Suppressing Rules after execution for a short time

[Mark_Montemayor]

I am fairly new to Sharp Tools and have no coding background, but love tinkering with my smart home at the cost of my family’s sanity when I experiment.

I currently have my house put on a show when someone approaches my front door using a rule with a trigger from a front door sensor. Is there any way to suppress repeating the trigger for about an hour until my little “show” ends?

The Amazon Alexa app has a feature like this in its “Routines” section, but I would like to see if I can utilize such a feature using Sharptools.

Any assistance would be most appreciated.

Thanks!!!
Mark

[josh]

Hey @Mark_Montemayor - welcome to the community! Glad to hear you are enjoying tinkering with your smart home along with SharpTools!

Check out the following post by @James which shows how to use a Virtual Switch to prevent how often a rule will run:

Motion sensor reset time

Hi @Jim_Simpson, welcome to the SharpTools community. You can do so by using a Virtual Switch and if_condition in the flow. Create a Virtual Switch and turn it on for 20 minutes when the rule is triggered, and use an if_condition to check if the VS is On to determine if the flow should change the light of the color or just ignore this rule trigger. See the rule example below that I used the VS in the if_condition as the first activity in the flow to determine if it should continue the flow I wa…

[Mark_Montemayor]

Thank you so much for the insight, Josh.

I am having trouble understanding how I can create a Virtual Switch. It looks like I create something in my Smartthings Classic App like a true switch and use that as the determining factor for a condition.

My only problem is: how do I create a virtual switch without having to purchase another individual device?

Thanks, Josh.
Mark

[josh]

The following post from the SmartThings community explains how to create a virtual switch:

FAQ: Creating a virtual Groovy Device [OBSOLETE]

@mattjfrank

Virtual / Simulated Device Types are functional “Things” but are not physical devices you have. Installing them allows you to control them via SmartApp’s just as you would a physical smart device.

Creating Virtual Devices - On/Off Switches

There are many reasons you’d have the need for a virtual switch.

• You want one switch to control multiple other switches and/or commands.
• You have a multi relay device and want to control the relays individually. (currently ST doesn’t support this)
• You could use virtual switches the same way you’d use Hello Home Actions, to take care of multiple actions or state changes with the change of your virtual switch state.

How To create a Virtual Switch

1. Login to the IDE @ https://graph.api.smartthings.com/
2. Click My Devices
3. Click the New Device Button
4. Enter a Name for the device, this can be whatever you want.
5. Enter a Label for the device, this is optional and can be whatever you want.
6. Enter a Device Network Id This can be anything you want. I recommend short and sweet but it cannot duplicate other device ID’s. Lets say it was a virtual switch for your living room lights, maybe call it LRVD01
7. Zigbee Id should be left blank
8. Select a Type from the dropdown, this should be Simulated Switch
9. Version should be published
10. Location should be your hub location, probably “Home”
11. Hub should be your hub name.
12. Group you won’t be able to select when creating, but these are Groups you’ve created in the Things page in the SmartThings app.
13. Click Create

Now you have a Virtual On/Off Switch in Things on your SmartThings App. You can use this Virtual Device

The process is very similar for other Virtual Devices, instead of Simulated Switch you can choose from many other Simulated Device Types.

[Mark_Montemayor]

Thanks so much, Josh.

I successfully created the virtual switch and added it to my rules. Let’s see how it goes.

Thanks again!
Mark