Time based events failing?

My sunrise events in smart lighting are correctly timed for tonight. 1 out of 5 of them was an hour late last night but appear to be scheduled correctly for tonight.

So I just caved and created a support ticket.

I have ā€œre-savedā€ all of the different routines and that didnā€™t seem to do it. I then deleted and re-created them one by one and that seemed to fix a couple of the routines, but then a couple of others that were working before now arenā€™t working. I have gone through each and every one (all of which are time based events to trigger lights and dim levels on only a few bulbs/switches and I canā€™t seem to get them all to work even though Iā€™m only talking about 6 time based events total for my lighting. Iā€™ve tried breaking some of the bulbs/switches out so there arenā€™t a bunch triggered in the same event and that doesnā€™t seem to matter either. Iā€™ve powered down the hub for 30+min countless times to let it re-register all of the devices, etc. and nothing seems to help.

Hopefully support can do something about this because I just invested in this hub to replace my laggy Wink hub which now seems to be a more reliable system (except itā€™s extremely slow). I hate to say it, but thatā€™s how Iā€™m feeling at the moment.

Just an idea folksā€¦ But I have not been having these massive problems. I also do not use sunrise/sunset. I have everything set to specific times instead.

On Sunday I decided to change two of my scheduled to sunset. My system immediately went crazy! Alarms going off and all kinds of stuff.

I changed those two schedules back to a specific timeā€¦ And I havenā€™t had a problem since.

So, maybe try not using the sunrise/sunset and see what happens.

I donā€™t use the sunset/sunriseā€¦ mine are all specific times.

Sadly using specific times doesnā€™t work well for automating lights in a northern climate. The sunrise/sunset times change drastically from summer to winter.

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I have to use sunset/sunrise, but mine have been perfect since I put a watchdog on them (described above). Watchdog hasnā€™t had to bark once, in fact it confused me. I created it too late to catch the problem. Hopefully it wonā€™t have to catch the next.

Agreed. There is no happy medium either. You will find lights coming on way too soon in the summer or way too late in the winter.

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Have you guys consider having lights turn on based on LUX? I think instead of relying on scheduling, you can do it with a reliable lux sensor or use the smart weather tile to get the lux value. I am testing this out myself.

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I ordered the Fibaro Motion/Lux for this exact reason and hope to test it. I donā€™t worry as much with LEDā€™s for precise timing, but the real problem with the ā€œtoo soonā€/ā€œtoo lateā€ is the sensor used to evaluateā€¦ our eyes! Our eyes and opinions are much less concrete than sunset/sunrise, but more sensitive than sunrise Ā± obscuration due to clouds. Accurate lux is second best, but itā€™s bound to be like temperature. My family will complain about temps that are the same day in and day out differently on different days. Itā€™s not the external thermostat, itā€™s the internal ones that are flaky.

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Iā€™ve thought about using LUX, but from what Iā€™ve read some of the multi-sensors arenā€™t built for being outdoors. Iā€™d be interested to know if anyone has been using a multi-sensor with LUX outdoors for a while.

I hope SmartThings engineers realize how ridiculous it sounds. With V2 hub running Linux on an 800Mhz processor, all sunrise/sunset schedules, or any schedules for that matter, can and must run locally. Linux has no issues handling local time zones and sunrise/sunset algorithms are pretty damn simple. Thereā€™s absolutely no justification using JVM in the cloud to calculate sunrise/sunset times.

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I know, I have a cloud service watching a cloud service, all using my network and local device to check an event that needs an ungodly small amount of data to validate to triggerā€¦

In my company this is called an opportunity. :smiley:

I am so frustrated right now! :rage:

Not a single Sunrise/Sunset scheduled event or routine worked all weekend.

I see Iā€™m not the only one, but I deleted all my apps and recreated all the triggers to no avail.

Has anyone found anything that helps? Has anyone hear anything different from support?

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Support help? ā€¦ none existent. My ticket is now 10 days old with two interactions. First to ask permission to look at my account. And a second to apologize for the inconvenience.

Workable solution?.. I gutted everything and started over last week. I havenā€™t had any issues in 2 days. Knock on wood, I hope will stay like this, or elseā€¦Iā€™ll be using 2 routines and 2 Smart Lighting apps in the future so I can do the nuclear blast all day longā€¦

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Thatā€™s disappointing. I have over several Smart Lighting apps and a few routines. Itā€™s just such a headache to rebuild the smart apps every time there is a problem.

Also, the Smart home monitor is extremely slow. It takes 15-30 seconds to be able to see or change a status.

I donā€™t know whatā€™s happening with SmartThings, I have been running for almost a year with no problems until the last two weeks. So frustrating!

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I havenā€™t found anything that helps beyond what I believe youā€™ve already tried (deleting and recreating the Routines that use sunrise/sunset). However, I may have found the key to getting Supportā€™s attention. Bear in mind, the description that follows is anecdotal, so take it for what it is. Whenever I open or update a ticket via email, it is several days (if ever) before I hear back. Without fail, every time Iā€™ve done it online. I hear back within 10 minutes. It gives the impression that their notification system for incoming emails is broken, and activity is only discovered after a periodic check. I hope Iā€™m wrong; YMMV.

I cannot find the post about you watchdog process. and you provide a summary or direct link thanks.

Created a post for it: https://community.smartthings.com/t/watchdog-smartapp-for-sunrise-sunset-mode-changes/27892

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thanks I will take a look but not what I need. I have no mode changes on sunrise sunset only lights coming on and setting dimming levels in two different locations. I will look at the code and see if there is something I can use. But I already set up a back rule that turns them on also later than any sunset based on timeā€¦

I was hoping you had written something that actually goes through the scheduled processes in the ide and alerts you if something is wrong.

Thatā€™s a better idea than I am a coder right nowā€¦ :smile:

Instead of using IFTTT to change modes, just have it work on your switch directly. I never heard of a switch complaining about being turned on or off twice.

I would only do this for critical items (like I do for mode changes), otherwise you are just setting up more things to maintain.

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