Hello, I’m new to this, but getting a grasp on making pistons. I have 2 running that are working as intended. BUT, how do you deal with those times when you don’t want the automation? Smarter pistons? Temporarily disabling? Not having that piston? I’ll give a few examples…
Thanks to SmartThings, my garage door closes automatically if it is open, the garage temperature is below 32 degrees and 15 minutes of inactivity in my garage has been sensed. All is good, but what if I am shoveling snow and want the garage door to remain open despite the temperature. Or maybe I have it set to auto-close after dusk, but want to have a bonfire with the door open?
Another thought is to automatically turn off my gas fireplace if (for instance) sensed temperature is above a certain range and no motion has been sensed for a period of time. What if the baby sitter is sleeping on the couch (who doesn’t know about the automation) and wants to keep the fireplace on? I suppose it just gets restarted by the baby sitter?
Or maybe my living room lights turn on to 15% if it is after 2AM and motion is sensed in the hallway (maybe to illuminate a path to the kitchen). What if someone is sleeping in the living room and you just want to (for example) use the light of your phone to illuminate the way? Take the time to pause the piston?
What do you do when you don’t want the automation?
Pause the piston.
This can be done by clicking on the 3 dots in the dashboard for the piston, or by opening the piston and at the top where it says 'running ’ click on it and it will change to paused.
Click again to get it running again.
This is a great approach… you can/could also link it to an actual light… for example if you were to setup a light in your garage that you could turn on which would disable the automation in your garage which would only be on when you are in the garage.
Ok, I thought perhaps it might be something like that…
I also have a number of Z-wave switches that I would like to do that with as well (since I want them to always be on) but for those I’m using SmartThings built in handlers…
I think I can/could create custom device handlers and select the custom codes in the IDE.
If I can’t figure out how to do it I might reach out.
I’m pretty sure I can figure out how to do what Robin is describing… and should be able to create a custom version of a default handler for my own use in the IDE… I also appreciate his suggestion of a preferred simulated switch.
local processing doesn’t concern me a whole lot since the idea is because I always want these switches on and want to have a good way to be able to scan and first see that they are always on… but not mistake these with regular switches.
I do apologize for derailing the original discussion.
Yes, my original question has been answered and the thread has evolved into what I would probably be asking, next, anyway. I am appreciating the thread.
Two (somewhat related) questions. My CoRE dashboard on my phone has a URL on the top. If I copy and past that into my desktop browser, my pistons show up on my IDE dashboard. I can’t seem to get there from my …graph.api.smartthin… page/dashboard… Can I?
Also, can I create pistons on my API dashboard on my computer? The only way I can do it now is from my phone,
I had to bookmark my piston link in browser. I dont belive you can get there from the IDE even though it uses the auth file somehow.
There is a Chrome Extension for Core. Which Is nice at a glance.
You cant currently edit through the browser but you can review and pause a piston. The new design phase that core is moving to using HTML5, it will allow you to edit from the descktop. Which will be nice. Its still a ways off from public use.
This is kinda obvious, but once you have all your virtual triggers / enablers put them in a room just for those type of devices. Even easier to take a quick look / toggle one if needed.
