Time based events failing?

And that’s a valid justification for the continuing problem, perhaps. They don’t have the “right people” for either bad reasons (not hiring hard enough, not paying enough, unwilling to bring in consultants, egos of existing engineers, in-the-box thinking…), or good reasons (the right people are extremely hard to find in this economy that has created a shortage of highly specialized skilled workers).

I’m assuming the latter could be true. Consider how many existing platforms have the exact same scale of scheduling challenges (not that many? … I dunno… I’d like to hear examples); so this may be a somewhat unique problem.

Now combine that with the challenge of finding the right person who has experience with the problem and can handle the challenge of implementing it in a legacy architecture with, perhaps, some legacy management and legacy engineers “in the way” … and thus it is very hard to find “the right people”.

I wouldn’t speculate about that. Instead, I will quote a SmartThings employee, who shared his/her opinion on GlassDoor:

We have a tendency of trying to do “everything”. Overcommitment - My advice here is focus on quality. Get 3 things right - defining customers, delivering products, demonstrating business model. Rinse and repeat. Core Engineering and Solutions Engineering divide - the folks in Minneapolis vs. the folks in Silicon Valley - this to me is a HUGE issue.

https://www.glassdoor.com/Overview/Working-at-SmartThings-EI_IE978495.11,22.htm

They should stop selling more hubs until they can serve the customers they already have.

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While I agree it’s not “fair” to speculate geko and also that one reviewer from glass door is a little insight into the company, that’s simply issue that the employee is feeling from the inside. What we the customer are feeling from the outside is the same exact core issue, over and over and over again for months on end. I’m sorry, but disagreements within a company don’t amount to the end result we customers are seeing when the most basic portion of their system is consistently failing. I understand that internal issues will have a huge impact on the customer experience in any field however I feel like a company that recognizes the main pain points of their system would (and should) focus on resolving those issues… internal bickering doesn’t explain the months on end of instability because the company is trying to do “everything”. What things are “everything” exactly? We are complaining about the same issue over and over… I don’t think taking on the world has much to do with resolving some core functionality and stability. If that was the case, ST wouldn’t have ever been stable and from what I understand, prior to 6mo ago, it was relatively stable and people seemed to love it.

Oh, I think we have a good idea where the bulk of development resources are tied in. Just look at what’s been already announced (Samsung SmartTV, Samsung Smart Fridge, BMW, ADT Canopy, Scout) and what’s going to be soon announced:

In 2016, customers are going to be able to control, automate, and manage a full lineup of Samsung devices directly from the free SmartThings mobile app, including washers, ovens, air conditioners, and–introduced at this week’s CES–the brand-new Family Hub Refrigerator.

Do you really think that Samsung bought SmartThings so that you could automate your Hue lightbulbs or WeMo switches? That’s not were their money is. And one should always follow the money. :slightly_smiling:

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I hear ya… but without fixing the heart of it all (ST Hub), they will blow their whole brand up. What exactly are they going to automate with fridges, washers, ovens, etc. if most things cannot be controlled locally and super basic functionality like timed events, etc. aren’t working? I can’t even imagine how much of a devastation that will be if they don’t get their core in check first.

I am done this product. Such an unstable platform, time to research new alternatives to this cloud based bullshit. I heard Vera+ is going to be good.

I think it’s time that we setup some automations that send messages on Twitter to CEO Alex Hawkinson “@ahawkinson” and “@smartthings” whenever our time-based events fail. That way other folks on social media can see just how frequently automations are failing. I really don’t think this issue is getting sufficient publicity outside of these community forums.

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I have honestly started writing my own system now… 100% python with easy user writeable plugins… You know… Trying to keep the 100% open source idea going :slight_smile:

I feel like the system im writing has been a lot more reliable than ST for time based events…

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Why re-invent the wheel? There’s one already: https://home-assistant.io

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Haha thanks… HA is good but not what I am looking for in terms out the automation scripting… However because of HA - that was one reason why I chose python - The ability to use HA libraries in the framework. :slight_smile:

Does that interoperate with the ST hub? Looks like you’d have to purchase new controllers.

Looks like a very nice system, though.

Are you using the ST API? Or did you buy separate hardware from ST for communicating with your devices?

Right now I’m using a raspberryPi and the ST hub with a custom ST API :slight_smile:

https://home-assistant.io/blog/2016/02/09/smarter-smart-things-with-mqtt-and-home-assistant/#read-more

Hallelujah? Eureka?

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He tweeted this 11 hours ago

“we are replacing the scheduling system soon. Thanks for your patience we know the reliability of that must improve!”

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Just curious, what exactly you’re looking for that HASS does not have?

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Yes, that was to me. But they’ve been saying this since at least last October that I know of and I think even longer than that.

“Soon” in SmartThings lingo usually means maybe next year but we probably won’t get around to doing it in the end. It’s the method for responding to customer requests without actually saying “no”. V2 hub migration utility anyone?

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Just checking in again because my scheduled events haven’t been working properly since early January, and I see nothing has changed. Pretty funny they can’t even do the most basic functionality.