How can I make a light flash when the cell phone rings?

I had an emergency this morning while out walking the dog. My husband was sitting on the back deck having breakfast. He did not hear a phone ring. Fortunately a friend drove by and brought me home. So here is the question. We only have cell phones. How could I make the light on the deck start flashing if the phone rings? Can you think of a way? Thanks.

Is his phone Android or iOS?

On Android it might be possible to rig something up with Tasker and a SmartApp, where Tasker responds to the call and triggers the SmartApp. In fact SharpTools already has Tasker integrations that might help with that.

Another thing to look at is IFTTT.

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Yeah, if your phone is android then Tasker app is the way to go. Tasker can be setup to respond or act when the cell is ringing. Such Tasker actions include calling the app SharpTools (via a Tasker/Sharptool plugin. Probably the easiest) or a specific ST Smartapp. For the latter, I am not aware of any specific smartapp that would meet you needs but if all it needs to do is accept a request from the likes of Tasker, a custom app could easily be developed (10-15 minutes of coding time). Lots on this forum would help you with this, All you need to do is ask :slight_smile:

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Thanks… I am going t start with IFTTT as that I am somewhat familiar with… if I can’t get it, I will go to tasker. Thanks

It’s fairly straightforward with Tasker and SharpTools if you decide to go that route.

I’ll post a video when it’s done uploading, but the gist of it is:

  1. Create a new Tasker Event profile for Phone → Ringing
  2. Create a For loop that loops through the items 1:6
    (or however many times you want to toggle the light)
  3. In the loop add a Plugin → SharpTools: A Thing configured to toggle your desired light
  4. In the loop add a Wait for 1 second
    (or however quickly you want the light to toggle)
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I am away from home now…but this will be very helpful…thanks

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Watched your video. I don’t have Tasker or Sharptools, but I guess I will be adding them. Have the grand kids the next 24 hours, so I am going to wait. Tasker has a 7 day free trail, so I want to be sure I have time to learn it… thanks for the direction. This looks like it will do just what I need. Thanks

@jgirvine You can create a virtual switch that triggers the Flasher smart app to blink/flash whichever lights you want. You can use the ST application or SmartTiles to set it off.

Disclaimer: I haven’t tried the app myself.

(https://github.com/joethedeveloper/SmartThingsPublic/blob/master/smartapps/smartthings/the-flasher.src/the-flasher.groovy)

If you have your phone with you and its a cell then why not run the smartthings app and have a routine you run to flash a certain light? Maybe flash all the lights in an S.O.S. flash pattern? This way if one of you is home then you know to call the other right away. Or are we talking incapacitating emergency where call is all you could manage?

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I understand what you are saying… but at least in this case… I did not have my phone, flagged down a driver (who I did know, but did not realize at the time I started flagging) and used her phone… So I thinking to set it up to flash if he misses a call…

Well, I followed your video step for step, and while I had not a clue what I was doing… IT WORKED… wooo hooo. Thanks

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Seems like there should be a blue tooth equivalent to this:

http://amzn.com/B005R1DARC

This is an awesome idea actually. Dial a number to run routine or mode or change state of a virtual thing.

possibly trigger on SMS. You could use IFTTT for email triggers Im sure.

IFTTT text triggers are usually the fastest response, vs email

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I meant that IFTTT could check an email and act as a trigger. (Assusing IFTTT can check an email) Seels right upnits n ally

Phone call… SMS … email

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right, but it can take many minutes for IFTTT to check the email

@joshua_lyon I’ve got the task running, but I’m stuck on only letting it run in modes home or after sunset, I tried putting % st_mode in the “IF” of the individual light but it’s not working, can this be accomplished?

Yes, but you will probably need to track the mode separately. One way to do this is to setup a separate profile with a Mode Change event and use a Variable Set action to save the %st_mode to a global variable (eg. %ST_MODE). Then in your phone ringing profile, you can check the value of the %ST_MODE global variable before taking action.