Turn on after period of being off?

[JDRoberts]

@smartuser1

I’m aware of the scheduling feature, however I want the plug to automatically turn on after a certain period of time initiated by turning the plug off.

This is definitely possible in several different ways.

Some people will immediately suggest webcore, and you certainly could do it in Webcore, I just think that’s probably overkill for this. And it requires that you be using the classic version of the mobile app.

FAQ: What is WebCoRE? (And what was CoRE?)

CoRE (now WebCore) is a very powerful community – created rules engine for SmartThings. It allows you to set up stacked conditionals like “If A then B but only while C and not if D.” Setting it up can be quite complex, but there are many community members who will be glad to help you. For example, here is a piston that one member created to notify him if the dog had already been fed twice that day and he picked up the dog bowl for a third time. He needed this because he has a large family and people didn’t always remember whose turn it was to feed the dog. [image] The original version of CoRE Has now been replaced by a new version, WebCoRE, which moves the data entry to a web interface. This allows for flexibility and an architecture that requires more memory than is av…

Building a Daisychain Timer

A simpler method which you can use with either the new version of the app or the Classic version is to create a virtual switch which will act as a timer. You’re going to set this timer up so it always turns itself off after 60 minutes. And then you are going to set up your refrigerator so that it follows the virtual switch in a “daisy chain” where it turns itself on whenever the virtual switch turns itself off.

Note that doing it this way still allows you to automate your refrigerator any other way that you want to as well. But anytime you turn on your virtual timer, then one hour later, your refrigerator will turn itself on. It’s up to you if you want to turn on the virtual timer every time the refrigerator turns off or if you want to automate turning on the virtual timer in some other independent way.

Setup Steps Required

1. create a virtual switch.

2. create an automation so that the virtual switch always turns itself off after it has been on for 60 minutes. (There’s a bug right now in the new app if you try to set this up with the custom automation creator, so it would be better to do it in the official smart lights feature.)

3. create an automation so that the refrigerator turns itself on when the virtual switch turns itself off. That’s your daisy chain.

So now you have a virtual timer. Every time it turns on, there will be a countdown for 60 minutes, and then your virtual timer will turn itself off and your refrigerator will turn itself on.

So that leaves two more questions which different people will do differently depending on the details of what they want to have happen.

4. decide how you want the virtual timer to start the countdown. It could be on a time schedule, it could be every time the refrigerator turns off, it could be anything you want. But set up some automation to start the virtual timer when you want it to start.

5. decide how you want the refrigerator to turn itself off. Again, there are lots of different ways to do this. It could be on a timed schedule, it could be every time the virtual timer is turned on, it could be manually, it could be at a certain temperature reading. Again, anything you want. But set up some automation that turns the refrigerator off.

Once you have those five things then something turns the refrigerator off. Something turns the virtual timer on. The virtual timer runs for 60 minutes and then turns itself off. The refrigerator turns on because the virtual timer turned off.

If you need more help figuring out how to set this up in the new app, I’m sure there will be other members who will be glad to give you examples.