I’m just getting started with SmartThings and I don’t have a luminescence sensor so I can’t use that yet, but I was wanting my lights to turn on when it’s cloudy/rainy. I can set that up with IFTTT easily enough, but what I don’t see is how I would set this up to only trigger during the daytime. I don’t want rain at 2am to turn my lights on.
You can use a different mode for day and night and only let the rule trigger in day mode.
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Thanks, it took me a bit to figure out how to do just that but I think I have it setup.
Had to create a Virtual Switch to control the group of lights and set that Virtual Switch to only operate during Day mode. Then set IFTTT to turn that Virtual Switch on/off based on the weather. It’s after sunset right now and the Virtual Switch doesn’t do anything, so the “not work at night” part seems to work. Only time will tell if the daytime part works!
Thanks again.
Awesome! Glad to hear you got it working 
The other option is create a weather tile and use the lux base on your local weather tile. This way you don’t have to use ifff and it’s more accurate on cloudy day.
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Which app would I use to control the lights based on the SmartWeather Tile? I can’t seem to figure out how to set that part up.
Smart light just added lux so if you have iphone. You can use that or this app which is way better in my opinion.
Sorry for digging up an old thread, but I am trying to do just this. Could you explain how you were able to do this in more detail? I know how to create new devices, but I can’t seem to figure out how to set the group of lights I want to control and have it only operate during the day. Any help would be appreciated.
Mike’s Auto-Dimmer will do this for you. You will need to define a HOME and NIGHT mode likely to make it simpler. I have the lights auto dim at all times when we’re in “Home” mode based on LUX values from the airport weather station. This has been working very nicely. I have about 30 lights controlled this way. Set up your system to trigger both HOME and NIGHT modes. Define your Smart lighting automations to work during HOME modes. Set up the autodimmer app with dimmer and LUX values that will allow you set your lights for dark, dusk, overcast and bright. The autodimmer doesn’t mess with any automations at all…it just sets dimmer levels during the modes you set.
During NIGHT modes, I use the motion sensors to trigger just a few targeted lights, dimmed down 90%. The autodimmer is only active in HOME modes.
Some information for those looking to pull LUX from the free Smart Weather Tile for this app:
A. Install the Smart Weather Tile from the web IDE as a device for yourself. There is a template provided. You just need to define a zip code in the device settings
I’m not in the US, so a zip code does not work for me. Fortunately you can leave it blank and your hub location will be used. Alternately you can enter in a weather underground station ID (pws:STATIONID). If you look on the weather underground web site for your area, you can find stations near you. Look in the web URL for the pws:STATIONID and enter that into the device settings for the Smart Weather Tile (instead of a zip code) on your smartphone. I tried a few until I found one with more accurate LUX updates.
B. The weather tile doesn’t update itself, and the programs I tried to fix it don’t work as they seem to have timer issues. This one, using events to trigger updates, worked perfectly: “Manual Weather Refresh” written by Daniel Vorster: [OBSOLETE] Smart Weather Station Tile Device - #164 by jkp
I copied the code and published the app to myself using the web ide. This app updates the weather tile perfectly driven off events, rather than timers. Being that I have lights activated by motion sensors, I used one of those sensor events to trigger a Weather Tile update.
Nathan, do this using modes. Set your lighting automations to only work during HOME and make sure your hub is set to toggle night mode. I use the “Good Night” routine to turn everything off, arm (STAY) the smart home monitor, and set mode to NIGHT. Make sure you also run “Good Morning” or similar to toggle the system to HOME. This way your SMART Lighting automation’s (set them to work only in HOME mode).
We use the iphone presence deal to set “AWAY” modes which lock down the house etc., arm SHM, etc.