Tasker Plugin

Not really a thing but a major catalyst for using things. Creating smartapps/things plugins for Tasker would make for an extremely powerful combination.

So, Tasker is an automation application for android which lets you do anything. To give you an idea related to smartthings I am currently using Tasker together with Tellstick net (which I will dump as soon as I get my smartthings!). Tellstick allows me to remotely turn for example lamps and other stuff on and off through an android app called remotestick (which has plugins for Tasker).

A use case…
Tasker automatically turns wifiscan on when I am connected to the cell stations around my home,

Wifi will connect to my SSID when I am in reach of my home network.

Variable will be set @Home = 1 for example. (one can also use wifi connected to specific SSID as context)

Through a context plugin for tasker, sunset is calculated every day, in this case sunset has started which is the context besides being at home that needs to be fulfilled for the task to trigger.

Since the context at home and since we have passed sunset the action for the profile triggers and remotestick plugin in tasker sends command for my lamps to turn on. Completely automatized without me doing anything. Since I connect to my Wifi when standing outside my front door the lights are on when I enter.

Then I leave for a party and since the context at home is no longer fulfilled the exit task is triggered and the lamps are turned off.

Another simple use case is for tasker to trigger on alarm off in the morning on your phone and then starting the coffe maker. Much better than having a static time set.

 

So for all this to work with smartthings we need plugins for Tasker from the smartapps! http://tasker.dinglisch.net/developers.html

/P

 

 

Obviously we won’t know until we get our hands on it, but my understanding is that the SmartApp would really do a lot of this stuff already.  You could tell the SmartApp to turn on a light at Sunset if a presence FOB was detected.  I think Tasker (or Llama, which is what I use to do pretty much the same thing) and SmartApp will pretty much be designed to do the same thing.  The advantage of the SmartApp is that it will be able to interact with so many more things.

Having said that, I do like the idea that a smartphone could become a thing, rather than just a interface for accessing the SmartApp.  Could the Hub and a SmartPhone communicate directly?  Could a SmartPhone be a presence FOB, for instance?  Could conditions on the SmartPhone trigger events in the SmartApp either through the SmartHub or through web interface?

This could create some really interesting possibilities.  For example, I have an alarm on my phone that goes off at a certain time on weekdays, and other times for weekends.  If my alarm goes off, it would trigger and event on SmartApps that turns on my bedroom light, starts the coffee maker, potentially even unlocking and opening the dog door.  Now all these things can easily be programmed to happen based on when I set my smartphone alarm rather than  needing to change times on them manually.

chrisb - I could certainly see this as a possibility with using the “geo-fencing” capabilities of your smartphone. With the iPhone for example, I can get it to remind me something when I leave work. Could be great to use that existing functionality to setup geographic triggers.

I want to warm up my house in the winter when my wife leaves work to come home. Would be great if on Monday-Friday I could setup a “geo-trigger” that when she left the house in the morning it would drop the temp to 62 degrees. Then when she leaves work it would pop the temp back up to 68-70 degrees so it’s warm enough when she gets home. I know I could use the presence fob to trigger the temperature drop when she/we leave in the AM - but wouldn’t it be great to use a “geo-trigger” to work the other way!

A great example of how this would be useful Eric.  The presence FOB is great for some things, but the one problem with it is that if you’re out of range of the Hub, it doesn’t function.  Smartphones, with their own path to the internet, could be used in many ways like a presence FOB on steroids.