Communication failure attribute to Vera devices

Feature Requests
#1

Add commFailure attribute as default to Vera devices.

I have a dashboard which shows door contact sensor statuses i.e. whether door is open or closed. One door showed nicely closed all the time even in Vera that sensor was marked “Can’t detect device”. Rootcause for issues was empty battery in the sensor. So behaviour here is that contact status will stuck to a value even sensor cannot be reached and that is not good for making status display. There is however attribute “commFailure” which tells is the device connection OK.

SmartThings Offline
#2

The commFailure attribute is already available in the SData. All you have to do is under the device add an attribute called commFailure (make sure write it exactly how it is in the SData). Then you can add a datatrigger to your device to make it say cant connect or something if commFailure = 1. To check if commFailure is already present in SData click this link and search for your device, it will say it in there.

http://VERA-IP/data_request?id=sdata

#3

Yes, I am aware it is there. But I am lazy and don’t want to add it manually to all my Vera devices. Or is there way to add it to all easily?

#4

Its not that difficult to add the lengthiest part is adding the attribute to each device. Then after all you have to do is update the template with the datatrigger . I did this for the lasttrip variable in under 10 mins for my mix of 20 contact, motion and smoke sensors.

#5

I’m currently working on some updates that will standardize both “commFailure” & “lasttrip” so you no longer have to manually assign these.

In the upcoming 3.18.0 release, every security sensor capability will include a “LastX” attribute which is a timestamp of the latest event. For example:
ContactSensor => LastContact
MotionSensor => LastMotion
SmokeSensor => LastSmoke

This will be available for sensors from most integrations, not just Vera (Fibaro, HomeSeer, Home Assistant, Hubitat, SmartThings, etc).

Sometime after that there are plans to tackle “commFailure”. It’ll likely be mapped to a new capability but I’m not sure what this is going to be called yet. SmartThings calls this “healthStatus”, Philips Hue calls it “reachable”. This could be 3.19.0, 3.20.0, I’m not certain yet. But it is definitely on my radar & something that will be handled in the next month or 2.

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#6

I like the commFailure idea very interesting.

I added Last Tripped for all my Door, Smoke, Co and Motion sensors.

Assume the above, will be the same thing as Last Tripped?

#7

Correct. Same exact timestamp. Just a different name.

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#8

Well commFailure works OK.

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