Introduction
I have been extremely fortunate in being picked to try out the new
Samsung SmartThings StarterKit by the market research/'Word of Mouth advertising' organisation,
TheInsiders.eu. The equipment has been supplied to me for a 6 week trial and I have set this blog up to detail my experiences from unpacking and using the product. In the coming posts, I aim to provide honest feedback with regards to my experiences, noting the good and bad points about the product.
My Background
I have 10+ years of experience working in IT (IT Manager/Systems Analyst roles) with a BSc Hons Degree in Computing. I'm interested to see if this product will appeal to a technical audience as well as general consumers. Coincidentally, I researched Smart Home's during my degree back in 2002. At that time, X10 technology was being used to turn electrical appliances on/off by sending signals over the power lines. Since then, I have always been tempted to try it out of curiosity of my geeky nature, but couldn't warrant spending the money.
Expectations
I like to think I am fairly clued up with the latest capabilities of Smart Home appliances. I have come across wireless home light control systems such as the Philips Hue system, but again, could never warrant spending a fair portion of cash to manage lighting levels. After finding out about the Samsung SmartThings product range, I was intrigued as it appears to be capable of talking to a variety of devices and importantly, is capable of talking to supported devices made by other manufacturers. I was particularly interested in the home security aspect of the product as the area where I live appears to be have a high rate of burglaries compared to surrounding city areas - my property has been broken into twice resulting in my increased paranoia with regards to security. I have set up an old web cam with a basic scheduled motion sensing to capture images. An interesting part of the Samsung SmartHub is that it can link to supported cameras (I might look into this later once I have evaluated the starter kit).
My Home/Environment
Location: UK (Midlands)
House Type: Terraced House (1920's)
Occupants: Family - 2 adults, 2 Children (under 5)
Devices: Android (Nexus 7 v2013), Windows Phone 10, Apple Ipad/Iphone & Windows 10 PC (Not yet supported?)
Unboxing
First impressions are important and Samsung appear to have presented the product well with regards to the packaging. The box folds open nicely to present the product and logically separated - the hub and sensors. A quick glance at the product documentation clearly identities the role of each sensor and obviously I am keen to get started so quickly look to connect everything.
 |
| Samsung SmartThings StarterKit Unboxed |
Initially, I did think the batteries that were included were destined for the various sensors, but my desire to skip the manual was suppressed and I spotted that these AA batteries go in the hub to keep it running during power outages - good (although I strongly suspect most users do not have batter backup for their routers so power will be needed for any interactions that require the internet access - e.g remote alerts).
 |
| Samsung SmartThings Hub - Don't forget the batteries! |
Set Up
Word of Warning!
Don't install and run the SmartThings App until you have set your hub up! I was excited about getting this product and thought I would prepare before it's arrival by downloading the App to my Android device. I initially ran the setup entering my email address but the registration process then requested to connect to the hub which I did not have at that point in time so I aborted that process.
Hub
After installing the batteries, I connected the Samsung SmartThings Hub to my router and a power supply. I was hoping to plug the hub into a shared 3 way power adapter block, but sadly the UK power plug was too tall so had to go in a different socket elsewhere. The device was easy to connect. Out of curiosity, I ran a network scan to determine the device IP address to see if there was any web browser administration options similar to some routers, but there didn't appear to be any facility for this. I was hoping there would be some thing as there didn't appear to be a method to control the hub from a PC - no Windows 10 App in the store.
Connecting the App and 'Things' (Sensors/Adapters)
After the hub started, I re-ran the Android App. The app didn't seem to like me using the same email address I used prior to receiving the device to connect to it, or allow me to reset the password so I ended up using my Google Mail's Plus address feature (myemail
+samsung@gmail.com) to create another new account. I then associated my new account to the hub by entering the unique code found on the underside of the welcome pack documentation holder. I read a few other Insiders.eu members had problems finding this code before getting this device, so knew where to look - ideally it would have been better to find this at the bottom of the hub, but not a problem.
The set up process seemed very clear, plenty of quick screens and animated video's showing the set up steps required. I set my devices location (and proximity range) and then searched for my 'things' (sensors). After pulling the battery-enabling tags on the 'things' and plugging in the power outlet 'thing' to a lamp, the detection process only seemed to pick up the power outlet and Multipurpose sensor. I had a quick glance at the sensor manuals and prised open the SmartSense Presence device and held the tiny button to turn it on - shortly after, the device was connected to the hub.
 |
| SmartThings Presence Sensor - Push the button to activate when setting up |
Sadly, the Motion sensor didn't connect despite opening up and pressing the button. I wondered if the connect button was broken as I needed to use a thin implement to push the button in and it didn't seem to provide any feedback to indicate anything was happening - not even a click. I thought the mechanism may have been broken and it needed sending back, but proceeded to try other methods to fix the issue. I spotted that the device had the same battery as the multi sensor so decided to swap the batteries in case one was flat - nope. There was a reference in the manual to the sensor requiring the button to be pushed as the battery is put in place, but again, this didn't seem to fix my issue. After removing the battery, I thought I would check the battery contacts - the bottom contact didn't look right to me, so I tried gently raising the metal contact by prising it upwards before inserting the battery - this seemed to work and got a blinking light right after inserting the battery - I was good to go and didn't have to face testing the equipment with a missing sensor.
The App
I quickly dived into the app and looked at the sensors that were available. I quickly spotted that the power outlet could be toggled on/off from the app and that proved a great first test. The app presented various easy to use set up wizards for things like security triggers and routines for leaving home etc. I soon had my lamp turning on/off by triggering the motion sensor. The configuration options were surprisingly easy to use and even covered options to prevent actions from being triggered multiple times within a short time timeframe - useful in suppressing multiple alerts being sent to my device when motion has been picked up.
Whilst testing, I spotted options to receive SMS text alerts when a particular sensor event was triggered. The event seemed to trigger my lamp to turn on, but have not yet been able to receive the SMS text (perhaps I need to enter the +44 international dialing prefix on my telephone number? - will look at later as I am not bothered about text alerts right now).
Playing with the app, I see a lot of unexpected useful features such as the power consumption level of my appliance (LED Lamp) being used - good to know it reporting 5.3W - roughly what it claimed to rated as. I also see the temperatures for the motion and multi sensors.
A useful function I see on the Presence 'thing' is an option to make it beep - great for locating my keys when lost - I assume this only works when lost in the house and in close proximity of the hub (I recall seeing a reference to 4-5 meter range during setup for the sensors, but my sensors seems to work located further away (5-6 meters) - think I will look at range later.
I then decide to try the
Windows Phone Samsung SmartThings App on my Windows 10 preview phone as I tend to have that with me more often. Sadly, the log in process fails. I suspect that this may be because the hub only supports having a single device connecting to it or for some reason does not like Google's plus addressing format in the email address log in credential. I have looked to change my email address in the working Android app but did not see an option to do this. I can't see an option to do this on the SmartThings website either, but will investigate later as I have one device working for now.
Initial impressions are that it is an easy to use device, but need to spend some time thinking of some handy uses other than turning on a lamp - good for security, but will it deter an intruder once inside the house? I was hoping to find an App in the Windows 10 Store for the PC, but there only appears to be an app for the Windows phone. I was particularly interested to see if there was a PC App as it could have supported running more custom actions - e.g, run a program or script when a sensor has been triggered - now that would be awesome and would make it very versatile! I checked the Samsung SmartThings website to see if there is a download, but only came accross developer resources - Samsung seem to be putting in a lot of effort to opening up the SmartThings platform to developers so hopefully we will see something on the PC soon....
My aim next week is to come up with some well though out schedules for security and night time routines. I may also investigate purchasing some additional sensors although since this is a trial, I don't think I can justify spending much if sending the device back.
Since I have a basic web security camera already I would be interested in linking it to a SmartThings compatible device such as:-
In addition, I am also intrigued in seeing how a device such as the Phillips Hue bulbs connect in - I suspect they will connect directly so the Philips Hue hub is not required.
For now, here is a short video on controlling a Toaster using the Outlet device and viewing it's status such as power consumption. Perhaps this could be linked to a smoke alarm to stop my toast from burning....
Please comment below if you have any questions regarding my set up or if you have any questions that I may be able to assist with. I am hoping to produce a blog entry each week with my experiences.
