How To: Set a Morning Timer for Kids Using Smart Bulbs | SmartThings

How To: Set a Morning Timer for Kids Using Smart Bulbs | SmartThings

Summary (TLDR)

Imagine the scenario where you've hit that perfect REM sleep around 6am and all of a sudden your kid jumps in your bed waking you up. It's the weekend, c'mon! You love the fact your kid is there, but you also hate it because they just ruined perfectly good sleep. Now imagine if you could give your child a visual cue using smart color bulbs to let them know when it's ok to come into your bedroom (ex: when the light bulb is red, you have to stay in your room, whereas when it turns green, you can come into our room). Well, it's definitely possible and that's exactly what we're going to share with you in this article (granted, your child still has to listen -- but hey, we at least gave you a tool!)

Setting up the Automation

In this example, we'll set an automation to where between the hours of 6am and 8:59am, the color bulb will be Red at 1% (as to not wake them up), which signifies that your child needs to stay in their room (aside from going to the bathroom). At 9:00am, the light will turn Green at 100%, giving your child permission to enter your room.  We'll use the built in Smart Lighting SmartApp and set a couple of automations to get this going. Finally, we'll choose Saturday and Sunday for this automation to occur.

Automation #1 - Bulb Turns on Red at 1% Between 6am - 8:59am

As mentioned above, we'll set the color bulb to come on to the color Red at 6am (at 1%) and then the bulb will transition to Green at 9am. So, in this case we need to set the automation between the hours of 6am and 8:59am on Saturday and Sunday.
  1. Open up your SmartThings app and click on the three lines at the top left (menu)
  2. Select, "SmartApps" and if you do not see the, "Smart Lighting" SmartApp, click on the (+) sign at the top right to find and select it (if you do see the Smart Lighting SmartApp, feel free to skip this step)
  3. Click on, "Smart Lighting" and then, "New Lighting Automation" and enter the values below:
  4. Which devices do you want to control? = Select your Color Bulb(s)
  5. What do you want to do? = Turn On & Set Color (Colour in the ST App)
  6. Color (Colour in the ST App) = Red
  7. Dimmer Level = 1%
  8. Select Trigger = At Specific Time
  9. Turn on & set color when = 6:00am
  10. Click, "More Advanced Options" and then, "Only on certain days of the week"
  11. Select, "Saturday" and "Sunday"
  12. Click, "Next" and name your automation -- click, "Done"
NOTE: We did not create an, "Off" time as the next automation will take place and override the first automation.

Automation #2 - Bulb Turns on Green at 100% at 9:00am

As mentioned above, at 9am, we need the bulb to turn Green at 100% on Saturday and Sunday.
  1. Open up your SmartThings app and click on the three lines at the top left (menu)
  2. Select, "SmartApps" and if you do not see the, "Smart Lighting" SmartApp, click on the (+) sign at the top right to find and select it (if you do see the Smart Lighting SmartApp, feel free to skip this step)
  3. Click on, "Smart Lighting" and then, "New Lighting Automation" and enter the values below:
  4. Which devices do you want to control? = Select your Color Bulb(s)
  5. What do you want to do? = Turn On & Set Color (Colour in the ST App)
  6. Color (Colour in the ST App) = Green
  7. Dimmer Level = 100%
  8. Select Trigger = At Specific Time
  9. Turn on & set color when = 9:00am
  10. Click, "More Advanced Options" and then, "Only on certain days of the week"
  11. Select, "Saturday" and "Sunday"
  12. Click, "Next" and name your automation -- click, "Done"
NOTE: The bulb will stay on indefinitely until you either turn it off, or Automation #1 happens again. For an easy turn off, either select a time for the bulb to turn off in the automation or you can use a Red Series Switch to turn it off from the wall: How To: Control a Smart Bulb from a Smart Switch in SmartThings