So I had an emergency this morning while out on my walk. Stopped a car and called home. Hubby missed the call because he was eating breakfast on the back deck. I want to setup a strobe only on the back deck to flash if he misses a call. Also want it to turn off after two minutes… I think I can do this with IFTTT, but I need a strobe with no siren. Any suggestions?
Most strobe devices are combo siren/strobe but you can use it as strobe only. The fortrezz is popular.
At our house we just use hue lightbulbs and blink them through the IFTTT channel. We also use color as part of the notification. So blinking blue means one thing, blinking orange means something else, solid red means a different notification.
I mention this because strobe lights can be really annoying. And of course if you happen to have a guest who is epileptic, a strobe may set off a seizure in some people. Or a migraine.
I think strobe lights are fine for emergency situations, but if it’s just something like a phone notification that will tend to happen a lot, I would probably go with a softer blink. But that’s just me.
I believe the strobe/siren in the GoControl package at Home Depot can be modified to disable the siren. I may have asked the question a while back, I’m almost positive someone replied that it is doable.
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JD - How did you get IFTTT to chose a color and then blink the lights? My HUE channel only allows for blinking, but will only blink what color it already is?
PS. Sorry to hijack the post
Daisy chain. First trigger changes the color and does something that triggers the blink. You may have to experiment to get the timing right. At my house IFTTT delay is pretty consistently eight seconds, so it works for us.
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Jdroberts…i dont have any hue bulbs…not familiar with them…do they need their own hub? It will have to work with my ceiling fan, as that is the only light on the deck. Thanks
You might still be able to find the package that has 3 contact sensors, a motion sensor, and the siren for $25.
The siren sounds if you open the back panel, but besides that, you can just use the strobe feature. If you don’t want it to make any sound, you can cut the 2 yellow wires that go to the speaker.