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Thread: Setting a Vacation Scene OR Schedule?

  1. #1
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Aug 2016
    Posts
    3

    Setting a Vacation Scene OR Schedule?

    I have a sunrise and sunset schedule to control my outdoor/security lights. Works perfectly. Is there a way i can activate a scene or schedule when i go on vacation that will put on interior specific lights at various times during the night (ie on at 6pm, off at 7pm, on again at 8pm and then off at midnight). Looking to have lights turning on and off to appear that someone is home and occupying different rooms at different times. Would be just as happy to have a "random" button so that it does not appear to be the same every night.

    Thoughts???

  2. #2
    No burglar is going to case your house for several days to see if the lights are turning on/off at the same times each day. Most burglaries happen during the day when homeowners are likely to be out at work, school, etc. and fewer neighbors will be home to see and possibly report them. Put up visible security cameras (real or fake). They'll ring the doorbell first to see if anyone is home. You don't need complicated to deter them.

    At night, keep the outside of your house well lighted. Burglars working at night will prefer homes that aren't well lighted making it easier for them to stay out of view. Most break-ins come in through the back door or back windows to avoid being in sight from the street. Keep those areas well lighted and trim vegetation that would block the view from the street or neighboring homes. Have strong locks, and extra-long hinge screws, on these doors to resist break-ins. There are lots of youtube videos on these topics.

    What you can do to simulate the "random" that you want is to create several schedules that run on different days. i.e. one for Mon/Thu, one for Tue/Fri/Sun, and one for Wed/Sat. It's not really random as it repeats every couple of days, or every week if you create one for each day, but nobody's going to pay enough attention to notice. What it will do is allow you to have significantly different schedules on different days. You can also base these on an offset from sunset/sunrise so the times change a few minutes each time the schedule is run. By having several overlapping schedules (i.e. the living room repeats on Mon/Thu, the kitchen repeats on Mon/Wed, and the bedroom repeats on Mon/Fri, etc.) you can get very complex patterns that nobody would ever detect (even if they were looking for them).

  3. #3
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    May 2015
    Posts
    307
    A better way would be to turn on the Smart Away feature. This will randomly turn the selected lights on and off between 6-11pm.
    Open your Caseta app.
    Open settings (the gear on upper left side)
    Open Arriving/Leaving Home
    Open Smart Away
    Open Randomization
    Select the lights you want to turn on and off randomly
    Decide if you want Activate automatically. If you select this, Smart Away will turn on everytime when you leave the house.
    Close settings.

  4. Likes rhett7660 liked this post
  5. #4
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Dec 2020
    Posts
    1

    Thumbs up Smart Away is not so smart.

    Actually smart away is not that useful since it activates if you just leave your immediate neighbor hood.

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