Hi guys,
My mom is going to be staying at our house while the wife and I go on vacation and I wanted to get a simple button that she could press to arm HSM and another press to disarm.
Any recommendations?
Thanks!
I would consider using a SmartThings Presence Sensor... Just tell her to keep it in her purse (women NEVER leave the house without their purses, right?).
Then setup an RM where Detected = home, not detected=away/armed.
I'd agree that passive is best. My experience has been that guests will not do anything you ask or instruct them to do regarding smart home stuff, pushing buttons, etc.
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Seriously though... The smart things presence sensor is the way to go.
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Nor SHOULD they, in my opinion. I'm certainly not jumping through hoops, or doing anything special, when I visit people. Anything equivalent to a key or alarm code is fine, anything more - I'll just stay elsewhere.
I have a ton of automations in my house, presence detection, etc but the "Guest" switch gets flipped ON when company is staying over, and back to 'normal' light switches and door lock functionality. I'm not subjugating people to my insanity. 
But I will say, most of my guests tend to be older and less technical. So I think it would be very rude to make them uncomfortable with a bunch of automation they don't understand.
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If your system is not setup to be "friendly" yet. Shut it down while you are away. Otherwise I'm sure this thread will become very entertaining.
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Comedians all around. Ha! Thanks guys...smarthtings presence sensor it is.
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I have a virtual switch called "Guests Present". When the switch is on, I don't allow HE mode to change to 'Away'. A few other automations are also paused if I think they will be annoying to someone not used to the system.
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The "in-law test" is one that I consider even more challenging than "spousal review". My wife tolerates being my beta tester - and even enjoys the benefits when it all comes together. When her parents are visiting we know that things have to be perfect before we will expose them to our craziness. The guest room worked really well this past month - an echo dot, built in z-wave switches and a bedside simple button at each side of the bed led to no complaints and indeed requests that I start automating their house when I am next over there (closet and pantry light automations are always good way to showcase simple benefits).
A big negotiation will be applying my RM driven bathroom light/fan automatons in the guest area (of course I could use this as an opportunity to limit their enthusiasm for staying too long with us...). The choice words that will come from my father in law should the light turn out while using the facilities seems to scare my wife (maybe a sign of a deep seated issue 
).
Just wait til a guest sees one of your motion sensors and asks "What's this camera in the shower for?" 
I have both my kids convinced they ARE cameras and that I'm watching OR can rewind the video if needed.
I haven't noticed them reducing their misbehavior though... it simply speeds up identifying the culprit.
"IF I have to go to the cameras to find out who.. it's double the timeout." results in "OK, it was me."
Think that would work for parents / in-laws ?
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I do the same.
My wife has become accustomed to turning it on via our Google Home Hub.
The Smartthings Presence key fob works really well for us.
Our estate agent has one on their keys and keep commenting on how easy the alarm system is.
On the off occasion, if you arrive and enter the house very quickly, the alarm might go off but the fob show disarm the HSM and stop any alerts.
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