Arbitrary device groups

There have been various topics on device grouping and tagging (such as by location). This request is a generalization of those topics.

I think it would be useful to arbitrarily group a set of devices while maintaining them individually. This is different from the existing merge facility.

For example I might like to have aggregated statistics for lighting, or cooking, laundry, or heating (which might be comprised of a furnace and a few space heaters).

The same device might be in several orthogonal groups. For example, a computer in the kidā€™s room might be both in the electronics group and the kids group.

For the graphics people on your team, this would allow them to create interesting tree maps so that people can understand their utilization in different dimensions.

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You could also use hierarchical tagging like Gmail does with message labels but Iā€™ve found that it is hard to create a user interface that manages hierarchies that doesnā€™t confuse some people. Maybe keep it as simple as possible initially.

Thanks for the suggestion! ā€˜Groupsā€™ are something weā€™ve looked at and do plan on implementing in the future.

Now that we have smart plug integration (and I have a lot of them), it would be nice if we could group things by room, while still being able to see individual usage. For example, we have a bonus room that has a LOT of stuff plugged in, and I think it is mostly the source of our very high Always On (since getting the plugs, that has dropped over 300 watts!). Now that I can have plugs monitoring exactly what is going on in there, Iā€™d love to be able to just have some kind of view that tells me total usage in just that room. Is that possible, or very difficult?

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That sounds like it would be very benifical to me if it is possible to have a groups - as long as individual component can still be ā€œdrilledā€ down to and see their specifics. For example a kitchen appliance group, an HVAC group, office group etc.

As far as I can tell, itā€™s been a year since someone requested the ability to arbitrarily group devices under one bubble without merging them so we can maintain device names, model numbers, etc. One room has a TV, router, media server, ethernet hub, and stereo. Thatā€™s a lot of bubbles on the main screen that could be grouped in to one arbitrary group called ā€œcrap in the back roomā€ (or something equally descriptive for me). I guess I would just like to bump this request up. It seems like a simple thing compared to the complexity of everything else going on with the system, but Iā€™m sure itā€™s more complicated that what Iā€™m picturing.

Thatā€™s it. Thanks for the hard work. The system is doing what I want it to do. My only gripes are cosmetic UI issues.

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I would love this to, along with being able to sort Devices in the device list in different ways and expand/collapse groups of Devices therein.

My guess is the reason that Groups havenā€™t been implemented (yet) is that on the development chain in regard to improved detection itā€™s been hard to locate the effectiveness of grouping.

Think of it this way: the core of Senseā€™s technology in many ways is also attempting to autonomously create those groups!

If you donā€™t agree (and part of me doesnā€™t), ponder the humble fridge. Sense can often detect a fridge compressor, a defroster, ice maker components, a fan and a light ā€¦ at what point should it group (=merge) those components into a Device? What about 2 or 3 similar fridges?

I understand you are talking about a higher level grouping at the Device level but I would argue the motivation to prioritize that ability is that it might improve detection ā€¦ which includes a grouping function. QED.

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