Ever wanted your blinds to close automatically when the sun hits your windows? Standard SmartThings automation can’t do this because they have no concept of where the sun is or which side of your building it’s shining on.
This Edge driver calculates the sun’s real-time position for your location and tells you — in simple words — which faces of your building are getting direct sun right now. No math, no complex rules, just straightforward automation conditions like “when West exposure = Direct, close the living room blinds”.
Example automation:
IF Sun Exposure → West = Direct AND Elevation = Low
THEN Close west-facing blindsThis catches the low-angle afternoon sun that causes the worst glare — but leaves blinds open when the sun is high overhead and less bothersome.
What You Get
| Capability | Attributes | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Sun Phase | Phase (Night/Dawn/Day/Dusk), Period (Night/Dawn/Morning/Afternoon/Evening) | High-level time of day |
| Sun Position Details | Altitude, Azimuth, Direction (N/NE/E/SE/S/SW/W/NW), Elevation (Below/Low/Moderate/High) | Where the sun is in the sky |
| Sun Exposure | North, East, South, West — each None/Indirect/Direct | Which building faces are getting sun |
| Presence Sensor | Present / Not Present | Simple sun-up / sun-down trigger |
All values are simple strings — no numeric thresholds to figure out. They work directly as conditions in SmartThings Routines.
Installation
- Join my driver channel: https://bestow-regional.api.smartthings.com/invite/adMKr769drj9
- Install the “Sun Position” driver from the channel
- Add the device: SmartThings app → Add Device (+) → Scan Nearby
- Configure settings: Open the device → three dots (⋮) → Settings
- Latitude / Longitude — your location in decimal degrees (find yours on Google Maps — right-click any spot and copy the coordinates)
- Update Interval — how often to recalculate (default: every 5 minutes)
- Low / High Elevation — thresholds for the elevation categories (defaults work well for most buildings)
The device starts updating immediately. All attributes are available for Routines and the Rules API.
Tips
- Use Presence = Not Present to open all blinds at sunset
- Use Phase = Dawn to trigger morning routines before sunrise
- Use Period (Morning/Afternoon/Evening) for time-of-day rules without clock schedules
- Combine Exposure = Direct with Elevation = Low to catch the worst glare angles
- The driver runs locally on your hub — no cloud dependency for calculations