Scenes?

[pilotrose]

Just got my Almond+ today and although I like the speed of the router, it's home automation side is lacking.

Are there even scenes? A way to press a button on the phone and activate several lights to certain values?

And is there no way to turn off lights after a preset amount of time?

[LGNilsson]

Scenes are not supported yet. Scenes are being worked on though, but I don't have an ETA as yet.
Did you update to firmware R070? You can create scene like effects that if you turn off one bulb, all the other bulbs in that rule would then turn off in turn.
There's no countdown timer in the way that you'd like at the moment.

[pilotrose]

Thank you for your reply.

I'm curious what the goals of Almond+ are on the home automation side of things.  Here are some features that I currently have and use daily with my own home automation solution with an Aeon Labs Z-stick and software called InControlHA.  I'm curious if each and every one of these will be added eventually.


Timer that turns off a device after a certain amount of time of being on
Scenes or rules only running if a device has been at a certain state for a specified amount of time (example: turn off lights if a motion sensor has detected no motion for 20 minutes)
Ability to assign buttons on a z wave remote or in wall scene controller to certain scenes
The ability to add virtual devices (big help in advanced programming)
A weather device added automatically so that certain devices can come on based on the weather and/or forecast. (I currently have the heater set to only come on if the forecast high for the day is lower than 70F)
IFTTT and Tasker integration (I've seen other posts on this but this is a great feature. I can leave my house and Tasker automatically turns off the heat and all lights for me)

These are some of the main things I would need to replace my current Z-wave system which I would like to do since I must currently leave a computer on 24/7 to operate the Z-stick. 

I'd like an honest reply as to whether all of these abilities will be added or if some will never be even considered.  If Almond+ isn't going to become a fully capable and dynamic home automation solution then it'd be best for me to simply return the device within the return window instead of waiting for features that will never exist.

[Blueiris8]

1. I currently have a rule that turns off my porch light 5 minutes after it turns on.  Unfortunately there is a 5 minute limit that I believe is being addressed soon.
2. While similar to 1, I've told they were working on that functionality soon.
3. I haven't seen any conversation around remotes (doesn't mean they haven't talked about, I just missed it)
4. I haven't seen any conversation around virtual devices
5.  They have a weather app ingregrated with Almond+ already and are working to bring some of the data into the rule soon.
6. IFTTT was a top vote getter during a survey a while back and was added to their overall roadmap, but after they got general HA stable

The one thing to remember is that Almond is working on a lot and has come a long way in the last 6 months. They seem very dedicated to making a full home solution and listening to suggestions on ways to enhance their roadmap.

[pilotrose]

Thank you for the update. Looks like your a backer and have been following them for a long time so you've been able to see their progress.  I'm brand new to the game so it's nice to get some insight as to what is to be expected.

[LGNilsson]

Let's see.

The kind of timer you want isn't implemented quite yet beyond the 5 minute delay we have at the moment. It shouldn't be too hard to do and I kind of realised that the 5 minute limit we put on the delay isn't working in all scenarios, especially in the case you're pointing out.

Scenes are very much coming, we did in fact release an early alpha build on our cloud by accident for a day or two and it was working, but as it wasn't anywhere near done, it was pulled. Scenes will also work with Z-Wave scene controllers and we're working on implementing support for them too.

Virtual devices, not so sure, but away/home mode is coming to the apps.

Weather is coming, we're still working out some kinks with the weather and time apps that we added in beta for now to the LCD UI. The same data will be used for weather and geo-location data needed for the rules.

We know a lot of people want IFTTT support, but it's kind of a poor service is many ways as it works a bit like an SMS in the way that there's no guaranteed "deliver time", so if it takes 10 seconds or 15 minutes, they don't really care. Personally I don't want to wait 15 minutes for my lights to come on and this is why we're working on improving our own rules engine and UI. We haven't ruled out support for IFTTT, but it's not something we're working on today. I'm afraid I'm not familiar with Tasker.

This is where we're at today with the things you're asking about, but I honestly don't know where we'll be in six months time. Currently the focus is on improving the rules, making it easier to use, adding support for more devices and getting scenes up and running. We're of course also working on adding support for more devices in general as we move forward, as although we have support for a fairly good amount of devices by now, we're still missing a few key devices, but they're coming.

[pilotrose]

Thank you very much for the reply and information.

I'm happy to hear that scenes are going to be here soon. And that scene controllers will be supported for activating them.

Home / Away mode is a good start, but I must highly encourage the addition of virtual devices. They are so useful for advanced programming.  Usually it's just a virtual ON/OFF light switch that can interact with different rules.  For example, I have a TV Mode ON/OFF light toggle device. So when I activate TV mode (for watching a movie usually), it dims the lights in the room, and activates the virtual device (TV Mode device) to ON.  Meanwhile, whenever the TV mode virtual device is ON, the motion sensor in the room is deactivated so that someone moving wont turn the lights on to a higher setting (in other words, the virtual device being OFF is a condition for the motion sensor to actually run and turn on the lights with movement).

Another virtual device I have is a Awake/Sleeping ON/OFF toggle.  So when I press my phone to an NFC tag, the temperature is turned down, a candle warmer is deactivated and won't come on, and the lights are all turned off.  As soon as I wake up, a simple tap to a different NFC tag turns the heat on, and let's the candle warmer turn on.

This sort of functionality could also be done by simply adding variables that could be accessed and remembered by the Almond+ I suppose since these virtual devices are nothing more than on/off switches.

Weather data and integration with Z wave will be great. In my present system, at 5:00 AM every morning a virtual device is turned on if the high for the day will be greater than 70F.  If this virtual device is on, the heater will not turn on.

If I had to choose between IFTTT integration and Tasker, I'd definitely go for Tasker.  All the integration you need is for the tasker app to run a specific scene.  Then for example, when my phone is away from my house, it'll activate a "away from home" scene and turn off the heat and make sure the front door is locked.  Or when I charge my phone late at night, it can activate a "going to sleep" scene and turn off the lights etc.

Sounds like you guys are on the right track regardless. I wont be using Almond+ for any home automation for now until it becomes more mature. But for now I wont return the device as the router is working great for internet. 

Thanks!

[LGNilsson]

I guess the logic you want for the programmable buttons is technically a "scene button". Makes sense and I'll suggest this to the software team.
I'm not sure what the scenes UI will be like at the moment, so maybe this is something they're already planning.

The NFC tag stuff, not sure as that's a whole different level of complexity and I can't promise anything like that for now, as it hasn't even been discussed.

We do have a lot of work ahead of us and I doubt we can please everyone. That said, what you're asking for isn't unreasonable, so let's see where we get to.

[userbob0001]

I would look at tasker before NFC because tasker has NFC integration.  That would be my main interest in tasker/ifttt: providing integrations you haven't gotten to yet.  But I agree that having everything internal to the Almond would be best.

Tasker might be something that can be handled by the community, but I'll have to look into what would need to be available from Securifi.  It might be too much burden on getting everything else done.

[fillibar]

I use Tasker also and have been looking at using it by reading and controlling sensor values by HTTP GET commands. Unfortunately I have had little time to work on it lately and get it working again with the authentication needed. Check out the Almond+ Software Development threads if you are interested.

[pilotrose]

I definitely agree. Adding tasker functionality provides so much automation for so little amount of work.  Anyone that hasn't mentioned tasker yet probably hasn't used it, or doesn't realize how powerful it can be.

And yes to Lars, a "scene button" is all that is needed here.

No need to reinvent the wheel, just look at what other home automation products are out there and you'll see the commonalities.  Some things like scenes, rules, and what not are a must. And virtual devices, tasker integration, and more advanced technical controls are what set the top ones from the average ones.

[revoman]

Plus one for Tasker support.

Also, Plus one for NFC tag support.  Should be fairly simple to implement as the NFC function is handled by the mobile device.  The Almond App just has to associate a NFC tag with an Automation rule. 

Finally, Plus one for IFTTT support.  Sure it has a huge delay, and is not the best... but it would give me a way to build my own automation rules...  until the Almond automation rules get worked out.  Besides, if I'm away from home and decide I need to mess with my lighting for security purposes, I am going to be fine with a little delay. 

Thanks for all all the hard work.