Samsung TV Remote - Ambient Mode

⚙️ Custom Apps and Drivers Custom Drivers
1

I'm working on part of a simple rule that basically is a wake-up routine in the morning.

I want to turn on a Samsung Frame TV in Art Mode. I have the default startup set to ART_MODE. That seems to have no impact. Since the driver's "Ambient" command is a toggle, I'm having a tough time finding out how to get this to work.

I have another frame TV that I am able to get around this using a power meter (plug) and can differentiate between on/off/ambient/tv modes.

How can I tell what state the TV is currently in? I don't see any field updating in the driver (or even with debug in the logs) that would indicate this.

THANKS!

2

Normally this question is best for the [Release] page for the driver, but I can't seem to find it. The author Dave Gutheinz doesn't list a Hubitat user ID in code.

Looking at the code, it should be polling based on your pollInterval in preferences.

Ok, not sure what is up with the code, but it looks like it should know the status.

Are you getting any polling errors in the logs?

in the poll() method it would generate a Warning for deviceID:
logWarn("poll: [status: ERROR, errorMsg: no stDeviceId]")

If it is not generating a Warning, you might see some exceptions in the logs. Make sure to turn on logEnable in preferences, it will stay on for 30 minutes.

This shows that when it sets powerOnMode, it checks the status to see if it is "ART_MODE". Then it should be getting the art mode status, which is doing a call to the TV, and finally it should land in artMode().

def setPowerOnMode() {
logInfo("setPowerOnMode: [tvPwrOnMode: ${tvPwrOnMode}]")
if(tvPwrOnMode == "ART_MODE") {
getArtModeStatus()
pauseExecution(1000)
artMode()
} else if (tvPwrOnMode == "Ambient") {
ambientMode()
}
runIn(5, refresh)
}

getArtModeStatus() does a call to the TV to get the status, so if it is not working I think you will be getting errors in the logs.

3

It looks like you should have an attribute called artModeStatus that you could use in automations by using a custom attribute. Is that not updating, or did you not notice it, or was it the need to use the custom attribute in rules?

However, your post made it sound like there was a problem with it turning on to ART_MODE, which it looks like it should be able to do in the driver.

Edit:

What do you see in the logs with Debug on? I missed that you mentioned that.

4

Which model year is your frame TV?
There are reports that for 2022 and later Samsung may have removed some functionality.

The Samsung TV driver and a discussion of this is here:

One thing I have learned is that the TV sometimes disconnects, so it does not update status; thus I have to add hitting the "initialize" button + wait 2-3 seconds into my automations.

5

BTW mine are 2024 models...I like LG's in my theater/bedrooms and these in places that are mainly "pictures."

Thanks everybody.

It looks to me like the device doesn't really track every state well. Samsung probably changed things. Since both on/off and ambient are toggles it as always makes things a bit trickier.

I think the easiest answer (at least for my "morning" rule) is since I can't tell if it's in ambient mode, I tune it to a known specific app... then "toggle" it to ambient.

6

Every time my frame tv is turned off it goes straight into Art mode and turns on/off based on if there is motion detected by the tv itself. We use nvidia shield pro as the tv client, not sure if this differs from your use case

7

Thanks...it will do a lot on its own. I do need control through Hubitat for the things I want to do.