IFTTT
Does anyone know if we can use the API to write a better IFTTT integration? The existing one seems not to have been developed further for years and is so basic.
What I'd like to achieve is triggers when a radiator comes on and off, I could probably achieve that if I could use the current temperature the radiator is set to for the existing temperature above/below scores, but I don't want to have to set an entire second schedule there. I'd also need to know if the heating was on or not, and if open window was active (i.e. have all conditions been met for the radiator to be on and fed with hot water).
Conversely I'd like to be able to turn individual rooms on or off from actions, or at least set the temperature in individual rooms from IFTTT.
These seem so basic and a huge omissions, but it doesn't allow Tado to play a big part in a smart home setup.
Answers
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Im increasingly afraid Tado's business model is centered around monopolizing control over our boiler plus collecting data on its customers and then being able to sell us cloud services that leverage that data and control, rather than selling us hardware than we can control ourselves and integrate in to smart home solutions in which ever way works for us.
That said, you can find some reverse engineered documentation on the api here:
But note that tado doesnt officially support it, and may pull the plug at any moment. And the API is limited, no access to the schedule, read-only access to things like home/away status, no information on the boiler status AFAICS.
With some creative programming, it may just be enough to achieve what you described, but do you really want to spend a lot of time on it when it still wont let you integrate other sensors and tado can just pull the plug whenever they want?
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That's annoying, I hadn't looked but assumed the API was what was used by the app and so would show all of the statuses, temperatures, open windows, etc that would allow for a good integration.
I got a bit worried when Tado broke their 'free for life' promise and made people purchase an app upgrade, but now I see other manufacturers have caught up all the ground on Tado and in some places seem to be exceeding it - while they look like they're resting on their laurels and not bothering to develop further or attempt to maintain a lead - things like IFTTT (or newer, richer rivals to it) and smart-home integrations would go a good way to doing this, as would a rich, public and supported API to allow it to play nicely in the modern world.
Such a shame, I'm out of my 3 year rental now and own the kit, so I'll be keeping a close eye on where to move next if they introduce more charges or don't start to improve things soon and other products take the lead. I note their public roadmap pages have vanished now, so we've no idea what's next (if anything) - again a shame they don't follow the lead of other companies and publish their roadmap as a votable backlog where their customers can have a say in what they'd like to see come next.
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The API does show temperatures for each device, and "heating power" per room and open windows. So what you described may be doable. But I think it will be of limited use if you cant have access to and control over the schedule and without having direct control not reliant on tado cloud.
Tado is more or less my entry in to the smart home world, along with a wifi doorbell and a few smart bulbs to experiment with, and I have to say its been a sobering experience so far.
So many devices are either not interoperable or they basically remove your control over them to some private cloud which may or may not provide you with some hooks that may or may not work on some platform. In some cases it can be overcome by flashing open firmwares like tasmota or being real careful to buy hardware that uses zigbee or a hub you can control, but its frustrating and sad tado follows the same path. Instead of a smart thermostat, its a ridiculously dumb thermostat (literally dumber than my 20 year old mechanical clock themotstat), but its a remotely controlled thermostat. And in order for them to control it on your behalf, all you have to do is tell them exactly where you live, where every family member is every second of every day, and pay a monthly fee. And even then you dont really get to decide.
BTW, I wonder how long it will take for some criminal to gain access to tado cloud, and get the ultimate burglary planner; you get the addresses of every tado customer, number of rooms, typical schedule and up to date geolocation of every household member. You might even get lucky and see if a window is open ;).
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