Know How...

Mar 21st 2013

Know How... 36

Simple Home Automation Using the Belkin WeMo

Get an intro to home automation using a Belkin WeMo connected to IFTTT!

Although the show is no longer in production, you can enjoy episodes from the TWiT Archives.
Category: Help & How To

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"

Google+ Community News

We've got a new moderator! Dan Philips. Thanks to Dan for helping out in the community.

Connect with us!

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/know-how.

Contribute to our show! Send us an email at knowhow@twit.tv

Thanks to CacheFly for the bandwidth for this show.

Links