Flowchart

To get started, take a look at this flowchart below which outlines how the automation actually works. This should make it a little easier to understand what’s going to happen and what I’m explaining.

The Automation

To get started, open the Home app and Long/3D press on the smart button icon. Choose one of the actions and select “add scenes and accessories”. In that menu, scroll all the way to the bottom of the list and choose “Convert to Shortcut”.

Open the actions list, and choose “Get Date” and then set the variable as “current date”. So the automation should read “Get dates from Current Date”.

For the next action we want to format the date into short form. So choose the action “Format Date” and the variable should automatically assign itself to the date from the previous action. In that same action, choose “show more” and change Date Format to none and Time Format to short.

For the third action, we want to round the short format time to a single number. So choose the “Round Number” action and assign the variable to “Formatted Date” and have it rounded to “ones place”. And that’s all that is needed for the first half of this automation. So if the time is 11:30 PM at night, than the rounded number will be “23” (this automations works in 24 hour time).

For the next half of this automation, grab an If Statement and make the condition “If [Smart Light/Device] is off” and within that, use multiple if statements to determine the time and thus the action. For example, in my automation I have “If Rounded Number is between 7 and 10″ turn on the daytime scene”. Continue this until you have all the actions that you want and delete the otherwise tags for all of those inner If Statements. For the outer if statement, within the otherwise tag set the lights to turn off.

Thus, when the automation runs it’ll trigger when you press the button. It checks the time and then checks if the light is on or off. If it is off, then it will compare the rounded down time to the if statements and complete whatever action you set. If the lights are on, it’ll turn them off. And that’s all there is to it. As for the second and third actions of the button, you can do whatever you want. You can use it to control other lights or have it set scenes in its dedicated room. Automation runs as far as your imagination can.

For a visual look at this automation, check out the photo below so you can see what it should look like for you.

The post Advanced Smart Button Light Switch appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

For my use case, I want the lights to blink when my vacuum cleaner has finished cleaning but this can be used for any sensor or device that can be automated in HomeKit. However, if you want to try this out with your vacuum you’ll need to have it exposed to HomeKit. There aren’t any vacuum cleaners currently certified with HomeKit but I was able to use a Roborock plugin for HomeBridge to expose my Mi Robot vacuum to the Home app.

Based on the way my vacuum has been set up in HomeBridge, it creates an occupancy sensor that triggers when the vacuum returns to the dock which is what I’ll be using as my condition for this automation.

To get started, we want to create a new automation in the Home app, and choose the “a sensor detects something” option for the automation. I have yet to test it but you can likely use this “when an accessory is controlled” as well. To continue, I’ll be selecting my “Robot Vacuum Dock” and then when it “detects occupancy”.

From here, instead of choosing an accessory to trigger, we’re going to scroll to the bottom and select “Convert to Shortcut”. However, to do this you need to have an up to date home hub such as a current model iPad, Apple TV 4 or later, or an Apple HomePod. Once you select Convert to Shortcut, we’ll clear the “Set Scenes and Accessories” and start with a blank console. Press “Add Action” and search for the “Repeat” action. We’re going to set that to repeat three times so the lights will blink three times, but that is ultimately up to you.

Once you have your repeat action setup, we’ll start by choosing the “Control Home” option and we’re going to set a light to turn on to 100%, I’m using my Living Room Lamp as it’s in a common area of the house. We’re going to put that Control Home action within the Repeat and End Repeat tags.

Next, find the “Wait” action in scripting and we’re going to set that to one second, again that is up to you how long the light stays on. Finally, choose the “Control Home” option again and this time we’ll set the light to turn off. Make sure the Wait and second control home are within the Repeat tags and come after the first control home option, and your shortcut should look similar to what I have in the image below.

When you’re finished, save that shortcut and you’re finished. You’ll notice now when the vacuum returns to the dock (or whatever you decide to automate, maybe a door sensor or when a smart plug is turned on), the lights will blink three times to let you know that the vacuum has finished its job.

The post Flashing Light Alert with Shortcuts appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

Using a motion sensor, I was able to create a motion-activated night light that would turn on my light strip between the hours of 1 AM and 7:15 AM when a motion detector detected motion. Lighting up the room just enough for me to see but not so bright that I was blinded.

The best part of this Automation is that it can be created solely in the Apple Home app with a time condition. Of course, if you wanted to take it a step further you could use the Home+ or Eve app, but that is for another day.

To see how I achieved this simple automation, check out my video below:

The post Creating a Motion Activated Night Light appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

Joe Dugandzic from Smarter Home Life presents us with a five-part video, to go through all the different stages of setting up your first Smart Home, touching on topics like, ‘what to automate’, ‘platforms’, issues surrounding ‘renting’ your property, ‘factoring in time’, and finally ‘budget considerations’.

The post Smart Home ‘Getting Started’ Guide appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

In this tutorial I’m using the Hue Motion Sensor, which I find to be very reliable, with a fast response time. Additionally, it has an ambient light sensor which is central to this tutorial.

So, let me show you a very simple way to get the motion sensor to work harder for you. If you’re new to automation, you can always check out the tutorial on basic time-based automations for your motion sensor here.

For this tutorial I’ll be using the Brutella/Home app by Matthias Hochgatterer, but you can do this in some other apps, although it’s not as easy for one reason I’ll touch upon at the end.

So the automation I want to create allows me to have a main light come on, if motion is detected between certain hours, but only if there’s not enough light in the room.

1. Open the Brutella Home app, and select the ‘Automation’ tab at the bottom of the screen. Then click on the ‘+’ sign in the top left corner.
2. From here press the icon in the top left corner with three dots in a circle and choose ‘Event’ 
3. Create a name for your Trigger event and click ‘Save’

    

4. Now click on ‘Add Event…’ and select ‘Accessory state’
5. scroll down until you find your Hue Motion Sensor.
6. Click on it and and make sure you have the ‘Motion Detected’ set to On, and the blue tick is also on. Click, ‘Services’ to go back, and then click ‘Done’
7. Now click ‘Add Condition’ and select ‘Time of Day’
8. Specify the times you want the automation to be active – in this case 0900 – 1700. Then click ‘Save’
9. Now click on ‘Add Condition’ again but this time select ‘Accessory State’. Scroll down until you find your Hue Light Level.
10. Click on it and select the blue tick for both options – ‘Status Active’ & ‘Current Light Level’. With the light level, just select the light level (lux) that you think is the lowest it should be before a light should kick in (my suggestion, 20 lux). Then click ‘Services’, then ‘Done’
11. you should now have a page that shows that if motion is detected under the conditions of 0900 – 1700 and a light level = 20. Before going any further, its good to point out that although we’ve got ‘= 20 lux’ as a condition, clicking on this will give you a further options besides ‘Equals’, so you can have Greater or Equal, Greater, Equal, Not Equal, Less and Less or Equal. I’ll choose Less or Equal in this case. Now it’s time for what will happen if these conditions and triggers are all met, so click on ‘Add Actions…’ under the ‘PERFORM ACTIONS’ header. Select either ‘Add Scene’ or ‘Add Action’. If you’ve already created a Scene you’d like to choose, then choose ‘Scene’, otherwise choose ‘Action’ for the device you want to control.
12. Here, I’ll choose ‘Table Lamp’…
13. …and select the Power state to ‘ON’ (ensure both the green tab and the blue tick are turned on). Click ‘Services’ to go back, then click ‘Done’
14. You now pretty much have everything you need to work with this automation, but just make sure you click ‘Enable Trigger’ at the bottom of the screen or it won’t work. You have other options too, like adding a countdown which is just like a timer, so it’ll switch off after a set time, and an option to ‘Disable after execution’ if you need it. Click ‘Done’ to finish.

You now have an automation that is both triggered by motion but also on the condition of whether there’s enough light in the room.

The post Make Your Hue Motion Sensor Smarter appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

So, let me show you a very simple way to get the motion sensor to work according to a schedule.

so, this way is all based on setting a timer in the basic Home app;

1. Select the Automation tab in Home and click on the + icon in the top left.
2. Then from the 5 choices, select the last one ‘A sensor detects something’.
3. Select the Hue Motion sensor and click Next.
4. On the next screen, select the ‘Detects Motion’ option and click on the ‘time’ option.
5. From here you can choose to have the motion sensor react in different time-based ways – Any time, During the day, At night, or Specific times. We’re going to choose specific times.
6. Here you can choose your start and end times which represent the window in which the motion sensor triggers the automation we’re creating. I’m choosing 0900 – 1700 as the start and end times. Click Done.
   
7. After that, you then choose what light will come on when motion is detected. I have chosen the Floor Lamp in the TV Room.
8. Click Next and you get to the last screen that allows you to determine the state the light should be in when motion is detected – ON or OFF, and I’ve chosen to turn the Floor Lamp ON in this example.
9. You can then decide if the lamp turns off after a certain length of time (unto 60 minutes). In this example i’ve set it to turn off after 5 minutes, but only if it doesn’t detect any motion within those 5 minutes. Finally, click ‘Done’.

You’ve now created your first automation – turn on a lamp, if motion is detected between the hours of 9am and 5pm. Then turn off the lamp after 5 minutes if no motion is detected within this time.

The post Basic Automation for the Hue Sensor appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.