Sunday, 31 July 2016

Automating with the Energenie MiHome controller: The Android app, and IFTTT

First things first... opening the Mi|Home app plays a little jingle... how very Windows 95. Let's hope the developers take notice of the comments on the reviews and at least make it an option, or preferably get rid of it altogether.

The app itself is quite pretty and gets the job done. Here you can see all my devices and the device groups.


On my Samsung Galaxy S6 Plus with a 5.7" screen at 1440 x 2560 resolution the buttons are on the small side, but usable.

Never mind, I thought to myself, I'm sure they have a widget that would enable me to turn all the lights off with a click of a single button on the homescreen as I blearily stumble off to bed.

Hmm, so no widget eh? Well this just became a bit less useful.

I wonder if the IFTTT integrations can help?

First you'll need to connect to IFTTT through the phone app


Then install the IFTTT DO Button app 

Fire up Do and click on the grey pestle and mortar icon to create your recipe.


Click on the grey plus bar, choose Channels, scroll down and select "Enegenie Mi|Home"


Create a new recipe

Select the action i.e. power on or off a device or group. Give the recipe a pithy name, and click Add


Congratulations, you now have a big full screen button to do your bidding.

But it's still not quite as easy as I want, so the next step is to go to your home screen, press and hold in a blank space and choose to add a widget. Select DO button and you will be presented with a list of your recipes, choose the appropriate one, and you are all set!


Click the Do button widget and run around amazing you friends and family with the awesomeness!