Using Rule Machine and SHM in place of Smart Alarm?

SmartApps & Automations
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I’m contemplating switching my alarm setup from Smart Alarm to a combination of SHM and Rule Machine. Here’s my motivation: for as great (and reliable) as Smart Alarm has been, its always bothered me (and more importantly, the wife) that there isn’t an easier way to see the armed/disarmed status of the alarm. I know it follows the mode, but seeing the current mode the house is in isn’t all that easy/intuitive either. So I’m thinking of setting up SHM to act only as a switch/indicator and have Rule Machine take care of the rest. Here is what my logic in RM would look like:

File Jan 02, 1 02 07 PM.png750×1334 148 KB

Anyone have any experience trying this or have any reason to believe this wouldn’t be at least somewhat reliable?

EDIT: I haven’t set it up in my rule pictured above, but I would have Rule Machine set off all the sirens in the house as an action on True.

2 Likes
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What about SmartTiles in conjunction with what you’re already using?

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I feel the same but unfortunately, SHM is still broken for me. You will end up putting up with so many false alarms and it will drive you nuts.

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Agree, don’t even mess with SHM yet. I have had issues since it was released. Thought it was fixed from Smartthings and reinstalled it last night (removing Smart Alarm). It continually rearms itself when we come home and sets the alarm off.

Nothing more annoying then coming into the house and setting off the alarm, shutting it off, system rearms and triggers sirens again. Then repeat that 10 times with a 1 year old scared to death of the sirens.

Then after dinner the SHM arms itself again (no one even in the app) and the alarm goes off again! I got the ultimatum this time of fix it rip it out. Ridiculous this has been broken this long.

I would not touch SHM again if my life depended on it. They have A LOT of bugs to work out.

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Just curious - how are you changing the arm states of SHM? Routines? Manually? Rule Machine? I’ve read about SHM’s problems with not setting off sirens or not disarming, etc. Here, I wound not have SHM handle any of the the intrusion detection nor the sirens, that would all be handled by Rule Machine. Additionally, I would change the SHM state using Rule Machine. So I guess what I’m curious to know is if we remove most of the burden from SHM, does it start to perform more predictably. If it’s only job is to keep track of what armed state the house is in, does it then arm/disarm reliably?

I’m going to to test it out - I have the above rule set up in parallel with Samrt Alarm to notify me (but with no sirens) of any false alerts. I’ll see how it goes for the next few weeks.

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I’m arming and disarming with routines of I’m Back, good night, good bye, good morning.

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What are you using for presence sensors. Because with Samsung sensors and my modified device tyoe I have not had one false alarm as long as when someone unlocks the door they wait 5 secs for disarm to occur.

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We use our android phones for the presence sensors to disarm. We always see the system disarm when we pull into the neighborhood and then we get to the house about 20 seconds later. Get in the house and the system rearms itself.

I went back to the email from support and the last update they sent me said it’s a critical bug for some users and the recommended removing the sirens from Smart Home Monitor so it does not go off and bother me.

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Unfortunately it’s been that way for a long time now. Bummer.

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Thanks for the thoughts everyone. I ended up going the route of SmartTiles, Smart Alarm, a few virtual switches, and mounting an old iPad mini in the kitchen for the wife to control the house with. As an added bonus, I’ve got the Pandora, YouTube and Spotify apps linked from the main SmartTile so she can play music on the Bluetooth soundbar I’ve mounted under the cabinets. Been really impressed with SmartTiles so far and looking forward to their v6 update in the future.

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Further update: As I’ve been using Rule Machine more and more, I’ve started to come to the realization that modes and routines are no longer as necessary/useful as they were to me previously, especially given their reliability, or lack thereof. As mentioned above, I’ve switched to a mounted tablet running SmartTiles for the wife to control the house. Furthermore, I’ve now modified Smart Alarm to change states based on a set of virtual switches - which I have as tiles on my tablet. These switches serve the dual purpose of indicating what state Smart Alarm is in as well as Arming & Disarming. I’d be happy to share my modified Smart Alarm if anyone would find it useful for their purposes. I’ve been really happy with the setup so far.

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Sounds like something I am looking for. Would be nice to see you configuration. This is something I posted in another post…Need a suggestion. So I keep the Smart Alarm in Alarm Stay mode when we are home. I get up very early, 4am and walk the dog at 515AM. When I let the dog out or take the dog for a walk I do not want the alarm to sound. I use a particular door to let the dog out and a particular door to walk the dog. How can I temporary disarm those doors at a certain time and then rearm them at a specific time. I created two instances of the smart alarm and took those sensors and put them on another instance. I was thinking to create a rule machine to temporary change mode for that one instance using a VS but changing modes is all or nothing.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. By the way the reason for armed in stay mode is a rash of breaking and entering while people are home and my wife works from him. (hope to get an open shot :smile: