Cannot get both lights to power on

[dedelstein@mac.com]

I’d like both of my Meross bulbs on the outside of my garage to go on at the same time for five minutes when my Ring doorbell detects motion. While the routine I created on the iOS Alexa app seems to work, the lights are unreliable. Sometimes one goes on, sometimes both go on. Manually I can turn on both lights from the Alexa app when I look at devices and groups. When I test the routine or when I use it, the lights are unreliable. Any ideas?

The routine is: When Front Door detects motion, Garage power on, wait 5 minutes, Garage power off. Again, the bulbs are grouped in the garage. I’ve tried specifying the bulbs separately but still unreliable.

[jwlv]

I have something similar set up with my Ring doorbell and a couple of outside lights. My outside lightbulbs are the color smart bulbs made by Feit - got them from Costco when they were on sale 4 for $20. They work perfectly, never any problems.

My guess your Wifi signal outside your garage is probably spotty. If the bulbs are working fine when you control them via the Alexa app, it is likely the app is looking for the bulbs to get its current status when you are on the devices and groups screen. That establishes a connection to your bulbs. So when you turn on/off the bulbs or run the routine manually it seems to work fine. However, during a normal triggered routine, the connection is not established ahead of time. Alexa will send the command to Meross and moves on to the next step. If Wifi issues prevent the initial power on  command, then it is just skipped. As a workaround, you could make your routine to turn on the bulb twice. In the actions, turn on the bulb, wait 5 seconds, then turn on the bulb again. So if it missed the first power on command, it should power on with the second command.