Another week with continued progress. Since last week’s post, we have continued to monitor the platform closely and I am happy to report that we have consistently seen reduced platform latency. That’s good news for every user and every app connected to SmartThings.
Hub (V2) Firmware - 14.39
We pushed a new hub firmware update on Monday that included several targeted improvements. We improved communications with LAN-based devices, made some changes to our Video streaming (specifically some fixes for Smart Home Monitor Clips), and introduced the new Z-Wave V2 joining process. For some more specifics on these changes we have posted a changelog here.
Mobile App Crashers
In recent weeks we’ve also been focused on steadily reducing daily crashes of our mobile apps on both Android and iOS. The graph for Android below is indicative of the progress. We hope you’re noticing the increased stability alongside the broader reliability and performance improvements.
I am excited to share another progress update with you again next week. Have a great weekend in the meantime!
Made a personal to-do to get a solid answer on this on Monday, I’ll respond back here.
7 Likes
bamarayne
(Jason "The Enabler" as deemed so by @Smart)
5
I’ve seen a lot of improvements in my set-up. The Android app has made some huge leaps forward.
So, last week I was thinking that there had been enough progress in the way things work that I actually went back to using the stock ST routines and Smart Lighting.
and OMG what a monumental screw up that was!!!
I had started having problems with Rule Machine so I thought I’d give it a go…
Needless to say, while the platform is a lot more stable as well as the app… your service is still very very lacking when it comes to your stock items.
I’d like to chat with you about the shortcomings you see and what would be most helpful to change. Mind sending me an email on it our outlining it here?
When will there be a migration tool? Its been over a year since the promise of a migrating tool and I for one am holding steady before leaving v1. I am not having nearly the issues I see v2 people complaining about… Any ETA?
@alex definitely noticing stability performances as better reliability and less mobile crashes. Mobile presence continues to be a challenge for me. My wife now has three presence sensors (fob, ST mobile app and a wifi router script). I am hoping this cures this ailment.
I would like to see now performance boosts as far as response times in both the mobile app and IDE. The mobile app (iOS) for me is extremely laggy. It usually is snappy when you guys release an mobile update and then slowly works its way back to laggy. I often have to wait for the spinning clock like below.
The IDE is also laggy and I believe a lot of this is attributed to the GitHub integration. Often switching to smartapps or device handlers takes 15-20 seconds to load.
I would also like to see a migration tool as my v2 hub is still sitting in a box. I can’t bring myself to going through the painful migration unless I get some help. However, performance and stability to me are more important.
This would be nice to see what is coming in what sort of order even if there are no dates.
3 Likes
bamarayne
(Jason "The Enabler" as deemed so by @Smart)
10
Hello @alex,
I will start by saying that yes , is better than it was in March. There have been some very good improvements.
ST routines:
competent unreliable. I set up a total of 8 routines which changed the mode and performed multiple actions. The routines were not completing properly. Incorrect actions were occurring, not occurring, and the routines were either not firing on time our not at all.
I was forced to create a routine that ONLY changed the mode, and nothing else. This has so far proven reliable. Then I had to create multiple rules in smart lighting to overturn the lighting actions I needed done.
Smart Lighting:
failures to complete lighting actions. Lights not turning on, incorrect lights being triggered, etc.
Summary - routines and smart lighting performed no better now than they did in Sept 2015 when I started with ST.
My recommendations - I have no idea as to the architecture of the ST environment, but my perception seems to lead me to this:
It seems the environment is a home automaton system designed around a core security system. There seems to be a major integration problem between the two. Interactions between the two are causing corruption issues leading to server loads and failures at the end user environment. Simply put, the SHM environment is not compatible with the HA environment.
While this may not be possible due to the design of the system, I would recommend that ST create the core system to be an HA environment. Have SHM interact with the core just as other smart apps do.
In the mean time I am using routines to change my modes. I am migrating the majority of my lighting actions back to rule machine (until the new CoRE release).
This has been happening to me as well with a couple of very basic routines. For the “on time” portion, the scheduler update has improved ut (but not completely fixed as I’ve had 1-2 schedules missed per month since ticker). For running all items in the routine, this has only happened a couple of times, and the support response was that there is a known issue of routines not completely executing. The routines that I have scheduled are usually with a mode change + turn on/off 3-5 lights.
@alex The android and iOS fixes are great - any upcoming updates for Windows Mobile users? At the beginning of March the blog said we could expect updates approximately once a month, and, unless I missed one, it’s now been over 9 weeks without an update… (I know that Windows users are a minority on the platform, but it’d be nice to get some of the long-time bugs fixed eventually - i’m specifically thinking about the bug where some apps fail to pass app parameters appropriately)
@bamarayne@alex
I have had the exact same issue with routines failing to complete fully and most noticeability failing to change the mode. I’ve had several tickets opened about this issue over the past several months and every few releases seam to break it over and over again. The current ‘workaround’ is to execute a different routine and then to switch back to the routine I wanted. It’s SHM all over again. The most recent ticket I’ve opened on this: #214627. Previous ticket numbers: #129816, #182092, #176780, #129816
bamarayne
(Jason "The Enabler" as deemed so by @Smart)
14
I’m not even wasting my time with support. I started with ST in Sept 2015. Routines didn’t with than and they still don’t work. SHM is still very unreliable.
I’ve my system to be most stable with no use of SHM and absolutely nothing to do with the security aspect.
Routines have failed a few times for me, most notably the time based ones in the past, but have been very reliable for months.
I can’t remember a time Smart Lighting failed for me ever. One time I thought it was the culprit, but a switch had gone offline. Smart Lighting seems so basic, I don’t know how it could fail more than other automations.
bamarayne
(Jason "The Enabler" as deemed so by @Smart)
17
It’s failing very reliably when using the setting:
Turn on dimmer, set level to.
A simple on/off was working fine.
The routines were failing to complete all actions, most notably to change the mode. If changing the mode was all they had to, then they work just fine.
But having to have one routine to change the mode, then another to do lights, and then smart lighting as well if I want to use multiple dimmers at different levels.
Just not worth my trouble. I’m migrating back to rule machine… I’ve been much happier since yesterday.
bamarayne
(Jason "The Enabler" as deemed so by @Smart)
21
No… just no… it’s 2016 and this is supposed to be a damn high tech home automation system… why in god’s name do I have to use two instances of an app to make a 2 damn lights come on at different levels???
really? really???
I guess so… I guess I can scroll back to the top and look at the pretty charts and just be glad that my app isn’t crashing… as much…
