Push Notifications in Fibaro’s Home Center
It’s 7am and you’ve decided that you’ll treat yourself to a well-earned sleep in. Your Home Center however is set to automatically begin each day with your ‘Good Morning’ or ‘Wake-up’ scene. What do you do?
You could turn the scene OFF the previous evening, but this would mean you’d have to plan your sleep-in in advance. Alternatively, you could configure Home Center to ask your permission before automatically running the scene.
Let’s take a look at how we can give Home Center confirmation that we’d like a scene to run using push notifications. We can set up push notifications using the Magic Scene and the Graphical Blocks scene creators.
Before we get started, here’s what you’ll need to make it work.
Note: Before you’ll be allowed to login to your Home Center through the Fibaro mobile app, you’ll first need to enable remote access. Only after remote access is enabled will you be able to login to the app and receive push notifications.
Let’s take a look at how we can give Home Center confirmation that we’d like a scene to run using push notifications. We can set up push notifications using the Magic Scene and the Graphical Blocks scene creators.
Magic Scene
Setting up push notifications using the Magic Scene creator is a relatively simple process, and only requires the following few steps!
Watch the video.
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1. Navigate to SCENES and select Add Magic Scene.
2. Select the IF condition. We wish to be notified at a certain time, so select the Time tile.
3. Setup your notification schedule.
4. Select the THEN condition. We wish to be notified, so select the… you guessed it. Notification tile. Be sure to confirm the scene and device-to-be-notified are correct before hitting NEXT.
5. Give the scene a name and assign it to a room.
Tip: I highly recommend you test your scene to make sure it works as you expect before moving forward. The easiest way to test the notifications are working is to set the timer to a few minutes forward from the current time and wait for the notification.
Graphical Blocks
Setting up push notifications using Graphical Blocks is more versatile than the Magic Scenes method, as it allows you to add in additional conditions (seen in step 4) that must be met before the notification is sent.
Watch the video.
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1. Navigate to PANELS and create your Notification. The message you enter in to the text box is what will be displayed on your notification.
2.Navigate to SCENES and select Add Scene Using Graphical Blocks.
3. Select the Triggering Device. In this case, we wish we to be notified at a specific time on specific days, so Days of Week is our best option.
4. Select the AND condition (optional). This powerful tool can be used to see if you’re out of bed before sending you a push notification. If you’re out of bed, the scene will run automatically. If you’re still in bed, you’ll receive a notification asking you if you’d like to run the scene.
In practical terms: Say you get up at 6:55am and turn ON your light. You’re already up, and would like your ‘Wake up’ scene to run at 7am without sending you a notification. If you select the AND condition as the Light = OFF, then you'll only receive a push notification asking if you’d like to run the scene if you have not turned the light ON.
5. Choose the action. In this case, it’s an Interactive Push Notification sent to a specific mobile device.
6. Check over everything to make sure it's correct, give your new scene a name and assign it to a room. And remember to test it!
In Closing
Home Center enables you to gain complete control over if/when a scene will run through the use of Interactive Push Notifications. Setting up the notifications is as simple as creating a scene, and setting up your phone is as simple as signing in to the Fibaro App.
If you've found any other lucrative uses for these notifications, or if you have any questions, leave a comment below.
Wishing you the best.
-Luke