ok, let me explain what I am looking for and what I have.
I have a Nest Thermostat, Wemo switches and Dropcams.
When either myself, my wife or daughter are home, ST home mode tells the Nest we are there and is in Home mode, the Dropcams are configured to be turned OFF when in Home mode.
When ALL of us leave, the Nest goes into Away mode and the camera’s turn on.
All that works as I want it and very well too.
What I wanted is a way (maybe utilizing a long press of a Wemo light switch) to be able to turn the cameras ON even though we are still at home.
This is because their have been a number of home invasions in our area and if nothing else would like to catch anyone doing something inside our home when we are there that we could use to identify them if needed. I did setup one Wemo for a long press that triggers the silent alarm notification (text/alert) to mine and the wife’s iPhone (in case one of us is not there and can be made aware of an issue), it appears to work fine.
I assume you are using the “Nest Home + Away” setting for the Dropcams? In that case, it’s managed through Nest and I’m unaware of any way to override this setting. Or are you using some other method?
However, another option would be to place the Dropcams on managed switches so that you can have Smartthings (or Wemo) turn on and off the cameras depending on presence with the option to override by turning on the switch any time you want to record. Do note: The Dropcams have a bootup time to turn on, connect to wifi, and start broadcasting.
Also, just as a curiosity, what method do you use to set the Nest to home/away?
I thought of your idea, but with the delay etc, did not appeal to me, the Away part works fantastic with the cams.
I used a smartapp by brian@bevey.org called Change Nest Mode on ST for when ST changes to Away mode (based on presense detection) that it also changes the Nest to Away mode.
Sorry I’m late on the thread but I’m looking to do something similar with an ST smart outlet. If I set the switch to shut off the Dropcam what will happen when it powers up again after I leave? Will it turn on and begin recording or will I have to go into the app and set it to record again!
It should resume recording. I have setup a similar scenario with Samsung camera. It is connected to a Smart outlet which is off when mode is home and is on for night and away. When in away/night, it turned on and take bursts as I preset it.
Awesome thanks! I just bought a Securify peanut smart plug to do this. Hopefully it will help my presence sensor by having a Zigbee repeater. I just wanted to make sure I wouldn’t have to go in each time and restart thee camera.