Hey everyone, I wanted to share my recent experience with SmartThings and how I managed to solve a problem that was initially quite puzzling. I’ve been using SmartThings for a while now, mainly for controlling my lights and some basic automation. Recently, I decided to take it a step further by setting up a rule to restore the state of my lights when I return home. Let me walk you through my journey and how I made it work.
So, the goal was pretty straightforward: when I come home, I wanted all my lights to automatically turn on to their previous state before I left. I had already set up a rule that turns off all the lights when I leave, which works perfectly. But getting them to turn back on exactly as they were was a bit of a challenge.
I started by checking the SmartThings documentation and forums, and I found that there’s a feature called “save state” for groups. It sounded promising, but I wasn’t entirely sure how to implement it. I decided to give it a try and set up a group called “allLights” which includes all the lights in my house. Then, I created a rule that would save the state of this group when I leave. The idea was that when I return, the rule would restore this saved state.
At first, it didn’t work as expected. The lights would turn on, but not to their previous brightness levels or colors. I realized that simply saving the state wasn’t enough; I needed a more precise way to capture and restore each light’s individual settings. After some research and experimentation, I discovered that I could use a combination of routines and detailed settings within SmartThings to achieve the desired result.
Here’s what I did:
- I created a detailed scene for each room, capturing the exact brightness and color settings of each light.
- I linked these scenes to my “allLights” group, ensuring that when the group is activated, each light reverts to its saved settings.
- I set up a geofencing trigger so that when I return home, the scenes are automatically activated.
It took a bit of tweaking, but eventually, it worked perfectly! Now, whenever I come home, my lights greet me with the same warm and inviting ambiance I left behind. It’s a small victory, but it’s made my home feel even smarter and more personalized.
I’d love to hear how others have tackled similar automation challenges. Whether it’s restoring light settings or something else entirely, sharing experiences helps us all learn and improve our smart home setups. Keep innovating and happy automating!