I could but its a vacation home and when we are not here I can control it by using different mode settings.We could all do a lot of things with timers and just not use ST…lol
Well, the good news is that after yesterday’s exercise of taking the hub completely offline, bringing it back online, and then resetting and saving any time-based triggers (including when mode changes occur), all scheduled events occurred without a hiccup. In fact (and maybe it’s just a coincidence), but the time accuracy was more precise than ever. In the past, IDE logs showed events triggering +/- 45 seconds of their scheduled time, which I consider as perfectly acceptable for a cloud-based system. All events since I reset everything occurred an average of +3 seconds of their scheduled time, which I consider to be amazing.
The bad news is that my original reason for opening a support ticket, because IFTTT scheduling was ignoring modes, still exists. This wouldn’t be such a big deal except that the automation that fails is the one that triggers the EcoNet vent to open when the temp drops below a set point. It is configured to only occur when in Home and Away modes, but it’s also happening in Night mode. I tred the same mickey mouse “fix” of changing the time that mode changes occur, saving, then resetting and saving again, to no avail.My wife is a light sleeper, and it has awakened her the last 4 nights in a row when the vent opens in the middle of the night. I have updated my support ticket with this latest info, for all the good it does. I realize I could simply disable the IFTTT schedule, thus keeping peace in the family, but then ST has nothing to troubleshoot - classic catch 22.
Of course, none of this explains or excuses ST’s silence to their customers. I mean, how difficult or expensive would it be to hire off-shore temps whose sole responsibility was to reply to each and every support ticket… even if just to request additional info or to reassure that they are not being ignored, but that support is currently overwhelmed?
. . .
You forgot the third alternative - dumping ST for a less-capable system that can actually be depended upon to work. Whether such a system exists, I don’t know.
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Does Anyone know how to reset a schedule for a routine? I have the night mode rule for when things quiet down and it didn’t fire last night. I made changes to it, but in the schedule still shows a past time for next run time.
ie
Scheduled Jobs
Handler
Next Run Time
Prev Run Time
Status
Schedule
dailyCheck 2015-10-24 12:00:01 AM EDT 2015-10-24 12:00:01 AM EDT WAITING Daily
Why can smartthings not write some code to go through the schedules and fix ones that are in the past like this… it should be easy enough to do?
I’d rather not delete the entire rule because not sure I can re-add it as it is part of the system by default.
OK… I deleted and recreated the routine… nothing else seemed to fix it…
Now as a related note both of my hubs have a next runtime 3 days ago for hub offline notification… don’t know how to fix this…
Here’s another workaround for that specific problem.
Set up your routine/automation exactly the way you want it, except instead of turning on the switch that IFTTT subscribes to, turn on a different virtual switch.
Then set up a new automation to have the IFTTT trigger switch turned on when The mode-controlled switch goes on.
So any switch you want to use as an IFTTT trigger shadows another virtual switch that SmartThings will restrict.
Obviously not ideal, but since it’s a virtual switch it doesn’t cost anything, and it shouldn’t add any noticeable lag.
It might, however, mean that the lighting automation was no longer eligible to run locally, I’m not sure if virtual switches are or not. But if the Internet is down you can’t get to IFTTT anyway, so maybe that won’t matter as much for you.
Anyway, just might be one possibility.
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There are certainly systems that run more reliably, but they all have pros and cons. It just depends on what’s the most value to you.
Staples connect made reliability their number one priority from the beginning, because their target audience was small businesses. They largely succeeded. But they s succeeded in part by throwing out pretty much anything that might threaten stability. So no IFTTT, no geopresence, very little voice control, almost no third-party integration, no custom programming, a very limited set of devices (and most of those devices among the most expensive in their category). Read the complaints in their forums: they’re almost all about how there are hardly ever any feature updates and not enough devices supported. But not about events that run on Monday not running on Tuesday. However, if you’re a small law firm and you just want to run Lutron Caseta switches and window coverings along with the Phillips hue bridge, a smart lock, and a few contact and motion sensors, with most things operating on a fixed schedule, and you don’t want to spend more than $100 for the hub, it might be what you need.
For a very stable, very complex, multiprotocol system that costs about ten times more than SmartThings for initial set up and requires very deep technical ability, Homeseer is a good choice.
And if you just want the full featured system that does almost everything and not have to do it yourself, you can pay $10,000 a room plus annual fees and have control4 do it.
So there are a lot of choices out there. But no one perfect system. It just comes down to your own needs.
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Excellent! I’ll give it a try. I hate letting ST off the hook this way, but… family first.
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Thank you again. If things become intolerable with ST, I will seriously give that a look. I think I have the technical smarts (BSEE,MCSE, Extra-class, etc.) and I don’t mind spending the money for peace of mind.
I agree and I have too say, since the release of v2 along with the fully expected glitches and bugs, the posts from anyone at ST had declined to almost zero.
I believe the reason for that is because of what you said.
One of the main reasons I came to ST was because of this community, but recently it had become more like a bunch of kids complaining because their Xbox is broken.
Either way, if anyone came into this technology expecting it to work right out of the box, then they really should have gone to Apple. There is a reason that Apple tech is lagging on Android. Android stays on the edge and Apple will only use what had already been proven. The same applies here.
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I could not agree more. I have been on plenty of forums where the people are just plain rude. I keep coming back here because of all the great people and such a great product…with flaws 
Sorry to have jumped off topic
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Nothing about the type of home automation that SmartThings provides is new or leading edge except the price. Their decision to go with established open standards is one of their strengths, but they’re not bleeding edge technology.
There are multiple zigbee and zwave competitor systems out there, each with their own strengths and weaknesses.
It just comes down to whether the total package offered (including the price and whether you happen to live in a geographic area more or less subject to cloud issues) is worth it to you in terms of time and money.
I knew I wanted zigbee sensors, a door lock with a true capacitive touch screen, Geofencing, and some voice control, at a price of $1500 or less for my first phase of convenience case home automation. SmartThings fit my own requirements the best. But I pay for a completely different system for security, because there I have reliability requirements that SmartThings just doesn’t meet.
Next spring when I do the review for my phase 2, I expect there to be a number of candidates that don’t exist yet. And I’ll make that evaluation then.
But meanwhile, for anyone who is frustrated by reliability issues, it’s not the technology. As far as I know SmartThings itself doesn’t hold any patents and they aren’t using the patents that Samsung does hold except maybe for the gear watch app. So there’s no reason to be patient on that account–there’s nothing revolutionary to justify that patience.
What is unique is the intent to provide a system which allows for a certain amount of custom programming, a mix of what should be very reliable protocols, at an extremely attractive price.
I think it is that combination which has attracted a Maker type community who are very supportive of each other and freely share ideas and solutions. And who are both welcoming and supportive of new people who are not makers themselves.
That’s the part I haven’t seen replicated anywhere else. I do think it’s very special, and I do think it adds great value. 
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Homeseer does look interesting but it’s z-wave and insteon correct? I really like my zigbee devices. I think lutron may be an interesting choice also.
True and I agree. I wanted zigbee sensors, it was one of the things that brought me to SmartThings to begin with. 
Lutron is great for lighting and window coverings, I really hope to see eventual SmartThings/Lutron official local integration, not just through IFTTT.
But speaking of Maker community, check this out:
That is pretty awesome! I was thinking about buying their newest kit. It connects 50 devices (the bridge being one of them) and powers lights, blinds and thermostat. I figured I could use the harmony ultimate to tie it together with movie time. The only thing I would be missing is security and motion based lighting automation.
This is what I meant by cutting edge. The hardware is nothing new. The concept is. And it’s the concept coupled with today’s tech that is the difficult part.
But the reasons you stated are the reasons I’m here. And I’ll be here as long as there is a here.
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I came from Homeseer. A great community, but the reliability was worse. Way worse. I was always working on it. It required constant attention and programming. It sure was fun, but I don’t have the time.
Even with the issues and even with the migration, I’ve worked on my ST system a tenth of the amount and gotten way more. I just don’t think you can come close to the value of ST with anything else on the market right now.
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I can say the same think about coming here from wink. Honestly my problems arise because I start screwing with things…
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Yep, no perfect solutions yet, just a matter of finding the one where the headaches are worth the benefits for your particular needs.
I admit the new Fibaro system looks slick, but I’m not ready to go all Zwave.
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From what I’ve read it appears that Simple Rule Builder from @JoeC runs it’s own scheduler service outside of SmartThings. I’ve moved some of my scheduled logic over to that platform with the hopes that it will help improve the reliability of my SmartThings-connected device automation.
My problem use case might be the least complicated automation in my house. I need a power switch to turn on every day at 5am. No conditions, no sensors, no modes, no routines, no days it should or shouldn’t be on, heck I don’t even want to automate turning it off. Just “turn on thing every day”. It’s sad that I should be forced to outsource what should be the simplest automation in the world… If your cloud development platform cannot reliably handle the simplest of triggered actions, what hope do I have that it can act a security system or to handle any other complex use case?
While I agree with the sentiment, SmartThings could fix this with the right management policies… In other words, spending time reading and responding to posts on the Community could be made a mandatory part of the back-office / engineers, operations, and manager’s job descriptions.
If you’re not being evaluated on your responsiveness to Customers, whether in short postings here or in product design decisions, then that implies Customer Focus is not ingrained into your employer’s strategy.
Some large corporations assign back-office employees to customer-facing rotations for a few days every few months. These stories are featured in “Inc” and similar business magazines. The employees are reminded of the importance of the Customer and see both complaints and praises. When they later go back to their teams to work on a bug fix or feature, they are motivated for the right reason: customer satisfaction, not boss-butt-kissing.
But you can see this can backfire in many, many ways. 
SmartThings employees certainly would be unwise to speak candidly online, unless they are in an official communications role.
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Respectfully, as a former engineer who also worked tech support, just no.
Let the engineers do their jobs. Respect customer support as a skill set in itself.
We could volunteer for one month shifts through customer service, which was helpful and a good thing. But the best engineer I ever knew was a guy who made Gibbs from NCIS seem like a chatterbox. He came to work, he studied problems, he solved them. Meticulously documented everything. Never answered his work phone. If you needed him, you sat on a chair in his cubicle and waited until he looked up, then you told him what was going on, he listened, made notes, and went back to work. When he had an answer, he’d send a one line email with an attached fully documented solution.
That was the guy you prayed got assigned to your team for anything critical. Trust me, “respond to community forum posts” didn’t belong anywhere in his job description.
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