WAF friendly Motion routines and automations?

I may have hit the wall where I need to use scenes, modes, etc. more, but looking for advice. I finally have added (3) Zen27 dimmers to my main floor. Things are getting geeked up.

Scenario: My laundry room dimmer triggers on the door opening (ring door sensor routine), or by motion sensor via SL automation. I also setup a evening SL Automation that if kitchen switch is off, with laundry room motion the kitchen and hallway dimmer come on.

  1. I’m noticing that my kitchen/hallway lights come on overnight, but I can’t trace back what is setting it off since the last motion is 4 minutes prior. Is there a better way (IDE?) To see what is setting those off? I’m currently blaming the dog …

  2. what are some examples in using routines, virtual switches, scenes more easily to disable these motions from going off? My wife isn’t necessarily find of yelling in the bedroom at Alexa each night to do things. I tend to crash before she’s fully in bed, so looking for WAF/friendly options.

WAF comment - she finds no use in the basement motion dimmer I installed and set SL Auto on it, but she is digging walking into the laundry room with hands full and the lights coming on. PITA 4 way that an electrician had to help with…

Bedrooms are always tricky to get set up right. You can see a couple of different threads discussing these issues by going to the quick browse lists in the community – created wiki, looking down near the bottom of the page for the “project reports“ section, then at the bottom of that section for the “projects by room“ subsection and choosing the “bedroom” list.

https://thingsthataresmart.wiki/index.php?title=ThingsThatAreSmart_Wiki

A lot of times the available solutions depend on the exact details of the use cases, though, so if you can be more specific it would probably help. :sunglasses:

You can definitely check the IDE to see if there’s a notation that helps. Start at https://account.smartthings.com

With motion sensors, it might be the dog, but it might also just be a change in temperature caused by a gust of air from the HVAC system.

If you have a camera you can temporarily place in that area, you can usually answer the question of the pets, anyway.

Well, as we all know, each WAF is different and they change by the minute. But, we can give example.

I used the laundry room automaton to bring my wife on board to my little hobby…lol

One thing I did was put Alexa in every room of the house. She can hear us at normal voices levels from anywhere. No more yelling.

I also have about 175 physical devices currently online and 25 or 30 virtual switches. My automatons reach into every room and the outside.

I find a great use for a virtual switch is to use it as an automation kill switch. They are added in the restrictions section. This allows me to say, Alexa, turn off the kitchen automations. (Switch is banned kitchen automatons.) Alexa turns out of and the automatons stay in the current state until I either change the state our restart the automation.

I know you weren’t talking about automatons in the bedroom, but like @JDRoberts said, they can be complex. My master bedroom is controlled by 9 smart lighting rules. My master bath is controlled by 19 SL rules.

I also use webcore and several other custom automations to control my system.

I will gladly help you out with your troubleshooting.

But, I need to see screenshots of your automations first.

Thanks.

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Agreed… :slight_smile:

I may just need to do the under bed lighting. Examples for this?

Like I said, examples of using kindle routines, automations, virtual switches prob would help most. I get the most eye rolls/frustration with this hobby at night in the bedroom. I have the two lamps with smart bulbs synced with the motion sensor for movement via sunset after dark. Don’t do much autation in the morn since schedules are so different. Turn on the Ring alarm at night with voice.

Will provide more screenshots in a few days.

Did you see my link in post 2 above? If you look on the bedroom projects list there you’ll find lots of examples. :sunglasses:

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