Nearly All Pistons Failing

#1

Is anyone else having repeat issues with their pistons that run on timers? For about 5 or 6 weeks now my pistons have been completely unreliable, and I can’t figure out why. I’ve tried updating the SmartApp, clearing memory for the worst offending pistons, etc. but nothing is working.

The biggest issues I have at the moment are:

  1. Pistons that control multiple devices (at 8pm shut off three switches… only one light will turn off and the others are skipped).
  2. The logs aren’t helpful because, like just now at 8pm here, one light changed intensity as it should but the logs show no command sent. Logs in SmartThings say the command came from this piston… so round and round I go.
  3. Time never triggers when it should, and it always is followed up by a time/recovery trigger for some reason.

Time trigger issues (fires at 8:01:xx so my “time happens daily at 8pm” trigger fails):
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Here is where it shows the “Time happens daily at 8pm” evaluated false (therefore not sending the command to dim my lights to 15%): [bottom line of the log file shown]

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Yet SmartThings shows the last command to dim my lights to 15% came from this piston… at 8pm today.

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Here’s a piece of the piston in question (all pistons are behaving similarly, this is just an example).

Anyway, hoping someone has a pointer or two. I’ve been travelling about 80% for the past 8 weeks and just don’t have time to keep chasing my tail on this. At this point I’m close to just shutting it all off so I can pay attention to other things the little bit of time I get at home. Thanks in advance for any help!

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#2

hi, michicago
I had started having problems with
“IF TIME IS Between X and Y time”
few weeks back

and changed all of those to TIMERS
EVERYDAY AT 5.00pm

and now they all work great.
So, I am not having problems with TIMERS…
I just avoided same time TIMERs though
If one is 7.00pm, the other one is 7.01pm

But I wouldn’t know what to do with the conditions between X and Y time.

#3

Thanks Ike! Unfortunately, the pistons I’m having an issue with are already the “when time happens daily at X:xx”… they have worked great for a year, but now every one of them fires late and then fails to execute the code (since the time check window has passed by the time it triggers).

I’ve tried everything I can think of in the little time I have to look at this. My guess from the lack of reports and responses on here is that it’s not a widespread issue.

As disappointing as it is, I may just have to turn everything off and go back to using them like dumb switches. I can’t take any more of the “this isn’t work, that’s not working, and the lights only half turned off” messages when I’m on the road. :frowning:

#4

Have you logged into IDE at https://account.smartthings.com and checked if your timezone & sunrise/sunset times are correct?

#5

Yeah all is good there. It’s times like 8pm, 7pm, etc. not working. They fire 1-2 minutes late.

#6

This may not solve your issue, but sometimes it helps to power off your modem & router… wait 10 seconds, and plug back in… Ten minutes later, unplug your ST hub, count to ten, and plug it back in.

This has helped with a few of my clients in the past.

An advance version of this:
You could also prioritize your ST hub’s traffic in your router settings. Just be aware that many ISPs hand out cheap modem-routers that may not have this feature. (it could be called Prioritizing or Quality Of Service). I usually assign the MAC address of the ST hub as being number 1 priority.

QUOTE:
Quality of Service (QoS) is a feature of routers and switches which prioritizes traffic so that more important traffic can pass first. The result is a performance improvement for critical network traffic.

#7

Oh man I know how frustrating this can be…
We had a house sitter and she said in the middle of the night all sonos speakers started playing very loud.
And I have no idea why?? (I have some calendar annoucements etc) but probaply something that was working properly stopped working that night…

You are 100 times better at this stuff than me, so you know what you are doing for sure… I just wanted to share a FAIL system i started using lately, maybe it will serve your situation. Or somebody else that reads this… It is not ideal but helping me a lot especially for this type of un-expected behaving pistons.:

Lets say I have something that needs to be triggered at 7.00am
And there is a piston (PISTON A) that triggers that thing at 7.00am
when PISTON A is executed, I assign a number to a global variable (INTEGER).
a minute or two later I have another piston that runs and checks the variable if its assigned number or not. If not changes the variable.
But of course with this in mind almost all of my pistons are working with global variables now.

PISTON 1
7.00am piston starts running,
change global variable house lights to X
Motion sensors are activated etc…

PISTON 1A (Fail safe)
7.05am
Another piston runs (Timer, motion, sim switch etc it can be activated differently)
Checks the global variable
IF global variable is not X
Changes the variable to X

So with five minutes delay the problem is fixed…
Just to test this I setup SMS message after every piston and yes sometimes for some reason first piston fails but second one does the trick.

I wish I knew more so that I could give you the exact help you need.

#8

Thanks Ike!

Unfortunately I just don’t have time to replace all my pistons with fail safes… if lights turning on at a specific time is too complicated to do with one piston, this has officially become too much headache for me to maintain (especially while on the road).

Looks like I’m using today to undo all of it and go back to using switches as switches. Disappointing and frustrating…

#9

Ugg, I was really hoping rebooting both the modem and hub would refresh and repair any discrepancies…

#10

Thanks man, I was too. I’m going to try the smart lighting app to see if it can at least manage to turn my outdoor lights on at a specific time… if that fails then I’m just ripping out the whole hub and being done with it.

#11

@michicago
this video will solve your problem :slight_smile:

#12

:joy::joy:

It was definitely not my first choice… but I just got a text from my wife complaining that she turned off the TV and all the family room lights came on. I checked webCoRE and the log shows no commands were sent. I checked the logging in SmartThings and it shows my piston sent a “level set” command to all the lights.

I can’t keep trying to troubleshoot this stuff from 6-10 time zones away when the log files are lying (at least one of them HAS to be wrong). I enjoyed it and helping the folks on here whenever I could, but at this point zero of my pistons are working as they should and behavior doesn’t match the log files… and I’m not finding any solutions here so it’s time to throw in the towel.

I’ll still drop by to help people from time to time when I can! And don’t hesitate to PM me with any questions - even if it’s not working at my house, I enjoy helping you get yours set up the way you want. :slight_smile:

#13

I’ve noticed the same thing since around this time.

All my pistons are failing as well due when the “repeat”.

They only cycle 8 times, then they stop executing.