Home automation is one of those areas where you can really let your imagination run wild!
How about a house that detects when youβre walking down the drive, and then welcomes you home by turning on all the lights? Or, you might create an alarm that plays whenever the house detects that youβre heading to bed without locking all the doors and windows first.
While itβs fun to think about all the cool ways that you could automate your home, how do you bring all of these great ideas to life?
In this article, Iβll show you how to take the first steps towards the fully-automated home of your dreams, using Samsung SmartThings.
By the end of this article, youβll have installed your SmartThings Hub, connected a smart device, and setup the SmartThings app on your smartphone or tablet, so you can monitor your home regardless of where you are in the world. Weβll also create a custom rule, so youβll receive smartphone notifications about the events that matter to you, such as drastic changes in temperature, doors or windows being opened, or even the pizza delivery guy pulling up in front of your house!
We wonβt quite get to the point where youβre locking the front door with a vocal command, or boiling the kettle when the house detects that youβre getting out of bed in the morning, but by the end of this article youβll have setup a powerful and versatile home automation network, that you can build on indefinitely.
What do I need?
Home automation may be an exciting topic, but it isnβt the easiest to get started with! Newcomers will typically need to purchase multiple pieces of hardware and download a mobile app before they can perform even the simplest home automation task β and Samsung SmartThings is no exception!
In this article, weβll be using a Multi Sensor to monitor the temperature in your home, and then issue a mobile notification whenever the temperature gets too high, or too low. This is a pretty straightforward project thatβs ideal for anyone whoβs new to home automation, but it still requires you to setup the Samsung app and purchase a SmartThings Hub and a Multi Sensor.
This is a significant investment, both in terms of time and money, but the good news is that once youβve setup your SmartThings Hub and app it becomes much easier (and often, less expensive) to connect additional smart devices, sensors and applications.
You can purchase the Hub and Multi Sensor separately, but Iβd recommend investing in a SmartThings Starter Kit as it contains the Hub and the Multi Sensor, plus a good selection of other sensors β which weβll be exploring in future articles.
Is SmartThings compatible with non-Samsung products?
When a piece of tech is only compatible with officially-licensed products, you can quickly end up spending more than you budgeted for, as the lack of competition encourages companies to increase their prices.
Thankfully, this doesnβt seem to be the case with SmartThings Hub, as itβs compatible with a wide range of third-party devices.
Firstly, SmartThings uses the Zigbee and Z-Wave standards, so any smart device thatβs compatible with either of these standards will be able to communicate with your SmartThings Hub.
Even if a device doesnβt use Zigbee or Z-Wave, thereβs no shortage of scripts, apps and general workarounds, which should be enough to get most smart devices communicating with your SmartThings Hub. In particular, you should check out the IFTTT website, which offers automation βrecipesβ for devices that arenβt typically considered SmartThings compatible, including Nest products. If youβre a bargain hunter, then you can often find cheaper alternatives to popular smart devices, by shopping around for lesser-known products that arenβt SmartThings branded, but are SmartThings compatible.
And, if you want some extra assurance that your third-party products will work with your hub, then the SmartThings mobile app has a βMarketplaceβ of devices that are known to be compatible with SmartThings, including devices that arenβt Samsung branded, such as Rachio sprinklers and Yale Keyless Smart Locks.
Connecting your SmartThings Hub
If you want to use any SmartThings devices, then youβll need to setup a SmartThings Hub somewhere in your house, as the Hub is the brains of the operation thatβll ultimately be responsible for connecting and coordinating all of your smart home gadgets.
Youβll need to connect your Hub to a) a power supply, and b) your router, using the supplied cables and power socket.
Once the Hub has a power supply, it should display a series of LEDs. The first time you power up the Hub, these lights will typically cycle through several different colours:
- Solid blue. Your Hub is attempting to connect to the network. If the Hub displays solid blue lights for a significant period of time, then check the network settings to make sure you arenβt experiencing any network-related issues.
- Blinking magenta. The Hub is downloading an update. This is pretty common the first time you power up a new Hub, so donβt be concerned if youβre suck on magenta lights for a while.
- Solid magenta. Your Hub is applying the update that it just downloaded.
- Solid green. Your Hub is online, and is now ready to use!
If the Hub displays blinking blue lights, then itβs struggling to connect to your local network. Make sure the ethernet cable is securely connected to your router, and check that you arenβt experiencing any issues with your Internet connection.
Control your smart home, from your smartphone
Next, we need to setup the SmartThings mobile app, so you can monitor and control all of your smart devices from your smartphone or tablet.
Currently, thereβs two apps that you can use to remotely connect with your smart home: βSmartThings Classic,β and βSmartThings.β While it seems that Samsung are pushing for everyone to migrate to the SmartThings app, some users claim that this application doesnβt play nicely with non-Samsung devices, such as iPhones, so weβll be using the SmartThings Classic application throughout this tutorial.
- Download the SmartThings Classic mobile app to your iOS or Android device.
- Launch the application and tap ββNew to SmartThings.β
- If you already have a Samsung account, then enter your login information, or tap βCreate Accountβ and then complete the registration form.
- Once youβre logged into your account, the app will ask for a welcome code. Youβll find this information on the leaflet that came with your SmartThings Hub, or Samsung SmartThings Starter Kit. Enter this code into the application.
- Click βContinueβ and the app will request access to your location. This is required if you want to trigger actions when you enter or leave your house, for example if you eventually want to set your alarm automatically whenever you leave for work, or switch on the lights when you step through the front door. Unless you have a specific reason not to share this information, then grant the location permission when prompted.
- Check the detected location and, if itβs accurate, give this location a name and tap βThis is My Location.β
- Wait for the app to detect your Hub. This may take several minutes. If the app is struggling to connect with your Hub, then check the Hubβs LEDs to make sure it isnβt installing an update, or experiencing any connection issues.
- Once the app has successfully connected to your Hub, itβll display a βSuccessβ message; tap βDone.β
The app will now display the SmartThings dashboard.
Adding smart devices to your SmartThings network
Once youβve setup the app and Hub, youβre ready to start adding SmartThings accessories to your network. In this tutorial, weβll be adding a Multi Sensor, but the steps will typically be the same, regardless of the device youβre adding to your network.
The Multi Sensor is one of SmartThingβs most versatile sensors. Firstly, you can use it to detect whether doors, windows, cupboards or drawers are open or closed, for example you might want to receive a warning on your smartphone if you ever try to leave the house without locking every window first. You could also use the Multi Sensor to switch lights on and off automatically, whenever you exit or enter a room.
The sensor can also detect βactivity,β which includes vibrations. If youβre forever missing deliveries even when youβre in the house, then you could play an alarm, flash the lights or ring your phone whenever the Multi Sensor detects someone knocking at the door.
To help keep things simple, weβll be using the Multi Sensor to monitor the temperature, as this doesnβt require you to attach the sensor to a door or window β you can simply the place the sensor anywhere in the room that you want to monitor.
This temperature monitoring can be handy if you have any pets that are sensitive to fluctuations in temperature, or if youβre the carer for vulnerable adults and want some extra reassurance that their home is always at a comfortable temperature.
To add a smart device to your network:
- Launch the SmartThings Classic mobile app.
- Make sure the βMy Homeβ tab is selected.
- Select the βThingsβ tab.
- Tap βAdd a Thing.β The app should display a βLooking for devicesβ¦β message.
- While the Hub searches, pull the sensorβs βREMOVE TO PAIRβ tab. Place the sensor in the room that you want to monitor.
- Once the app has detected the Multi Sensor, tap βRename deviceβ and give it a unique name.
- Tap βDone,β followed by βSave.β
- When prompted, tap βOK.β
Navigate back to the main application dashboard, and you should see that the Multi Sensor is now listed as a βThing.β Select the sensor, and you should see the current temperature.
Automating your home with custom rules
When you first setup a new smart device, itβs fun to keep opening the SmartThings app to check what this sensor is currently detecting. However, once the noveltyβs worn off youβre not going to want to check the app multiple times a day β which is where rules come in.
Rules allows you to create a network that performs actions automatically, in response to different activities and events β basically, rules put the βautomationβ in βhome automation!β For example, you might create a rule that switches on the security camera whenever movement is detected outside your home, or a rule that dims the lights when you start watching a movie.
Letβs create a simple rule that sends us a notification whenever the temperature rises above a certain level:
- In the SmartThings Classic app, select βDashboardβ from the bottom-left corner.
- Select the βSmart Home Monitorβ card.
- Tap the little cog in the upper-right corner.
- Choose βCustom.β
- Select βNew monitoring rule.β
- Tap βWhat kind of device do you want to use?β
- Select βTemperature sensor.β
- Tap βSelect Temperature sensors.β
- Choose the sensor that you want to use, and then tap βDone.β
- Choose βTemperature is greater than or equal toβ and enter the point at which it becomes too hot. To make it easier to test this rule, you may want to set this threshold pretty low!
- Specify how often you want to receive a notification, either by pushing the βOnly once per dayβ slider into the βOnβ position, or by tapping βOnce within this number of minutesβ and then entering a specific timeframe.
- Tap βMore optionsβ and then decide whether SmartThings should only warn you on certain days, or at certain times.
- Once youβre happy with your settings, tap βNextβ in the appβs upper-right corner.
- Now, we need to specify what happens when this event is detected. Find the βText & Push Notificationsβ slider, and push it into the βOnβposition.
- Enter the phone number where SmartThings should send this alert.
- Type your message.
- Tap βSave.β
SmartThings will automatically assign your rule a name based on its parameters, but you can change this name by pushing the βEdit rule nameβ slider into the βOnβ position, and then editing the βEnter custom nameβ field.
Once youβre happy with your settings, tap βSave.β
This rule is now active, and you should receive a push notification on your smartphone or tablet, as soon as the temperature exceeds the specified limit.
Congratulations, youβve just created your first SmartThings rule!
Editing your rules
If you want to make some tweaks to this rule, then:
- Select the βDashboardβ tab.
- Tap the βSmart Home Monitorβ card.
- Give the little cog icon in the upper-right corner a tap.
- Select βCustom.β
- Your custom rule will now appear in the list; give it a tap. You can now edit this rule.
Alternatively, if you wanted to permanently delete this rule, then youβd select the βRemoveβ button.
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