I didn’t mean to cause such a stir and ellicit such strong reactions and moods.
To each his own. Everyone is here because they have smartthings and they’re looking to help or improve or get help. That’s great and I’m sure it’s a great community. Someone (me) potentially seen as attacking the devices or app or system and community; I’d probably get defensive about something I was passionate about as well. Again, to each his own. I got in on wink back around 2013 and dealt with a lot of issues over the years and on at least 3 occassions was ready to throw it out when support wasn’t able to help me fix a problem.
I considered and did some reseach back in the spring and liked what I saw and heard about smartthings. Programming and coding and “hacking” the app or devices or hub were never of much interest to me. I wanted to use my current devices with a new hub so I dove in. What I have isn’t terribly complicated… 3 Osram (I think) color A60 bulbs, 3 GE A60 bulbs, 14 GE BR30 bulbs, 4 GE PAR30 bulbs, 5 gocontrol door sensors, 3 gocontrol motion sensors, 2 toggle leviton switches, 1 leviton dimmer, 5 leviton outlets, and 1 smartthings motion sensor. With Wink I was able to link it to two Chamberlain door openers and a Honeywell thermostat. It didn’t integrate with two Wemo outlets I have from WAY back or Yeelink light strips I have. Smartthings worked with Wemo and Honeywell but not Yeelink or Chamberlain. Pros and cons. What finally pushed me in the direction of smartthings was when my 15yo step daughter invited a boy into the house and into her room while we were sleeping. I needed a siren to go off if doors were opened afterhours and there didn’t appear to be anything that worked with Wink so I went out and got a smartthings hub and took the leap.
As HA_fanatic pointed out, I posted here (Network or server error when doing custom automations) to no avail. I reached out to support via e-mail as well as phone calls and there was a lengthy ongoing conversation. I have 22 e-mails saved, there may have been more I didn’t save. There was no real resolution. I found workarounds either using Alexa or just dealing with not being able to do what I wanted. Nothing complicated, stuff like having lights around the house go on at sunset, a light upstairs near the bedrooms go on when it saw motion overnight, turning on lights in a garage or front porch after dark when a door is opened, etc. I’ll get to my total numbers in a few minutes…
@HA_fanatic in terms of not being right making @HalD nervous, this forum shouldn’t just be looked at with rose colored glasses. Take the good and the bad and, if there are bad experiences, I’m sure he and others would want to hear the issues. As a consumer, if I’m researching a product, I always read the 1-star reviews and take them with a grain of salt. Again, to each his own but both good and bad stories should be shared.
@jody.albritton - in terms of limits being increased since the ticket in July, I had tried to add automations as late as last week so any updates had not helped my situation. Going by the 250 behaviors and your explanation of what a behavior is, here’s my count (correct me if I’m wrong in my count here) as of this week
Custom Automation #1 - Catwalk nightlight
- If every day between sunset and sunrise
- Catwalk motion detects motion
- Turn on center catwalk, 1% (I’m assuming the action of turning the light on and setting it to 1% are one behavior? Or is this two; 1. turning it on and 2. setting the brightness?)
Custom Automation #2 - Garage Door/Lights
4. If every day between sunset and sunrise
5. Garage door opens
6. Turn on garage1, 1%
7. Turn on garage2, 1%
8. Turn on driveway1, 1%
9. Turn on driveway2, 1%
Custom Automation #3 - Wakeup1
10. Weekdays at 3AM
11. Turn on garage1, 1%
12. Turn on garage 2, 1%
13. Turn on driveway1, 1%
14. Turn on driveway2, 1%
15. Turn on catwalk over master, 1%
16. Turn on kitchen over corner, 1%
17. Turn on garage outlet
Custom Automation #4 - Wakeup4
18. Weekdays at 3:40AM
19. Turn off kitchen over garbage
20. Turn off garage1
21. Turn off garage2
22. Turn off driveway1
23. Turn off driveway2
24. Turn off catwalk over master
25. Turn off kitchen over corner
26. Turn off kitchen over sink
27. Turn off kitchen over fridge
28. Turn off garage outlet
Custom Automation #5 - Back Deck ON
29. If every day between sunset and sunrise
30. Rear slider opens
31. Turn on back deck, 100%
Custom Automation #6 - Front Door Ring
32. If every day between sunset and sunrise
33. Pennsylvania ring is pushed
34. Turn on catwalk over girls, 100%
35. Turn on porch over slider, 100%
36. Turn on catwalk over master, 1%
37. Turn on garage outlet
38. Turn on driveway1, 100%
39. Turn on driveway2, 100%
40. Turn on garage entry, 1%
41. Turn on porch over entry, 100%
42. Turn on center catwalk, 100%
43. Turn on porch over corner, 100%
44. Turn on porch over desk, 100%
45. Turn on laundry, 1%
Custom Automation #7 - Doors Overnight
46. If every day between 11PM - 7AM
47. Front entry opens OR
48. Dining slider opens OR
49. Rear slider opens OR
50. Garage door opens
51. Notify members
So, accordingly, I would say I had 51 behaviors, maybe 50 is the limit? Even if we said that there was another behavior for changing the brightness and we doubled my number, I’d be at 102. If we again added more behaviors because I have some set to go off after 5 or 10 minutes (but not all), I’d be at 153. Still far under that limit of 250.
jody.albritton thanks for the offer to help and thanks for the feedback. Thanks all for the constructive criticism. I still have the smartthings hub I’m not ready to smash it. Maybe I’ll be back in a year or two, I don’t know.