SmartThings Home Monitor is a powerful tool in the SmartThings ecosystem for monitoring your home’s security and taking action when events occur (eg. notifying you, closing valves, etc).
Unfortunately, the ‘new’ SmartThings Home Monitor (STHM) associated with the new Samsung SmartThings app cannot be controlled by third party applications yet, so in this article we’ll describe how you can use Simulated Switches to integrate STHM with third party apps like SharpTools.io
If you’re looking for a video version of this post that you can follow along with, check out @Justin_Newbury from SimplySmart123’s video!
Background
One point of confusion is that SmartThings has two different versions of Smart Home Monitor - one associated with the SmartThings Classic App and another associated with the Samsung SmartThings App.
While they are very similar in functionality, only the “Smart Home Monitor” associated with the SmartThings Classic app can be controlled directly by third party apps like SmartThings.
Historically, even the first party Custom Automation builder within the new Samsung SmartThings app couldn’t even automate STHM control. But lucky for us, the Custom Automation builder just received the ability to control STHM in the past few weeks (end of Oct 2019).
| Smart Home Monitor | SmartThings Home Monitor | |
|---|---|---|
| Acronym | SHM | STHM |
| Mobile App | SmartThings Classic | Samsung SmartThings |
| App Logo |  |
 |
| 3rd Party Integrations |  |
 * |
| SharpTools Integration | |
* |
| Custom Automations (new app) |
|
|
Using Simulated Switches with STHM
Since the Custom Automation builder recently received support for controlling STHM, we can use that along with Simulated Switches to provide integration with other SmartApps like SharpTools!
The overall concept is to:
- Create simulated switches for each STHM state
- Create automations to link each switch being turned on to the appropriate STHM state being activated
- Create automations to link each STHM state change to mark the switches associated with the ‘inactive’ states as off
- Authorize the new Simulated Switches in SharpTools.io!
Note that SmartThings has some limits on how frequently you can change your STHM state via automation. In general day-to-day usage, you won’t likely run into this, but you may run into it when you are testing things after first setting it up.
1. Create Simulated Switches
Install a community driver for creating Virtual Switches. Community members have recommended the following Options
Create a Simulated Switch for each of the STHM States:
- Armed Away
- Armed Stay
- Disarmed
2. Create Automations to Control STHM when Simulated Switch turns on
Using the new Custom Automation builder in the new Samsung SmartThings app, create automations that change the STHM mode when each one of your simulated switches are activated.
IF 'Armed Stay' (Simulated Switch) changes to 'On'
THEN Set 'STHM' to 'Armed Stay'
Expand the steps below for more details. Be sure to create an automation for each switch.
Detailed Steps
- Open the new Samsung SmartThings mobile app
- Tap the
+icon in the top-right - Select Add automation
- In the If section, tap the large
+in the center of the page - Select Device status
- Select your desired simulated switch (eg. Armed Stay)
- Select On
- Tap Next to move on to the Then section
- In the Then section, tap the large
+in the center of the page - Select Change the Security mode
- Select the relevant state (eg. Armed (stay))
- Tap Save
- Tap Done
- Optionally adjust the provided Automation name and tap Ok to save the automation
Repeat the steps above for each of the other simulated switches.
Note: When creating the automation for Disarmed, it may inject a Send Notification action. Feel free to remove this action if you don’t want to be notified of the change.
Once this is complete, you will have successfully setup the automations that allow you to control STHM using switches. Proceed to the next step to keep the simulated switch state in sync with STHM.
3. Create automations to update Switch state when STHM state changes
In the previous step, we setup automations to control STHM when the switch state changed to On. In this step, we’ll setup automations to properly turn the switch state on or off when STHM state changes (eg. if it is changed manually or through other automations).
IF `STHM` changes to `Armed Stay`
THEN Set `Armed Stay` to `on`
Set `Disarmed` to `off`
Set `Armed Away` to `off`
Detailed Steps
- Open the new Samsung SmartThings mobile app
- Tap the
+icon in the top-right - Select Add automation
- In the If section, tap the large
+in the center of the page - Select Security mode
- Select your desired state (eg. Armed (stay))
Note: leave the Wait before activating option switched off. - Tap Save to confirm your selection
- Tap Next move on to the Then section
- In the Then section, tap the large
+in the center of the page - Select Control Devices
- Select all three simulated switches and tap Next (eg. Armed Away, Armed Stay, Disarmed)
- Important Step! Ensure that the switch which matches the STHM state you are working on is set to
Onand the others are set toOffeg. If you are working on the Armed (stay) STHM state, then set the switches to
Armed Away = Off
Armed Stay= On
Disarmed = OffNote: You can tap on each switch in the list to change its desired action
Leave ‘Delay this action’ and ‘Auto turn off’ disabled if prompted
- Tap Done
- Optionally adjust the provided Automation name and tap Ok to save the automation
Repeat the steps above for each of the other STHM states.
4. Authorize Switches in SharpTools.io and Use
- From your SharpTools.io User Page
- Tap Manage Connections
- Select SmartThings
- Follow the prompts, making sure to select the new Armed Away, Armed Stay, and Disarmed simulated switches you created
From here, you can add these three switches to your dashboard or use them in rules as normal!
If you hit the threshold for how frequently you can run an STHM automation, wait 1-2 minutes and then try again. As of writing this post, this limits had been increased slightly and appear to be reset every minute.
