IFTTT Newbie, any help?

[beingbenjamin]

IFTTT Newbie

I've got a few smart devices in the home. Nest thermostat, Ring doorbell, and now Philips Hue lights. So I am now trying out IFTTT to make these things talk to each other. But I've pretty quickly run into an issue. Maybe there are more advanced settings I haven't found, or there's just not a good way to do it, but this seems pretty basic.

The setup is this, easy: If my nest detects I'm home, then turn on the light.

But... IFTTT only seems to let you choose either one bulb or all of them. Is there no way to group bulbs or (select multiple ones) that are part of the same light fixture, such that the whole ceiling light comes on and not just one bulb in it? Or do you have to set up the identical recipe for each bulb in the fixture you want to come on? The latter is the only way I see how to work around this.

 

[Just_Me_D]

Re: IFTTT Newbie

Hopefully, some who uses the IF app extensively will reply soon. In the meantime, feel free to visit the developer's website for information that might prove to be useful to you.

 

[bamf-hacker]

Correct... You need to create the same IFFT rule for each light you want to come on. I have one that if I long press the Wemo Switch it turns on my under counter lights, but I have two recipes for that. Both are long press of Wemo Switch, but one is for the left light the other is for the right light.

 

[mavsguy842]

Correct... You need to create the same IFFT rule for each light you want to come on. I have one that if I long press the Wemo Switch it turns on my under counter lights, but I have two recipes for that. Both are long press of Wemo Switch, but one is for the left light the other is for the right light.

This is correct. It makes IFTTT very cumbersome to use once you have different logical groupings, or want to make things happen only when 2 things are true (i.e. turn lights on when it's raining AND I'm at home) because of the lack of AND/OR/NOT keywords and functionality. I also haven't found a great way to create a new recipe based on an existing recipe so I end up creating each from scratch.

HomeKit isn't any better in this regard, by the way. I can't say "turn off all the lights when I leave the house AND my wife is not at the house": multi-clausal conditions are a no-go at this early stage.