It all begins with the need to turn the garden lights on remotely from a universal remote and also for them to come on automatically and go off if there is no motion detected. And then have the remote in sync no matter what the state is. In a nutshell that is my use case. Not so difficult right? As a few seconds delay is very much acceptable too.
The problem comes in the solution I have used, it is overly complicated for the use case it needs to solve but that is DIY smarthome for me so far! Here's the solution I have used for the use cases: 1. Logitech harmony triggers from sunset time or a Harmony activity "Garden Lights" or Wemo motion (only for turning off) this in turn sends Smarthings (virtual) switch an on or off command 2. Smartthings virtual switch is acting as a conduit for IFTTT 3. IFTTT rule between smartthings and smappee plug, one for on and one for off 4. Smappee plug turns the lighting circuit (Inlite) on or off 5. Wemo motion to sense motion (in the room nearest the garden) to keep the lights on and lack of motion will turn it off So overly complicated but it did all work until going away, and of course the one that cannot be looked into remotely is the harmony (well editing the rule to check it fully) The on trigger still works but the lack of motion at all seems to be meaning the off command is not working. Wemo and smartthings are both displaying the correct state - "inactive" but it looks like nothing is telling the harmony hub about it anymore! So without jumping to conclusions either the smartthings Wemo connect part or the harmony or the combination look to be to blame. Wemo have been in touch quickly to investigate, very proactive from a tweet and I will continue to investigate what I can in smartthings. But really for DIY smarthome to succed this either needs to get easier, I am sure Samsung (now owners of smartthings) are working on this part, or have an integrator install and maintain the system. But in that case just how DIY is it? Yes early adopters or those with the time to use on this, but they are not the mass market that the manufacturers want to reach. So far the tipping point is not reached though! UPDATE: Found the problem I think (and hope) and fixed it all at the same time. A very useful smart things community post pointed out that the smartthings was often not getting updates correctly from the memo motion, and to use a smartapp called pollster to fix it. And so far fix it has done
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AuthorJust a guy with lots of smart home tech: Archives
August 2018
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