What I want is:
If mode is changed to away or night, check if any window is open and if so, activate siren (I managed to do that). what I can’t figure out is to stop the siren, as soon as all windows are closed. At least not in an elegant way. Best I came up with is to setup other 6 rules, trigger each window closing, then checking if the others are closed too, and if so, stop the alarm. What a mess, I know
Has anybody an idea to put all of this in one rule? Or reduce the number of rules.
It is just that i never had a security system, nor did I
ever see such a system live. Right now i just added sensors to all openings and trying to get the best out of it. so I came up with this “close everything before going to bed”. and give alarm if any is opened, if we are away or the home mode is set to night.
I like to play around with different things and have a few variations of security rules for when I’m on Vacation (the house is empty) vs Away (Dogs or Guests home).
I also have Alexa devices that play announcements in certain situations.
Send a text if any lock is unlocked when Away
Send text if any door/window opens when Away
Send text if any motion detected when on Vacation
Play Announcement or send text if smoke or CO alarm detected
Play Announcement if certain doors open after I’ve gone to bed when home alone.
Bedtime check if all doors/windows/locks/garage is closed If yes, Alexa says All locked up. If no, Alexa tells me which contact was last opened (so I’m not looking around).
Happy to share details of any if you’re interested.
Those are great ideas. I will certainly implement some of these.
Do you have any “smart” solution concerning the “bedtime” modes? I thought of combining it with the presence sensors in the bedrooms. If we are all in our bedrooms for a certain period, the mode should change to “night”. So many possibilities :))
Not “smart” solutions because I couldn’t use “no motion” as a trigger because I have dogs, so I use buttons, voice commands and dashboard tiles.
Depending on what type of presence sensors you have and if you don’t have pets to trigger anything then motion or presence may work. Just be sure to account for if anyone isn’t home for the night.
I opted to use virtual switches to represent my modes because ST modes aren’t easy to see but it would work the same.
I often have my parents visiting and sometimes they go to bed early and other times way after me so I have 2 virtual switches, Bedtime and Good Night.
Bedtime switch: does things like turns on bedroom lamps, deactivates bedroom motion routines and mutes Alexa devices. This way it can be turned on when the first person goes to bed but doesn’t affect the rest of the house if others stay up.
Good Night switch: turns off the house and locks all the doors when the last person goes to bed. This is also used as a precondition to the bedtime check and I play announcement if door open mentioned above.
I also have an I’m Up switch which is activated by Alexa voice command in the morning (also a dashboard tile). It tells me the weather, my commute time, and turns off Bedtime and Good Night switches.
Great ideas! I will certainly implement some of those. Thank you very much, Terri.
A thing that bothers me, since I started to go deeper into the rabbit hole. What if something bad happens to me? I am sure my wife couldn’t just step in and do the administration and maintenance.
Do you guys have any “unsmart the home” plan? So that everything can be controlled normally again? Maybe a button that just deactivates all the rules, routines, and so on. This part shouldn’t be a big problem, but having the possibility on the hardware side just added a new dimension of complexity for me.
Sorry for the late replies, it has been a stressful week.
I have a zigbee button called Override House.
Off means the house runs smart. On disables all things smart. I set this as a precondition Off, in every routone/rule.
This also comes in handy if you have any work being done in the home so lights don’t turn off on the workers
