Reporting Online Status of Device With Hub

#1

I have a freezer plugged into a GFCI in my garage. The garage is a stand alone circuit and therefore the only way to tell if it is functioning is to physically check it. This is not good and is a potential loss.

I can plug a smart plug into an outlet in the garage that could serve as a canary. If the plug fails to stay connected, then I will know the circuit failed.

My problem is that I can find no way to make the hub check the circuit every 30 minutes to make sure it is still on line. This to me seems like a very basic function that should not be that difficult (hub sends out a ping, if it doesnt come back – it failed so change the status to offline and send an SMS or make alarm sound). However, I can find nothing that will do this.

FYI I am aware of alarms that do this ($10) and a Wi-Fi service ($50), but this is one of the things SmartThings should be very capable of doing.

Also, Edge may allow this – Ibut dont want to wait 1 to 3 to ?? years to wait for a “maybe”, when the capability should be there now.

Any input wpuld be appreciated.

#2

Can you just ask the smart plug if it’s on, every 30 minutes?

#3

Tried it, by first allowing the plug to sit there in an “On” status for 10 minutes, then unplugging it. Tried to tell toggle the switch (which would fail since it is not online), but there was no chnage of status.

9 hours later, it still says it is connected.

#4

Sounds like you have a device, driver, or hub problem. Which hub are you on?

#5

Hardware: hub v2, US customer Rev E
Firmware: 000.039.00006

#6

Can you control the plug with webcore? Can you give us a green shot of that piston?

#7

When it is plugged in I have full control of the plug. Here is my test code:

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#8

you appear to be polling a trigger

changes is a trigger

it seems if you want to poll it you would not use a trigger comparison…

Or stop polling it

#9

Based on that, how do I force the hub toi query the device to figure if it is on line or not?

#10

polling could be $status is xxxxx. (ie a condition) if you embed it in an every statement

#11

It is all very well suggesting the hub pings the hub, but that assumes the device is capable of responding in some way, and many of them can’t. For those that can, that has long been part of determining the online/offline status in SmartThings. Online/offline status is a bit hit and miss though and it is more about eventually warning you that you might be spitting in the wind, than actually immediately alerting you of a problem on your timescale.

If you have a canary outlet, you might perhaps be better off doing something active with it, such as toggling it remotely every x minutes and then monitoring whether it ever stays the same state for more than x + 1 minutes. That may or may not be a reasonable idea, I really haven’t thought it through at all.

#12

I was going to suggest one of the older ST motion sensors (if you can find one) that can be plugged in or battery powered. I believe it’s been used as a canary device before.

#13

That was what I was attempting to do.

The hub sends out a signal/command. The device responds/reacts. Failure to recieve a response results in reporting.

Power for the hub is constant, so it will always be on line.