set up under the routines tab in the app. I use Rule Machine and create my own routines.
Sunrise/Sunset as a trigger for anything. This is a VERY common failure system wide.
Modes. Just because they failed a lot for me at the beginning and I’ve not had the patience to give them another try.
SHM or alarms of any kind. ST is NOT ready to be in the home security business. A false alarm going off at 3 am and not being able to turn the alarm off happening even once is 2 times to many for me.

I keep things as simple as possible. When I build a complex rule I will take a couple of days to go over that rule multiple times. I do this to streamline the rule. To keep it simple and have as few steps as possible.

For example, 3 days ago I set up a rule in my master bedroom using times of day, lights, and motion.
It started out as a very complex rule made up of 3 different rules. These three rules worked in conjunction with 4 other rules I already had set up for that room. I kept going back over the rules so that I could look at them from different angles. Every time I changed it, it still worked. But it became simpler.
There are now only 4 rules for that room, they are simple, they work, and they actually do more than what I had set up with the original 7 rules.

I will tell you that my system has been better than 95% reliable and consistent.
I have had some hiccups, such as about a month ago I had to completely reset and rebuild my entire system. Which actually worked out better for me. I streamlines my system and it runs better as a result.
I have had some things not fire on time, but I figured them out and worked around them.

It took some time and work, but my system does everything I currently want and it’s doing it very very good.

This is what I’m using in my house:

40+ GE switches (on/off, dimmers, and fan control)
6 Phillips Hue bulbs with the Hue Hub
1 NuTone GD00Z-4 garage door opener
7 GE Link smart bulbs
4 Minimotes (1 is used as a locally running back up device)
8 GE outdoor modules
4 plug in dimmers
2 plug in appliance modules
3 Amazon Echo’s
1 Amazon Fire TV Stick with voice
and a couple of things I’m forgetting about for sure.

Good luck, welcome aboard and use this forum a lot. You will learn a lot. Just ask questions as almost everyone here is more than willing help you out.

5

So I’ve refreshed my schedule that is supposed to Turn off the lights in the morning. After which the next morning it didn’t fire. So then I deleted the entire automation that turns off the lights in the morning and re-created it. That didn’t work either.

I’m trying very hard to like SmartThings, and not go get the box and try to send it back, but it is getting very difficult.