Sunset to Sunrise Automation both say sunset to sunset (or sunrise) See screenshot

Hey guys,

I cant seem to create a sunset to sunrise automation. They are either sunrise to sunrise or sunset to sunset? Bizarre, am I doing something wrong, or is this a bug?

Small add on, can I create a period of time that is say, 9PM to sunrise. That would be super handy

one option would be to create two automations

  • one to start the task at a specific time
  • another to end the task at a specific time

automations have lots of shortcomings at this point

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Thanks for that, but… lol

It’s not a single task, its a bunch of conditions to turn on some lights. If the lights are not on, if there is motion. if there hasn’t been motion before that for a time and its between sunset and sunrise. Id love to also make another from say 9PM to sunrise as well (is that not a thing really?)

Also I can set this up between a certain time, but sunset is changing so id have to re set it every week. WHich is annoying when they seem to have some config for this already in the app.

I’m more interested to know if this is broken or its meant to be like that. Do I need to put in a support request or im just doing it wrong.

And if its broken, why not remove it.

And… how crap is this new app though really HAHA like my god, they really stuffed it.

look at smart lights, you might have better luck with it for lights :slight_smile:

I’m not sure what that means? But there are a lot of conditions for this automation.

And i have to say, even though im slamming the new app, the if then that conditions are amazing. I’m not sure why people say Alexa smart home is the best, does not hold a candle to SmartThings automation possibilities.

smart lights is a smartapp you can install and use it to create rules (automations). click on + (plus) in the upper right of your screen and choose smartapp, then select smart lighting

Oh ok, thanks, ill have a look :slight_smile:

It’s an iOS 14 bug. This is what happens when companies don’t test their apps and patch them during the beta period.

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Sadly you can only have one trigger by the looks of it :frowning:

Man, this is so bad. So I got a Google device out and that seems to work in terms of sunset/sunrise.

My logic was wrong though, I need something like;

Detect motion= turn on light, but don’t run again, until motion not detected for 30 mins. So if Im watching TV, it doesn’t keep turning on the light.

Is that possible?

webcore is a good option

@jdroberts has a faq page on automations

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Thanks jkp :slight_smile:

Ill have a look and see if thats what I need

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A new shiny Samsung tv that works with SmartThings is one option :grin: Another is to dim the lights low while tv is on and add the light being Off to the IF. another is putting the tv on a power measuring smart plug and putting power less than X watts in the IF.

Thanks for that, ended up going down the WebCore rabbit hole and had some amazing help over on their forums.

If anyone is remotely interested, here is the post. Super powerful automations.

I am new to Smartthings but am having the same problem. I want to turn on a porch light for 5 minutes if motion is detected but only at night, sunset to sunrise. I looked at smart lighting but I can only turn off if no motion is detected, not based on time interval. I would like to have an interval in automations of sunset to sunrise or sunrise to sunset . This looks like either an oversight or a bug.

This bug is definitely a display iOS bug since I see the same thing on my iPad, but not on my Android devices. However, when I saved it on the iPad it showed Sunset-Sunrise. And when I looked at the Automation I saved on the iPad in Android, it displayed the correct Sunset to Sunrise. So it appears to just be a display bug.

On the Android version of SmartThings, when I’m creating an Automation and I select Time, then Period of Time, then Night, I see it showing Sunset to Sunrise, and if I select either one, it provides a Before or After Offet. Selecting Day does the opposite Sunrise to Sunset.

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