Prerequisites
- You have a IFTTT account.
- You created IFTTT Maker Channel and you got your Maker Key.
Now, let’s build a scenario where you want to turn off the lights when you leave home.
Steps
- Once you setup your ImSmart account, go to your settings and click Manage Keys. Add your IFTTT Maker Key.
- Go to your variables and define a Boolean named At_Home and set its value to True.
- Go to IFTTT and define Maker events.
- Define a new applet using Location as the THIS part, setting it as an exit geofence around your home. Then on the THAT part, connect to Maker and use the “set False” operation (as you can see from the Operations panel from the Variables page). Copy the URL value for operation “set variable False” (from ImSmart) into Maker URL (in IFTTT Maker).
- Define a Maker Webhook: create a new applet where THIS is a Maker Webhook and the Event Name will be TurnOffLights.
and set the appropriate action to turn off lights on the THAT part of your IFTTT applet.
- Define a new applet using Location as the THIS part, setting it as an exit geofence around your home. Then on the THAT part, connect to Maker and use the “set False” operation (as you can see from the Operations panel from the Variables page). Copy the URL value for operation “set variable False” (from ImSmart) into Maker URL (in IFTTT Maker).
- Go to your triggers and define a new trigger like this:
Then as soon as you leave home, IFTTT Maker sets your variable At_Home to False and triggers the execution of the Maker event TurnOffLights.
Of course this example is very simple and you would actually not need ImSmart to turn off your lights. But now that you’ve defined this variable and trigger you can make it more flexible and powerful. This example works fine as long as you live alone. Let’s assume that you don’t live alone. What will happen when you leave home at 10PM while your significant other stays home? All lights turn off and soon you receive a text message reading “WTF is wrong with your gadgets?”. Although funny once you don’t want a bad automated home. We can fix this 2 ways: using an additional location variable (e.g. SO_At_Home) and update the trigger accordingly, or use a motion sensor to check if someone is still home (handy if you have a larger family).