September 14, 2017

September 14, 2017

SmartThings Create a Virtual Timer for a Light

So I have been using Tasker a lot however I’m on the T-Mobile jump program and I switch from phone to phone quite a bit.  I was going to reinsert all of my Tasker profiles however I decided to see if SmartThings had a better method yet of presence sensing.  So I decided to relink my Android device as my presence sensor.  I’ve been testing this for about a week now and it seems to be more accurate then all of my Tasker/AutoLocation profiles.

How I have my house configured as my car approaches the house I want my Yale Smart Deadbolts to unlock, and turn on my Front porch and side porch lights; they are wired to (Lutron Caseta Switches).

Everything worked great however I had a Tasker profile that would wait 10 minutes and turn off the porch lights.  At first I tried creating a rule in SmartThings but it would turn the lights off constantly after 10 minutes even if I manual turned them on.  I figured out what I need to create is a SmartThings Virtual Switch.

Below is my configuration.

Step 1.  Create a virtual switch to be the timer.  (more…)

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