Light Group With Correct Status

Hello All, I wanted to take a minute to share a solution I found for light group status.

The problem: When grouping lights, switch / tile would report “off” unless all lights in the group where on.

The use case: Using smart bulbs (or in my case downlights) and wanting the ability to control lights with multiple groups. For example, All Kitchen Lights, Front Kitchen Lights, Back Kitchen Lights, or even a single kitchen light etc…

In order for fix the status updating correctly, I used a smart app called “TrendSetter”.

This application worked where virtual and simulated switches/dimmers did not. For the lights I have (Wiz), only the dimmer worked, despite my lights being color and temperature changing. The individual lights work as expected (color and temperature too).

I know there are a lot of other solutions out there, for my setup this is the only one that worked. I also understand this is not perfect. For me, it allows my non-tech savvy family members and visitors to do what they need.

I still have one known bug, but not a deal breaker for me. I am trying to play with rules to fix it, but have not been able to yet. Some of my family members like to use the physical switches instead of smart controls. When they do that and a light is offline, the TrendSetter group does not update accordingly. I tried a rule checking different status for offline lights, so far that has not worked. I am not a developer, but used to script a lot. I intend to look at the trend setter code to see if I can add something around device status. If anyone else finds a solution to the known issues I would appreciate a quick reply to help documented a full solution for the community.

Best of luck all!

Github Repo →
image

Partial example of the main dashboard (still WIP). Most of the lights on this panel are Trend Setter Groups. I have the link to “Lights” which brings up the panel below to control the rest of the downstairs lights, down the the individual light.

Partial example of the detailed light dashboard I created. The area circled in Red are the TrendSetter groups and the other lights are the individual lights.

2 Likes

Thanks for sharing! Should be helpful to other community members! :+1:

Thanks Josh, I also shared on the ST community and was advised/reminded that the groovy apps will stop working soon, which means that customer with lighting situations like myself will be stuck at some point in the future. Given your relationship with ST, maybe you can request lighting groups to be accessible so we can grant access to them and this whole issue goes away? The only other idea I can think of is having a rule that can update the status of a device without triggering the device’s actions. i.e. I could create a rule that turns on the group switch when any light in the group is turned on, and turn off the light when all of the lights in the group are off. Of course we still need the switch to work, meaning if the tile is tapped the all lights would be turned off (assuming one ore more are already on).

Thanks for any advise or help you may be able to offer.

-Walt

Unfortunately, lighting groups can only be controlled manually within the SmartThings app. They’re not even accessible in Scenes, Routines (Custom Automation), or other ‘first-party’ features from SmartThings.

I totally agree that it’s an odd choice. It’s like they implemented the base functionality and then just forgot about them.

I’ve seen some community members use rules to aggregate the status of devices into variables. You could then have a separate rule that you could run (using the hyperlink syntax) if you wanted a custom action to occur when the variable tile is tapped.