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

[South Africa C4 user]

Definitely a great driver! Probably the best I have in my project. I have taken a morning off work to play with it. My primary use to date is to have Alexa do various things for me. The versatility is brilliant but also a challenge.  The two improvements (sadly I don't think either are driver improvements but rather improvements on IFTTT) that would make the Alexa control absolutely unmatchable is if:

1. The IFTTT recipe for Alexa allowed one to put in multiple phrases that result in the same action. For instance, I want to use 'increase volume', 'raise volume' and 'volume up' to do the same thing... At present that means I need to program 3 recipes!
2. Alexa could respond with a programmed response (using something like Simon Says) instead of with "sending that to IFTTT".

All that said, definitely the number one control4 driver of 2016!

 

 

[alanchow]

One dealer spoke to our support desk and mentioned he is going to implement it in a sports bar so that when certain teams score points in a game to flash LED lights the color of the team.

[eggzlot]

Question as I try to wrap my mind around its usage in my project - Can you actually see anything in the UI?  Simple example, a WeMo switch.  I am assuming using this driver I can set up a schedule for it turn on/off, it will send a text via pushover or c4 push agent that the action happened, etc.  But can I go into the C4 interface and turn the switch on/off manually without having to access the WeMo app?  Same thing for say a GE Appliance - can I log into the C4 app to see its status, start a cycle, see how much time is left on a cycle, etc  or is this 100% just for notices/communication between these devices and C4 such as a push notice that my dryer is done?

[Rod Matthews]

Would have to play around with things, but you should be able to put in a fake relay in the project which will send the needed commands when initiated from the navigator so you can control it from the c4 UI with the security tab or custom buttons. Could also use Alans advanced custom button driver which is also awesome 

[alanchow]

1 minute ago, Rod Matthews said:

Would have to play around with things, but you should be able to put in a fake relay in the project which will send the needed commands when initiated from the navigator so you can control it from the c4 UI with the security tab or custom buttons. Could also use Alans advanced custom button driver which is also awesome 

yep.. this is the answer.  i also have some stuff coming down the track which will work as well.

[Rod Matthews]

Turns on family room lights when I get into the neighborhood, then sends me a text, if i reply with the password within a 5 minute time frame it will open the garage door. When I connect to home wifi it turns on the kitchen to sonos and plays a station and when my bluetooth on my car disconnects within that 5 minute timer it will unlock the garage deadbolt.

Going to test it out later today

[ILoveC4]

I need to play around with this over the weekend.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[alanchow]

5 hours ago, Rod Matthews said:

Turns on family room lights when I get into the neighborhood, then sends me a text, if i reply with the password within a 5 minute time frame it will open the garage door. When I connect to home wifi it turns on the kitchen to sonos and plays a station and when my bluetooth on my car disconnects within that 5 minute timer it will unlock the garage deadbolt.

Going to test it out later today

I like it.  Let us know if it works.

[turls]

I'm wondering about battery life impact for geofencing.  FollowMe has a lot of extra pieces to reduce strain on devices.  This IFTTT option seems to be a much simpler implementation.  However, FollowMe has its own issues that I'm not sure are ever going to get adequately addressed.  I hope some of you that don't already have a geofencing solution post your experiences.  It probably deserves its own topic.

[alanchow]

22 minutes ago, turls said:

I'm wondering about battery life impact for geofencing.  FollowMe has a lot of extra pieces to reduce strain on devices.  This IFTTT option seems to be a much simpler implementation.  However, FollowMe has its own issues that I'm not sure are ever going to get adequately addressed.  I hope some of you that don't already have a geofencing solution post your experiences.  It probably deserves its own topic.

Here's an explanation

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

[turls]

7 minutes ago, alanchow said:

Here's an explanation

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

Thanks Alan.  Since FollowMe is basically a reverse engineer IIRC of iCloud location, I would think it would work basically the same way, However, maybe not as there are some extra configurable pieces that help with battery life.  For example, if you are at work it won't ping the phone as often.  Not sure I have my mind totally wrapped around the differences but I will look further into it.

Maybe FollowMe is using "location updates" vs IFTTT which uses "region monitoring".  If so I think that might lead to some latency issues an app that uses location updates might avoid.

[kajphotos]

20 hours ago, alanchow said:

Thanks for purchasing the licence.  I'm surprised at how many we have sold since releasing the driver 24 hours ago.

would love to hear what recipes everyone can come up with.

Thanks. I like adding functionality to Control4 that it either natively doesn't have, makes it more affordable for people and also make it do cool things.

i write drivers full time so every purchase helps keep me in business and gives incentive to keep doing what I do (make Control4 more awesome).

i hope everyone enjoys the driver as much as I do.  If you own Composer Home Edition is a definite must have driver in my opinion.

Would love to see some sample YouTube videos of how it works and it in action  ????

[alanchow]

6 minutes ago, kajphotos said:

Would love to see some sample YouTube videos of how it works and it in action  ????

Kind of hard to show it in action as it pretty much does everything IFTTT has access to.  It'll be easier for you to just visit the IFTTT website to read up about the IFTTT channels and actions.

[kajphotos]

1 hour ago, alanchow said:

Kind of hard to show it in action as it pretty much does everything IFTTT has access to.  It'll be easier for you to just visit the IFTTT website to read up about the IFTTT channels and actions.

I already use ifttt and have been for some time now I was leaned more towards a recipe that works with C4 

[alanchow]

13 minutes ago, kajphotos said:

I already use ifttt and have been for some time now I was leaned more towards a recipe that works with C4 

See link below for our installation guide.  It had a few examples but it's really limited to your imagination.  In the past 48 hours since we released it both dealers and consumers have been coming up with some really amazing recipes.

http://www.chowmain.co.nz/s/Chowmain-IFTTT-Maker-Driver-Installation-Guide.pdf

[alanchow]

So far one of my favourite IFTTT recipes is get Control4 to call you when an event occurs and read out a message (with variables).  Too bad it's only available in the US

[pkkaiser]

Congrats Alan. Very, very cool driver. Love the Alexa integration. 

My favorite recipe is finally being able to fire events based on my Ring doorbell and not the relay hooked up to it. Much faster for some reason. One question, any way to use chunk.io to upload security camera pix based on the Ring event? 

[alanchow]

3 hours ago, pkkaiser said:

Congrats Alan. Very, very cool driver. Love the Alexa integration. 

My favorite recipe is finally being able to fire events based on my Ring doorbell and not the relay hooked up to it. Much faster for some reason. One question, any way to use chunk.io to upload security camera pix based on the Ring event? 

I'm not familiar with ring. If you can download a snapshot via a URL then yes.

[kajphotos]

On 8/17/2016 at 2:36 AM, alanchow said:

Hi guys,

Its rare that i'm excited about a driver (i build them everyday) but this driver here adds so much to Control4 especially to those of you who have Composer Home Edition.  This driver is pretty much ready for release.  I'm just putting the final touches on the documentation so once thats complete it'll be ready for everyone to use.

The IFTTT maker driver is a bi-directional driver which adds communications from Control4 to IFTTT to control any service or product on IFTTT and vice versa.  You can replace quite a few outbound services by having Control4 send emails, push notifications, SMS's and more to IFTTT (it pretty much replaces the majority of the functionality of our Notification Suite and Control4's 4sight).  It also does the same thing as many other 3rd party inbound services like Geofencing drivers, Amazon Alexa drivers, various Calandar drivers and more.  Here are some examples of what you can achieve but at the end of the day its really upto your imagination.

Lastly a big thanks to Mitch for helping me out with brainstorming with me and testing the driver.  Without him the driver wouldn't be as fast and responsive as it is today.

Outbound Examples (Control4 > IFTTT)

• Control4 can send SMS’s via your Android phone (IF app must be downloaded to the phone)
• Control4 can call your phone number and say a message (for security alarms, smoke alarms and other emergencies).
• Control4 can save data about the events in your home in google docs or dropbox.
• Control4 can save data about the events in your home to IFTTT’s daily or weekly email digest.
• Control4 can send emails out without 4sight or 3^rd party driver
• Control4 can send push notifications out without 4sight or 3^rd party driver (using pushalot, pushbullet or pushover)
• Control4 can send Skype messages
• Control4 can send Google Glass notifications (with Message, Image URL and URL fields).
• Control4 can send notifications to your Android wear device (requires IF app installed).
• Control4 can send your BMW (Connected Drive Compatible) a message on your car’s front screen display (120 characters limited)
• Control4 can find lost items (needs tags) or phones (call your phone).
• Control4 can send your Tesla (EVE enabled) a message (with subject, message and message type fields) on your car’s dashboard
• Control4 can turn on or off your GE Smart Appliance and more.
• Control4 can tell your Android phone to turn on/off Bluetooth or wifi (might be useful when you’re leaving or coming back home).
• Tell the world via Facebook what your home is upto (might not be a good idea).
• When batteries are low on your Control4 sensors add a reminder to your IOS reminders app.

Inbound Examples (IFTTT > Control4)

• Amazon Alexa (Amazon Echo, Tap, etc) can send commands to Control4 via voice recognition to do things like turn lights on, play music, house off and more.
• Assissant.ai can send commands to Control4 via voice recognition
• Control4 can read out stock prices or notify you when they raise or lower (requires Chowmain Advanced Announcements Driver)
• Control4 can pause your music and videos when you answer your phone (android only)
• Control4 can read out tweets when someone mentions you on twitter (requires Chowmain Advanced Announcements Driver)
• Control4 can detect if a specific person has entered or left a room/zone using beacons.
• iOS Location and Android Location (via the IF app) can tell Control4 when you are approaching or leaving home.
• Send a warning to Control4 when something has been picked up or moved (needs wireless tag)
• Your BMW (Connected Drive Compatible) can tell Control4 when it is entering or exiting an area.
• Your EVE enabled Tesla car can tell Control4 when it has arrived home, is leaving home or on the way home.
• Your Automatic, Zubie or Dash enabled car can tell Conrol4 when you have turned the car on or off within a certain area.
• Your GE, LG and Samsung Smart appliances can tell Control4 when it has been turned on, off, if for example an oven timer is done, if there is a leak in the dishwasher, if the filter needs cleaning, if the dryer cycle has finished, if the fridge door has been left open for too long,
• Your Nest Protect smoke alarm can send Control4 smoke emergency, warning and carbon monoxide emergencies
• Your Netatmo Welcome can tell Control4 when a specific person, known person or even an unknown person has been seen or arrives home (facial recognition)
• Your Roost Smart Battery can tell Control4 (via the announcement agent) when its battery is low (Great for smoke alarms).
• Control Control4 via SMS or phone call to IFTTT.
• Have Control4 read out your meetings (including subject, body & location) on outlook 365 calendar  or Google calendar 15 minutes before the meeting (requires Chowmain Advanced Announcements driver)
• If the temperature (via weather forecast/conditions) changes in your area tell Control4 to do something.
• Your Android phone can tell Control4 when it has connected or disconnected to/from a specific Wifi network.
• Change the colours of your RGB LED’s to your teams colour using the ESPN channel when the game starts.

How is it when using composer HE ? Or is it only for those who have pro can the end user do programming by our self? 

[alanchow]

2 hours ago, kajphotos said:

How is it when using composer HE ? Or is it only for those who have pro can the end user do programming by our self? 

Once the driver is installed all programming can be done via composer HE.

[C4RVA]

Is this driver a reasonable alternative to the Alexa driver by epic systems? 

It seems like this driver would be more useful over all. 

[alanchow]

5 hours ago, C4RVA said:

Is this driver a reasonable alternative to the Alexa driver by epic systems? 

It seems like this driver would be more useful over all. 

I haven't personally used epic system's drivers before.  Alexa works via triggers with IFTTT.  You say Alexa Trigger and then the phrase.  Alex will say 'sending to ifttt' and The phrase is then matched to whatever you have programmed on ifttt and the action is then sent to Control4.

There is no limitations to how many triggers you put in and whatever you want it to do.

[alanchow]

http://www.connectedhome.com.au/control4-functionality-gets-a-huge-boost/

[chopedogg88]

I have used both drivers (obviously have used the Epic Systems driver since I am the one who built it, and as such...this may come with a bit of bias, hopefully not too much!).  My overall feeling is that there is definitely a place for both drivers in your system.  The Epic Systems driver is specifically directed and designed towards integration with Amazon Echo, and as such, provides better efficiencies if that is your main goal.  The IFTTT driver is more of a swiss-army knife type of driver, intended for doing many potential things that can be done through IFTTT, one of which could be Echo integration.

Here is a comparison that I put together - feel free to comment/rip it apart but I think its pretty accurate.  

NOTE: For this comparison, I've used Epic Systems Beta v109 driver, which has removed the 30 trigger/device limitation, and added Set programming events.

-Setup

·         IFTTT driver requires setting up the Echo, an IFTTT account (free…for now), and a Pushover account ($5…for now) for each customer.  Epic driver only requires Echo setup.

·         Creating recipes in IFTTT is fairly cumbersome- Lots of clicks, can’t copy/clone recipes easily, difficult to see/find recipes.  With the Epic driver, each trigger is setup by simply typing the trigger word/phrase, and clicking the set button. Existing triggers

·         One must create a separate IFTTT “recipe” for each possible event (on, off, up, down, set to each specific level)

o   Epic driver auto-generates 5 different event types for each trigger that you define (on, off, up, down, and set)

o   Epic driver passes the set value through as a variable – you’d have to create a separate IFTTT recipe for every possible level you wanted to potentially set to

-Programming

·         With IFTTT driver, programming is more a bit more complex, because all programming is required to be lumped into a single event (whether for Echo integration or other scenarios), with a series of IF statements to determine what to do as a result of the data which is passed through. As noted above, Epic driver creates 5 separate programming events for each trigger, and programming for each event is very easy to find and modify, copy/paste, etc.

-Usage

·         When using IFTTT driver, you have to say “Alexa, TRIGGER <IFTTT recipe name>”, such as “Alexa, trigger turn on the kitchen”, and it responds with “Sending trigger to IFTTT” (which is a bit odd).  Contrast that with the Epic driver, where you would simply say “Alexa, turn on the kitchen”, and it responds with simply, “Okay”.

·         With the Epic driver, when you hear the “Okay” response, you know that the trigger has been activated in the driver, because the Epic driver communication all takes place within the customer’s local network once Alexa has interpreted the command.  With the IFTTT driver, you only know that Alexa sent the information to IFTTT…you can’t be assured that the information actually made it to Pushover, and then from Pushover to Control4, and then programmed properly to parse/check the data from Pushover and react accordingly.

·         Epic driver response time is instantaneous…typically the Control4 programming has already completed execution before you even hear the word “okay” back from the Echo.  IFTTT driver response time is respectable, but takes a bit longer given the number of hops involved.  Once you hear “sending trigger to IFTTT” response, then it sends the data to IFTTT, then to Pushover, and then it gets to your Control4 controller for programming execution.

·         One nice thing about the IFTTT driver is that once you say “trigger”, then the trigger words/phrases can contain any words you want, whereas with the Epic driver, you have to avoid certain keywords that are reserved for usage by Echo.  However if you simply add a room name or the like in front of those keywords, such as “living room music” rather than just “music”, it will work fine in most cases.

-Reliability

·         The IFTTT driver relies on 3 different 3^rd party cloud-based services in order to work (Amazon, IFTTT, and Pushover).  In contrast, the Epic driver only relies on Amazon to interpret the spoken phrase and then everything after that happens directly between the Echo and the Control4 controller.  Much fewer moving parts and potential points of failure.

·         Regarding the point above, should IFTTT or Pushover have any downtime, or god forbid, go out of business (as many startups do…and even more established companies like Kaleidescape for instance), the IFTTT driver will temporarily or permanently stop working.

Conclusion – if you only want to do a handful of Echo commands then the IFTTT driver may be a suitable solution – if you, or your customer are serious about voice control, then the Epic driver is the way to go.  The IFTTT driver opens up a host of other potential integration opportunities to other smart home and cloud-based devices which aren't directly integrated to Control4 - and so its a great tool to have in the bag if those integrations are of interest (so far I have found the most useful thing to be the geofencing stuff.  I use 4 sight so I already have plenty of push notifications configured natively already).

Hope that helps,

-Ari (Epic Systems)

[alanchow]

I usually refrain from commenting on other people's drivers when asked.  I also refrain from hijacking another developers thread because or morals and bad manners.

I have sat here thinking how should i respond.  Have rewritten my response several times omitting any negative aspects of the epic systems driver, omitting any reference to any potential future drivers that may or may not come out and i think at the end of the day people who are interested solely in the Amazon Echo should just try the drivers out for themselves and come to their own conclusion.

At the end of the day the at the time of writing this post the most superior Amazon Echo driver out there is easily the Houselogix driver. There is no question about that but you have to ask yourself the question.. why haven't they released it yet?