Hi all
I can no longer support development of this app in SmartThings.
Most of my devices are now migrated to the Hubitat environment and rather than support two different versions I have decided to concentrate on the Hubitat version
I’ll leave the GitHub files and links for a while and you are welcome to download existing versions if you wish
Andy
I’ve had my ST system for more than a year now and have had great success with WAF (Wife Approval Factor) by getting the system to ‘announce’ things like ‘the washer has finished’ and ‘the dryer has finished’ or ‘there is someone at the door’
I have used quite a few community created smartapps along the way to get my system to work how I want it.
(Kudos goes to this excellent community for the help it gives everyone)
I have also created a few of my own to do specific jobs when I couldn’t find one that matched my needs or I thought the existing offerings were too complicated.
I thought maybe some of them might be useful for other people
So here is one of them…
Message Central. (Parent & Child)
I don’t claim it to be better than any other speaking or messaging app, it just a simple thing that gets the job done (for me at least!) and brings everything together under one ‘parent’
OK… what does it do?
It makes your home ‘speak’ through Sonos or equivalent speakers when certain events happen
(I use a set of Jam WiFi speakers with the excellent ‘MediaRenderer’ by Ulises Mujica)
It can also be used to send SMS or Push messages for the same events
You can select various inputs and actions so that the system will ‘announce’ events.
Triggers:
Button - Pushed/Held
Switch - On/Off
Contact - Open/Close
Contact - Left open too long
Presence - Arrival/Departure
Water - Wet/Dry
Time - Schedule a reminder at configured time - schedule a second reminder if this is missed due to absence.
Time - if contact open (I use this to check the shed door is closed at night.)
Power - Alert when power goes below or above a threshold
(And optionally ‘stays that way’ for a configurable amount of time - perfect for laundry appliances that drop below the threshold a couple of times before finally staying there when finished)
Motion - on ‘active’ or on ‘inactive’
Temperature - either above or below a set point.
Mode change
Routine run
Appliance Power Monitor - This works the same as the power monitoring except that the power drawn MUST go above a threshold before monitoring starts
All of these can be restricted by mode, presence, time, ‘enable/disable’ virtual switch(es) and days of the week.
Debug logging is switchable for each child so once tested can be switched off to reduce clutter in the logs
I have added a few things that from my own experience make the app a little better for me, like being able to reduce speaker volume during ‘quiet’ times in the evening when I don’t want ST to shout 
I added the ability to have a virtual switch to disable announcements for when visitors stay with babies that have an afternoon nap.
I added individual enable/disable switches so you can disable a single announcement temporarily without having to delete the child app or silence the whole system.
I have added configurable delays both before and after messages to help prevent truncation and to stop repeated messages within a number of minutes. (useful for ‘door’ announcements when the break-beam or pressure mat is repeatedly triggered or laundry announcements every 1/2 hour if nobody turns the appliance off)
I have now added a number of optional variables you can use in either voice or text messages:
%time% - Replaced with current time in 12 or 24 hour format (Switchable)
%day% - Replaced with current day of the week
%date% - Replaced with current day number & month
%year% - Replaced with the current year
%weather% - Replaced with the current weather forecast
%opencontact% - Replaced with a list of configured contacts if they are open
%device% - Replaced with the name of the triggering device
%event% - Replaced with what triggered the action (e.g. On/Off, Wet/Dry)
I have worked quite a lot on making these variables sound more like ‘proper English’
e.g. Time - 10:00 is converted to ‘Ten o’clock’ instead of the more usual ‘ten zero, zero’ or converted to ‘Ten hundred hours’ if using 24hr format
e.g. Date - 20/12 is converted to ‘The twentieth of December’ instead of just ‘20 December’
(I’m a ‘Brit’ so we write the date the correct way )
Update 16/02/2018
Added a second presence sensor restriction - Now can restrict by two.
1 at home and another away or 2 at home/away
Gui - Slight revamp
Second Child App
I have added a second child app.
This one allows you to configure multiple missed message alerts.
If you missed any timed messages while away then you will receive a list upon your return
As it’s a parent/child app there are two (or three if using optional Missed Messages app) parts to install…
Parent - Current Version: 1.0.2 - This must also be published in the IDE
https://github.com/CobraVmax/SmartThings/tree/master/smartapps/cobra/message-central.src
Message Central Child - Current Version: 3.1.1 - no need normally to publish
https://github.com/CobraVmax/SmartThings/tree/master/smartapps/cobra/message-central-child.src
Missed Voice Alerts Child - Current Version: 1.1.0 - no need normally to publish
https://github.com/CobraVmax/SmartThings/blob/master/smartapps/cobra/missed-voice-alerts.src
It is integrated with github so you can use that if you prefer.
Owner: CobraVmax
Name: SmartThings
Branch: master
If you want to try it and find it useful then that’s great!
If you find any bugs that’s even better!
If you find that there is something missing that would be useful to people then please let me know and I might be able to include it.
BUT… please bear in mind that I want to keep this simple, uncomplicated, and easy to use.
This may help, if you are not used to using custom code…
