I have 4 echo shows and one echo dot and my family is getting annoyed with me because my automation aren't running properly! I don't know if my devices are just wonky or what. I tried to get the live feed from my ring doorbell cam on 3 of the echo shows but that did not work and drained the doorbell battery 12% in one day, so I deleted the routines. But now my bedroom echo show gets the live feed even though there's no routine set. And I don't know how, but if I have to pick one device to get it, it would be my living room echo show. And I set routines that should simultaneously alert my phone when there's certain sounds coming from my daughter's room (crying, coughing, beeping) and separate routines for alexa to say to her "I've alerted mom, she'll be here soon" but those routines just won't play. I get the notification but she doesn't get the message of reassurance. And then last night, the echo in my bedroom alerted me to MY coughing. I was nowhere near my daughter's echo, so why is it picking up sounds from my room??? I'm so confused. I've deleted every routine that isn't working and I'm so frustrated.

I really starting to get into this stuff myself. I dont have anyone living with me though to get annoyed with it. Never did get the Konke door sensor to work with Alexa. But the Ecolink one works fantastic. Just got to iron out Certain details of the routines. Going to pot another on on the door coming in from the garage. Your videos have given me some ideas for other things.

Great video, so glad to see your wife working with you on these! You look great together! 😁

You mention Alexa a lot here, does it work with Google too?

Hi I'm having problems with my sensor in the kitchen. it turns on the lights when I walk in but then turns then off even when you're in the kitchen still how would you set it so as long as you are in the kitchen the lights stay on I'm using the Google home and smart life.. this drives my wife crazy thank you for your help

For most if not all of these you need to add more logic to your code. In code a sensor probably shouldn't trigger an action directly. That would produce the results you're experiencing where you manually turn it off and the automation turns it back on.

I have most of the same features but I don't have to get in the way to override automation. Sticking to your one issue there with the kitchen lights and the sensor, at a high level, you need code to read the sensor and code to trigger the action. So in other words, a single code block that says when this happens do that is not enough, for basic automation sure but for "smart" no way. Between your sensor code and action code is code to read various sensors and states around the room to determine if the action should be called. For instance, you need logic to detect manual actions. If you manually operate the switch then flip a variable in the code. This way when the sensor code is triggered the action code wont be called because an if condition wasn't met somewhere in the middle. You can have multiple separate pieces of code to flip the same variable off(or a separate variable for each piece of code). So in addition to detecting manual actions; when you have guests staying over night you can go to a UI and press an "Automation Off" button that would only flip the variable to off. Of course you'll need to write this code so they also turn the variable back on. It may sound hard but it's more tedious than complicated, makes for larger but smarter programs.

Personally, we usually do not have to control the lights in the general spaces in my house; by voice or touch. I'm in the process of add continuity to my setup so during the remodel we can remove (hide) all physical controls; That's how infrequently they're used. We'll use voice in the off chance we need to make an adjustment. From experience, you need sensors, sensors, and more sensors. You may also need better or more open switches so you can even detect the button press (properly) to trigger your code. I even fabricate sensors in code. I create variables or fake devices then I write code that calculates values from other sensors and devices and assigns it to my variable or fake device. I then use that fake device or variable in code as a trigger or blocker for other processes. The more sensors you can pull data from to inform your code as to what's going on in the space, the smarter the system will be and the less you'll have to do day to day while interacting with it.

Be careful, as you can see it's a rabbit hole. You'll have a blast the whole way down though.

I have a “Gloomy Lights” webCoRE piston (using SmartThings) that turns lights on/off in the living room and den during pre-set timeframes – based on external LUX levels, our presence and override switches. It works very well. However, although my wife liked it overall, when she was reading a book in the living room, she did not enjoy having the lights turn off when the LUX level increased. To me, it made perfect sense to turn the lights off when the LUX levels were sufficiently bright. Why would you need lights when it’s bright? To her though, she felt that it was a disruption when trying to read. Upon further discussion, she said that it felt like she couldn’t control the situation.

So, I gave her back control by adding additional logic to the piston for each affected room. If the lights in a particular room are turned on and set to 100% – normally via Alexa verbal command, the lights will remain unaffected (both on and off) by the changing LUX levels. Now, she feels like she has complete control of the lights when she wants it and loves the automation.

Lights are challenging automation, But having a smart wall switch and smart light bulbs combine, it provides several choices to keep family happy.

Wow! Reid just turns his back on his wife and goes back to what he was doing. Not a good response. He’ll pay for that.

Great video idea! Thanks for this 😁 makes my laugh seeing the common mistakes I’ve encountered myself. I swear motion sensors are the worst “good” idea 🙄

I've once set up shut off all lights, heating etc after 10 minutes when all mobile phone MAC addresses were away from the network. worked great. Now in come my non tech savy parents in law to babysit… The spend the whole evening in the darkness and with no heating (still had statefull light switches at that point). This was all by accident

Can this be done with Google?

I have a question about motion sensors! So, if I have a motion sensor turn on my lights when I walk into the kitchen and turn off the lights when I walk out… what happens if my family walks in while I am in the kitchen and the lights are already on? Would their motion trigger the lights to go off? Your channel is very helpful!

Someone needs to invent a Hub for Other Hubs.

I appreciate your online tutorial on making the "Simulated Alexa Switch." That one thing was worth a lot to me. I have done it several times now and it works GREAT! THANK YOU!

I believe you are very ready to move to HomeSeer so you can do these things without the complex Alexa tweaking.

„To avoid annoying people with lights turning off my echo will now yell at me which is a lot less annoying“

I have to get a I had to get a motion light for my bathroom because the door sensor is a few seconds too slow

Hi. For your flash briefing issue where your wife goes in the room, you could just not have it play when you come in the room but use a smart button instead. That way your wife doesn't need to tell Alexa 'stop' every day and you just walk in an single/double tap the button to start or stop it. I do this with a button by my bed and use the Echo Speaks app for WebCore.

I want to add some device in my garage but is around 70m away of my home is any solution? Maybe a 2nd SmartThings hub that will speak to first by webcore or is not possible.? Also can you have 2 hubs in same internet connection? Any other solution?

My wife does NOT like lights coming on, especially at night. she would live in a dim cave if she could. However, she found that dim and ideally green (in my color bulbs) didn't disturb her much. I set my hallway automations to use green lights (because why not) and be white if turned on by the switch. I also have it do different brightnesses for the bathroom depending on time of day, so it matches the ambient levels. Thankfully, she loves having the ability to use Alexa to dim or turn off any light from any part of the house.

Backyard solution: use virtual switch that prevents lights off when real switch is on. Kitchen cabinet: change the place of motion sensor to include only kitchen part. The same for office news reader. Kitchen main: It's your fault – you are not sure if the motion should do the job or not; if you find a pattern you will find a solution. As of trials and errors – if you think carefully, you'll get only little errors.