Hi everyone.
TL;DR
I’d like to have my Smartthings v3 hub be made aware if an IP address on my LAN is unreachable. If it’s not contactable then a virtual switch gets toggled. Happy to use another service like IFTTT or similar if anyone knows of something…?
Background
Still no support for Tado heating systems (I’ve been nagging Tado again, but still nothing). I’ve been using Google Home as a middleware layer which is better than nothing but still far from ideal.
One specific issue I’d like to address is a simple one… I’d like a notification if/when the Tado system is “unavailable” or “offline”. This usually happens when the Tado “internet Bridge” has no power.
This “Internet Bridge” for those who aren’t familiar is an Ethernet to 6LoWPAN hub / access point used by Tado instead of using WiFi or ZigBee/Z-Wave. It’s a little USB-powered brick connected via Ethernet to my home router and then communicates wirelessly using 6LoWPAN to the Tado “Wireless Thermostat” and the “Wireless Receiver” (with the latter wired to my boiler).
Ideally, I’d like to have Smarthings ping an IP address on my LAN. Should there be no ICMP echo (or “Ping”) reply then something like a virtual switch on my Smartthings hub should be flipped. I’d then have a routine that states if the switch is flipped on, notifications are sent, colour of some smart lights we have are set to red etc.
More Info
Whilst I’ve said earlier on this post that I’m trying to use “Ping” as a trigger, really I’m just trying to obtain the status of the “Tado Internet Bridge”. Tado uses their own cloud, so when I open the Tado app on my phone it will show our heating system as being “disconnected” (or “offline” or something similar). This is always because the “Internet Bridge” has lost power. It’s detecting this which is the problem, as there’s zero integration available between Tado and ST. (Even though there’s a public API for Tado).
Google Home
I do have Google Home in our household which is secondary to our SmartThings platform. GHome does have an integration with Tado, but it’s so, so basic. Can see current and target temperature / humidity and the ability to set the temperature. Unfortunately there’s no trigger option in Google Home “Automations” for a device being offline, in fact I can’t use the Tado heating object as the trigger for any “Automation”. I did think of creating a virtual switch in ST, and then having an GHome Automation that flips the ST switch if GHome sees Tado as being offline… but alas that won’t work.
IFTTT
I don’t actually use IFTTT, but thought I’d take a look just for this one issue as Tado is officially supported by IFTTT as well as ST. However there’s no existing Applet for Tado status. I’m looking now to see if you can create your own Applet which is something I’ll keep investigating, but this is definitely a paid for feature and I’m not sure if it’s something that’s possible. If anyone has any more info on this please do feel free to share / educate this noon on IFTTT!
Final thoughts
As I’m not a developer - but an infrastructure man - I’ve given up (other than the IFTTT route) on trying to get the status of my Tado from the Tado cloud API, instead focusing on just getting the high-level TCP/IP status of the “Internet Bridge” instead, as this has always been the point of failure and will confirm both power and networking (on the Ethernet side at least) is up. However even to achieve this I still need a way for my ST hub to know if a certain IP on the LAN is echo’ing / replying to a ping - either directly (from the hub) or indirectly (something else does the ping and update the virtual switch in ST).
Sorry for the long post, I have a habit of this! Would love others thoughts on this.
Thanks,
Steve