So frustrated with Automations

I recently made a choice to upgrade from just the Philips Hue Gateway between Smartthings and Hubitat. Wow did I make the wrong choice by picking Smartthings!
I am finding the most basic of things way too complicated - even a simple routine to turn a light on and off twice a day seems behind the capabilities of either apps - why two apps anyway?
People have moaned about the Philips Hue app, but it works.
Other problems include not being able to turn the temperature up and down on my thermostat at specific time intervals .
What’s with the “Location Modes” being of little or no use in the new app?
Is there anyone else having the same sort of problems? I really on the edge of putting it all in the bin.

SmartThings is in a middle of a transition for a long period. The new app is under continuous development.
What Automation you cannot run? Have you tried other options like WebCore or sharptools.io?

You might want to have a long run and read this to understand the situation a bit more. Get ready to make the switch!

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Hi @Paul_Russell! Welcome to the community! This is the perfect place to find out how things can be done, as @GSzabados mentioned, WebCore is a really good place to look at for automations! I recommend looking at this video to know a bit more about that, and you can check WebCore Community.
Do you want to share with us more details about the automations you want to create so we can help you?

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Come on guys. He/she is complaining about complexity. Using webcore is like going to a hospital for a paper cut.

First if you are new to smartthings uninstall the old client and just use the new one. Almost everything is in the new app including custom apps from the legacy IDE.

Second, what are you trying to use for your lighting automation. Did you try Smart Lighting from the Smartapps avaliable in Smartthings. I use it for all my light automations.

You should be able to create simple light automations as well with the new apps automation rule engine. If not can you explain what problems you are having.

You got to remember you went from simply a lighing platform to a home automation platform so a little bit more complexity should be expected.

Think of mode as attribute of your home to help provide additional granularity for what rule/automation should run. One example for me is for when people are sleeping. Some automations won’t run at my gouse if that mode is active.

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I have been looking at the Smart Lighting app in smartthings. There are some features missing, like, light colour etc.
But as you say… He (me) is complaining about the complexity, or should we say the lack of knowledge with navigation within the app.
What are modes for instance, how do we(i) set them for use?

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For light colours you define first a scene with your lights and activate that.

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See the FAQ. It has lots of examples showing how modes are used. :sunglasses:

FAQ: Armed/Disarmed states vs Away/Home modes confusion

I disagree here. webCoRE is very intuitive and easy to understand. There’s an If Block and an Action Block in its basic form. However, it CAN be used for very powerful automations.

I agree though that for beginners, SmartLighting or the built in Rule Engine in the new App covers the basic stuff.

Bad thing is, the Pistons (Rules) written in the current state of webCoRE will not migrate over to the new API so you will have to write your rules over. But, the good thing is, webCoRE is so darn easy!

If you are finding SmartThings difficult, be very glad that you didn’t pick Hubitat. I agree with the suggestion that you try using Smart Lighting app and maybe set up some Scenes. Half the fun is experimenting with an automation. Especially when you get it to work the way you want.

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In smart lighting you should be able to click on the option for “what to do” after you select the bulb or bulbs. It will give you several options one of which is “Turn on and set colour”.

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You can even set color in a regular automation