Coming Soon - IFTTT driver adds voice recognition, geofencing, connected car, smart appliances and more

[dlouque]

8 minutes ago, Rod Matthews said:

Probably they best way to do it, I was just trying to get as far as possible without paying for multiple pushover accounts but this would be a lot more reliable to have an instance for each family member. I havent tried this myself

Ok cool.  I will let you know how it works out after I try one.

Thanks

Daniel

[ptome]

FWIW - I am using 4 IFTTT accounts across 8 different devices, for location notifications.   All use my 1 Pushover account with no problems.   We get a dozen or two "location" notifications daily, no problems feeding through that one account.    

One very nice thing, is we have been using the "Follow Me" driver for quite some time, but was not as reliable as it should have been and not nearly as accurate as the IFTTT IOS location driver.  We have disabled the "Follow Me" in our system as this new IFTTT driver is so much better for our needs.

[alanchow]

25 minutes ago, ptome said:

FWIW - I am using 4 IFTTT accounts across 8 different devices, for location notifications.   All use my 1 Pushover account with no problems.   We get a dozen or two "location" notifications daily, no problems feeding through that one account.    

One very nice thing, is we have been using the "Follow Me" driver for quite some time, but was not as reliable as it should have been and not nearly as accurate as the IFTTT IOS location driver.  We have disabled the "Follow Me" in our system as this new IFTTT driver is so much better for our needs.

Nice.  One thing to add is that the IFTTT IOS location channel uses the IOS geofence API.  As such battery usage is minimal.

It uses one of two methods called region monitoring.  Where it will tell the app when it enters or exits a region based on lat/long & radius.  Because it is not interested in a precise location it doesn't need to keep the GPS active at all times.  Instead, it uses a combination of cellular, WiFi, and GPS to track entries and exits into those boundaries.

Quote

https://www.reddit.com/r/ifttt/comments/36xtqb/ios_location_battery_hit/

 

[dlouque]

15 hours ago, ptome said:

FWIW - I am using 4 IFTTT accounts across 8 different devices, for location notifications.   All use my 1 Pushover account with no problems.   We get a dozen or two "location" notifications daily, no problems feeding through that one account.    

One very nice thing, is we have been using the "Follow Me" driver for quite some time, but was not as reliable as it should have been and not nearly as accurate as the IFTTT IOS location driver.  We have disabled the "Follow Me" in our system as this new IFTTT driver is so much better for our needs.

Ok good to know.  I am still testing for accuracy.  Has IOS location driver been pretty accurate?

Daniel

 

[turls]

17 hours ago, alanchow said:

Nice.  One thing to add is that the IFTTT IOS location channel uses the IOS geofence API.  As such battery usage is minimal.

It uses one of two methods called region monitoring.  Where it will tell the app when it enters or exits a region based on lat/long & radius.  Because it is not interested in a precise location it doesn't need to keep the GPS active at all times.  Instead, it uses a combination of cellular, WiFi, and GPS to track entries and exits into those boundaries.

 

With the way FollowMe is built on top of iCloud (I hope iCloud uses the more battery friendly "region monitoring" option since it is first party), and the granularity of control you have over battery usage, I'm surprised that its any more or less accurate than IFTTT.  Not ready to throw in the towel on FollowMe just yet...maybe that product will some programming enhancement attention it deserves.

[ptome]

3 hours ago, dlouque said:

Ok good to know.  I am still testing for accuracy.  Has IOS location driver been pretty accurate?

Daniel

 

In the few weeks that we have been using it, yes very accurate.   I have one setting 100 yards from the building, I get notification via C4 before that device makes it to the door.  I could never get FollowMe to work that close, could be my error somewhere though.

I like being able to select and tweak it on the map vs setting it x miles as the crow flies from your coordinates.  That way, if I want a mile out I can move the map so that the mile out is really a mile from the front of the place.  I can use the mile that we would normally travel on, and not include a mile behind us which is never (impossible) to use. Granted it is still as the crow flies, but our settings are for a much smaller skewed area that we expect to be in.

It seems that we can also use a tighter circle then FollowMe.  Part of the problems we may have had with FollowMe may be how we set up the Polling interval (battery usage).   With the IFTTT version, we don't even think about that.

[alanchow]

2 hours ago, turls said:

With the way FollowMe is built on top of iCloud (I hope iCloud uses the more battery friendly "region monitoring" option since it is first party), and the granularity of control you have over battery usage, I'm surprised that its any more or less accurate than IFTTT.  Not ready to throw in the towel on FollowMe just yet...maybe that product will some programming enhancement attention it deserves.

Actually iCloud gives you an exact location.  The problem is the polling iCloud and then iCloud asks your phone where you are for every poll.  With region monitoring there is no polling,. It's the phone that reports when it enters and exits. Thus more responsive and less battery usage.

[turls]

On 9/14/2016 at 1:24 PM, alanchow said:

Actually iCloud gives you an exact location.  The problem is the polling iCloud and then iCloud asks your phone where you are for every poll.  With region monitoring there is no polling,. It's the phone that reports when it enters and exits. Thus more responsive and less battery usage.

There have been some other posts on here saying IFTTT is inferior to the FollowMe geofencing solution.  At this point, the jury might still be out on that, but does anybody know how Home Notify from TheDriversLab works?  I wonder if it uses the iOS Geofence API / Region Monitoring?  Just trying to get a clear pro/con on the three (?) options and decide which way to go long term.  I hardly ever see Home Notify mentioned.  I would think Geofencing would be starting to be a high priority for more C4 installs and there seems to be very little chatter about the options.

[alanchow]

This week we started emailing out new and exciting ways to use our IFTTT driver with Control4.  We are going to do this as a weekly feature on our newsletter but i thought i would also post some information on here as well.

----------

Logitech Pop Home Switch

The recently released Logitech Pop can now be integrated into Control4 via our IFTTT maker driver.

This switch allows upto 3 custom commands (short press, long press & double press) and is great because it is battery operated (lasts for five years with typical household use.) and can be mounted, placed on a night stand or carried with you anywhere in the home.

Features

• Control
  • Short Press
  • Long Press
  • Double Press
• Battery Life
  • Lasts for 5 years
• Can be mountable or portable.

Use Cases

• Great for retrofit buttons around the home.  Mount on the wall and replace the battery once every 5 years.
• Program a button that will turn on your toddler's favourite TV channel on button press.  Set a timer to turn it off after an hour.
• Let the elderly carry it around and call you when they need your help with something (note not a replacement for personal alarms).

Product Information

IFTTT Channel

Chowmain IFTTT Maker Driver

[progaar]

Thanks for this awesome driver that opens a new world to controlling devices from C4.

I just configured a Logitech Pop button to switch on/off Hue lightning. Works great, however the total time it takes to go thru the Internet, IFTTT platform and Pusover platform makes it not the best solution for lightning. Looking forward to a driver to connect te Logitech Bridge directly over IP to the C4 controller.

But as said, great driver to connect to a lot of new devices! Next play: My BMW i3 connecting to C4

Regards,
Peter

 

[Thatguy230]

I just added the flic button works great and is a cheaper option. 

[dlouque]

Alan, I am having issues again with the Pushover Websocket disconnecting.  It is even to the point that when I am in composer system design, I can see it connecting and disconnecting.  I am also not receiving any more pushover messages in a week or so.  Please let me know if you saw this before.  It is disconnecting about once every minute.

Thanks,

Daniel

[alanchow]

8 minutes ago, dlouque said:

Alan, I am having issues again with the Pushover Websocket disconnecting.  It is even to the point that when I am in composer system design, I can see it connecting and disconnecting.  I am also not receiving any more pushover messages in a week or so.  Please let me know if you saw this before.  It is disconnecting about once every minute.

Thanks,

Daniel

Hi Daniel,

We have sold a lot of these drivers (by alot i mean it has outsold most of our other drivers in the limited time its been out) and you seem to be the only person who is having issues.  The driver is designed to reconnect to the websocket upon disconnection from the server.  Submit a ticket to our helpdesk and one of our trained technical support staff will assist you with troubleshooting the problem.

https://www.houselogix.com/shop/ifttt-maker-driver#openModal

[dlouque]

Thanks Alan.  I submitted ticket.

 

Daniel

[dlouque]

Alan, deleted driver and add back the latest driver and all is staying connected and receiving messages.  Just letting you all know.  Also, looks like it was not on the latest update.  Not sure when that was released, but now it is.  How can we get informed about updates before it breaks anything?

Thanks

Daniel

 

[alanchow]

10 minutes ago, dlouque said:

Alan, deleted driver and add back the latest driver and all is staying connected and receiving messages.  Just letting you all know.  Also, looks like it was not on the latest update.  Not sure when that was released, but now it is.  How can we get informed about updates before it breaks anything?

Thanks

Daniel

 

The latest update only added in duplicated variables for number and float types.  This enables you to dim lighting and set thermostat setpoints.

You can make sure that you are always on the latest driver by installing the Houselogix Auto Update driver.  This will automatically update your system to the latest driver.

[dlouque]

Thanks Alan.

 

Daniel

[ILoveC4]

Killing some time on the road and thinking about how I could use this. I think I'm going to pull the trigger, but I'm curious if conditionals can be set around Geofencing.

IE: If my wife leaves and I am not home, turn off all the lights. I want to have actions trigger when we BOTH leave, but not when one of us is still home. Is that possible?

[Thatguy230]

Yeah. You would both need pushover and ifttt on your phone. 

[Thatguy230]

I believe it's further back on this post, someone else showed how to the programming end. 

[South Africa C4 user]

8 hours ago, ILoveC4 said:

Killing some time on the road and thinking about how I could use this. I think I'm going to pull the trigger, but I'm curious if conditionals can be set around Geofencing.

IE: If my wife leaves and I am not home, turn off all the lights. I want to have actions trigger when we BOTH leave, but not when one of us is still home. Is that possible?

Yes. The easiest way would be to have variables in Control4 and use them to record who is at home and who not (using Alan's driver and the geofencing applet in IFTTT).  Then on variable change (for each variable) trigger a macro that checks who is at home and who is not at home and triggers code based on this.

[spjuenger]

Alan,

You should update the documentation to reflect the changes that IFTTT has made.

[dlouque]

On September 13, 2016 at 0:26 PM, Rod Matthews said:

Multi part setup.

First is a large geofence about 1-2 miles around the house to send pushover to c4. In c4 programing- this triggers the outdoor and family room lights to turn on and sets a variable named Rods arrival to true with a timer (5 minutes) and at the end of the 5 minutes it goes back to false.

Smaller geofence the size of the neighborhood- IFTT sends a text to my phone asking if i want to open the garage door. And another IFTT where if a new text massage is XXXX send s pushover to c4. C4 programing when the text message is received while the variable is true open the garage door

Rod, how do you make the applet for second part of this setup?  What is used for "if" that waiting on a text message with certain info?  I want to try but can't figure it out.

Thank,

Daniel

[dlouque]

On September 13, 2016 at 0:26 PM, Rod Matthews said:

Multi part setup.

First is a large geofence about 1-2 miles around the house to send pushover to c4. In c4 programing- this triggers the outdoor and family room lights to turn on and sets a variable named Rods arrival to true with a timer (5 minutes) and at the end of the 5 minutes it goes back to false.

Smaller geofence the size of the neighborhood- IFTT sends a text to my phone asking if i want to open the garage door. And another IFTT where if a new text massage is XXXX send s pushover to c4. C4 programing when the text message is received while the variable is true open the garage door

Or maybe you could share the applet's you made to make it happen.  Appreciate it.

Daniel

[Thatguy230]

I'm thinking about getting Alexa. I have a question maybe someone can help me with. Can I use a flic or a pop button and the ifttt driver to turn on and off the microphone on Alexa?