Grouping or linking devices together

It is possible to control e.g. thermostats and blinds together.

There are a few possible approaches:

Groups

Create a group of thermostats / blinds in Virtual devices, and add slave devices that you want to control with this group.

Each device has autonomy, but when controlled by the group master, they all receive the same command.

Positives:

(/) possible to assign automatic Smart Rules directly to group device
(/) response time is faster compared to Link Smart Rule approach

Negatives:

(X) Unable to see real values of grouped slave devices on the master device

Available for:

Analog output group, Blind group, Slide group, Electric meters group

Example:

Changing value of Blind group is also applying the change to both linked blinds.
Please note that Blinds East is in Manual override mode, because it had active Smart Rule and a manual change was performed on Blind group.

"Link" Smart Rule

Connect multiple devices with "Link" Smart Rule. Master and slave devices can be defined.

IMPORTANT: Link Smart Rule only evaluates manual value changes. For example, if master thermostat if changed by Weekly schedule Smart Rule, this change is not applied to linked slave thermostat.

Positives:

(/) simple setup, no need for creating extra virtual device
(/) possible to assign priority when evaluating Link Smart Rule

Negatives:

(X) slower response time if evaluation is complex

Available for:

Switch, Thermostat, Analog output

Example:

Manual change of temperature on Thermostat living room changes also temperatures on other master thermostats (Thermostat kitchen), as well as on other slave thermostats (bedroom, kids room 1 and 2).

However if Thermostat bedroom is manually changed, it does not affect any other thermostat, only itself, because it is defined as slave.