Simple Home Automation using the Belkin WeMo
March 21 2013
We've got a WeMo at TWiT and we're going to see what it can do.
The Belkin WeMo
The Belkin WeMo is an internet connected switch. You can pick up a switch and a motion sensor for about $80. Additional switches are $45. The device connects to an iOS or a beta Android app. To extend the function of the WeMo we can use IFTTT, which connects web services to other services like the WeMo.
To find out more about IFTTT, check out Know How... To Make the Web Work for You.
Connecting to the WeMo
There are a bunch of recipes available for the WeMo already. If you've got a motion sensor, you can receive a text message. Try out this little home security recipe.
If you want your lights to turn on when the sun sets, you can create your own recipe using the weather channel as the trigger and your WeMo. If you just want to use a preexisting recipe - here's one by an IFTTT user by the name of Strong.
Google Voice Notification
Iyaz wanted to set up a visual notification whenever he received an SMS on Google Voice. You'll need to have the email channel activated in IFTTT. The GMail channel on IFTTT checks for new messages every 15 minutes, so that might not be the best for potentially time sensitive information via text.
Any time you send an email to the IFTTT trigger address, it will turn the WeMo on. Automatically forwarding things via GMail filters or Outlook.com did not provide IFTTT with the proper information.
To get this to work, we had to use an email client. We used Thunderbird and created a rule to forward messages with SMS in the subject to trigger@ifttt.com. From there we went into Account Settings > Server Settings to change the account settings to check mail every 1 minute"
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