Grouping sensors with different values for open/close

[TC1]

I'm hoping I can use the ET Group feature for multiple door and window sensors... but it seems it won't be possible. Though all the sensors report a status string of either "Open" or "Close", they report different status numerical values for those two states.

Is there a trick to getting this to work? Or am out of luck and will have to construct triggers with multiple OR statements.

A nice feature would be if ET Groups could be triggered on the status string instead of the status value.

spud any thoughts on this?

[paul]

Aside from if you can use the status string, what are the number differences? I think the ability to use logic to worn across them probably depends on what the differences are with the numbers….

[TC1]

It's not easy....

One set of Z-wave sensors:
0 = No event
22 = Open
23 = Closed
254 = Unknown event

Another set of sensors:
0 = Closed
100 = Open

Ideally if ET could just work with the Status string in groups this would all be easy.

[logman]

Even more complicated and frustrating, the SmartThings plugin uses "0" = On and "1" = "Off" for lights, plugs, etc. That's a tuff one to work around. I asked Spud to have the plugin make the status numbers more HS friendly rather than directly reporting the SmartThings API values, but he wasn't interested in doing so. I believe the ability to use the status string would solve that issue as well.

The work around hack is to create virtual devices that represent each device with non-conforming status pairs. Set the status pair values however you want on the virtual devices, and then create events that toggle your virtual devices whenever the actual devices change value. You can then build your ET group using a mix of virtual devices along with other conforming devices.

Like I said, it's a hack. But it works.


--Barry

[TC1]

Even more complicated and frustrating, the SmartThings plugin uses "0" = On and "1" = "Off" for lights, plugs, etc. That's a tuff one to work around. I asked Spud to have the plugin make the status numbers more HS friendly rather than directly reporting the SmartThings API values, but he wasn't interested in doing so. I believe the ability to use the status string would solve that issue as well.

The work around hack is to create virtual devices that represent each device with non-conforming status pairs. Set the status pair values however you want on the virtual devices, and then create events that toggle your virtual devices whenever the actual devices change value.

Like I said, it's a hack. But it works.


--Barry

Yep... but once you look at all the steps involved (creating VDs for each physical device to abstract/normalize its values, the events to update those VDs, etc) then one might as well go back to not using ET for groups and just makes events with multiple OR triggers to account for each sensor.

<sigh>