At home - Twine community

Twine for sale

Jud Cairns — Sat, 04 Apr 2015 13:43:04 +0000

Early adopter, moving on to other technology. I have a single Twine with a moisture sensor. $45 for both via Paypal. Or make me an offer!

Thanks

Jud

How do i use http request?

Benjamin Khoo — Tue, 25 Dec 2012 19:29:49 +0000

hi

i am trying to get my twine to call my own custom URL in order to log its activity. something like http://192.168.1.1/log.php?value=test
however, whenever i click on test URL, it always returns an error. I have tested the URL manually and it works fine.

what do i need to do to make twine call the URL correctly?

thanks lots

Another Product that Works with Twine

m sweaton — Wed, 07 Oct 2015 11:12:57 +0000

As an early user of Twine for a project that I was developing, I'm
offering those that have Twines a free upgrade for your Twine. My
product is a HVAC filter monitor which you can read more about on our
website (www.airflow1.com). The CFM-GM Clogged Filter Monitor has an
option to connect directly to the breakout board for Twine, you then set
rules to send yourself a text message when the switch closes to check
your air filter.

I've had this running now for over a year and it works great!

Sorry
for informing everyone about it here and on other discussion channels
but hope you take the time to at least see what else the Twine can do!

Twine and XBMC Media Center

Randy Noble — Wed, 11 Jun 2014 22:35:46 +0000

I decided to see if I could get TWINE to send me a notification through XBMC when the door on my beer fridge opens. If I'm watching a movie I will get a pop-up notification stating that someone is in the fridge. This was done mostly for fun and to see if I could send commands to XBMC from the twine.

This is just one of the examples of what commands you could send to XBMC.

The code I used is below. You will need to have your XBMC system setup to be reachable from the Internet. I used GET to send the commands.

http://username:password@IP address:Port/jsonrpc?request={"id":1,"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"GUI.ShowNotification","params":{"title":"Motion%20Detected","message":"Beer%20Fridge"}}

You'll want to edit the below with your system specific settings and what you want the message to say.

username

password

IP address

Port

Motion%20Detected

Beer%20Fridge

Sump Pump Monitoring - working!

Joel Finkle — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 22:28:02 +0000

My house is situated on a spring, it seems. During wet season, my sump pump can cycle 60 seconds on, 150 seconds off. It can get to a depth of four inches in my whole basement overnight if the pump fails (it has, once). Battery backup is pretty useless if power is out for more than a couple hours, due to the heavy use. Yes, a generator might be a good idea... but is a lot more money than a Twine.

And hot damn, got vibration working with a Google Docs spreadsheet as I reported previously

I've now got it set up the following rules:

1) Gets Wet for more than .1 sec > Email me that the basement might be flooding.

Commentary:

I may need something more alerting than this -- my email doesn't make noise on my phone, and my phone often isn't by my bed. I may have to do something like trigger Google Voice to call my home phone as well. I'm also concerned about the occasional "splash" as the sump lid isn't a seal -- I don't want to wake myself up constantly.

2) Temperature falls below 40 > Email me that pipes might be heading toward freezing

Commentary:

I don't expect this to happen, but hey, the feature is there, I might as well

3) Vibration On for more than 2 seconds after being off for at least 3 > Issue an HTTP request to my Google Spreadsheet web app script

4) Vibration Off for more than 2 seconds after being on for at least 3 > Issue an HTTP request to my Google Spreadhseet web app script.

Commentary:

The script logs the time the HTTP request is sent, then checks for the parameter. Unfortunately, the web app URL is rather long, leaving me just three characters for my own use. The parameters are either ?ON or ?OF (rolls eyes).

The script puts the date/time, then compares with the previous date/time and lots either "1824 seconds since last run" or "Ran for 96 seconds"

I could probably use some spreadsheet-fu -- my script puts a horrendous formula in, e.g.

="Ran for " & Int((INDIRECT(ADDRESS(ROW(),COLUMN()-1,4))-INDIRECT(ADDRESS(ROW()-1,COLUMN()-1,4)))*86400) & " seconds"

Next step is to amend the Google Spreadsheets script to send me alerts if the behavior of the sump pump changes significantly: Not running for an hour when it's been running every three minutes could be a sign of failure, even if the water sensor hasn't tripped (firm believer in software belt and suspenders). Running more frequently than previously could be a sign of another disaster: a leaking pipe, for instance.

Is my dog barking?

Andrew Knasinski — Tue, 29 Oct 2013 13:10:32 +0000

I'd like to setup a sensor to ping me if my dog's barking, but only seem to find collars that go on the dog which I assume measure sound and vibration. Any ideas are most appreciated.

Was an iOS App made to interface with Twine/Supermechanical?

Graham Cruickshank — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 21:26:25 +0000

I remember someone in alpha testing a long time ago...

Monitoring temp in cooler outside

John Hoefer — Sat, 23 Nov 2013 22:23:31 +0000

We just had my daughters birthday party and have an excess of food and a small fridge. Fortunately it's cold outside. So I loaded up the cooler with the excess food ans am using Twine to watch that it doesn't freeze. I figure the cooler should keep the cold out as well as it keeps the cold in. Twine is there in case I'm wrong.

How to control Philips Hue with Twine?

Jens Rockstroh — Tue, 05 Nov 2013 08:41:26 +0000

Hi there,

I am looking for a solution to control the Philips Light System "Hue" in realtime with a Twine.
I searched the net and didin`t find concrete answers. I tried to use IFTTT: Twine --> IFTTT --> Hue. It is working but the problem is, there is a big lag. It takes several seconds before the Trigger activates the Lights.
Has anybody some ideas how to control it directly in realtime? I know it should be possible:

The Hue System is controlled by HTTP Put Requests like
http:// Hue-IP>/api/newdeveloper/lights/1/state

but how to get the Twine to control that in a local network

Thanks in advance
Jens

How I got my Twine to report the Temperature to me via email with actual value

Gary Rowe — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 12:40:58 +0000

I wanted to monitor the temperature of my Twine live by having it post a live temperature to a server that could be displayed on a page designed for display on a mobile device. That was the end goal but before I had time to do that I went for the device to notify me every 15 minutes (excessive) of its temperature.

Essentially this is a very simple PHP emailer script modified to calculate the Fahrenheit value into Celsius and report both values to me via email.

TWINE RULE:
WHEN temperature rises above 0...
Trigger after 0 seconds...
Reset 900 seconds after this has been triggered... (900 seconds is 15 minutes, adjust as required.)

THEN http request
http://yourdomain.com/twine/twine_temp.php?f=[temperature]

Obviously you need somewhere to host the PHP script which is below and modify it as required to send messages to you.

PHP CODE OF twine_temp.php

//Read the Fahrenheit value from the URL
$f=$_GET['f'];

//Convert Fahrenheit into Celsius
$c=intval((5/9)*($f-32));

//Email address to send notification to
$to = 'youremail@address.com';

//Subject of the Email
$subject = 'Twine Temperature is: '.$f.'f / '.$c.'c';

//Message body of the Email
$message = 'Hello from your Twine. I am currently sitting on '.$f.'f or '.$c.'c.';

//Who you want the Email to appear from (make sure it is not blocked by SPAM filter)
$from = 'no-reply@your.twine';

//Usual PHP Email Code
$headers = 'From:' . $from;
mail($to,$subject,$message,$headers);

//Display a message to anyone viewing the page that a message with values has been sent
echo 'Update Twine Temperature Mail Sent with values F='.$f.' and C='.$c.'.';
?>

The conversion of Fahrenheit into Celsius is required as it seems even though my Twine was set to Celsius it would only post Fahrenheit values.

This was very simple to get up and running and having tested it seems to work fine.

Now I'm onto making it post a real temperature value every 5 minutes to a page.

Hope this has helped people. I've found the information people are posting on here really really great.

Is the moisture sensor food-safe?

Misty Smith — Fri, 26 Jul 2013 02:27:03 +0000

I'd like to use the moisture sensor to alert me when the level in my espresso machine's water tank has dropped and needs to be refilled. Is the moisture sensor--and specifically the probes, which will be actually touching the water--food-safe?

2 TWINEs for sale...

Mark Fiske — Sun, 28 Jul 2013 12:50:09 +0000

I had hoped to use these as a poor-man's security system in a town where break-ins have become all too common. Unfortunately, battery life was too poor pre-2.0 update, and now updates are too infrequent to be useful for this post-2.0. On a personal level, for attic temperature monitoring, I decided, for what I am attempting to do, that the Netatmo would be better suited. For me, what was promised on kickstarter has not manifested in reality.

$50 each. PayPal only. Reply here if interested. I will ship only after payment is received. Thanks.

IFTTT and Twine (logging with Google Spreadsheets)

John Lowell — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 14:49:46 +0000

For all of you looking to add more functionality beyond SMS and email I recommend setting up IFTTT recipes. For instance, I have my magswitch logging every time my door opens to a google spreadsheet.

How my wife and kids say hi when I am traveling

Mike Iem — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 16:05:27 +0000

My daughter got a label maker and put little sayings on each side of the Twine and put it by the phone in the Kitchen. Everytime they want to tell me something, they just turn over the twine to the say. Here are a few they have used. Eat Salad, We love you, Exercise, Miss you Dad!, Words with Friends. Its pretty cool. My 6th grade daughter thought of it and I helped her do the Rules.

Twine & Arduino w/o Cloud Shield

Wayne Heller — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 05:00:13 +0000

I am excited to see the Cloud Shield. When I looked into its current capabilities, I am more excited about the future ability to pass data back to Spool that I saw mentioned in another discussion. So that got me thinking on whether there is a simpler way to connect my Twine and Arduino without a Cloud Shield.

Using a simple relay circuit board connected to the Twine breakout board, I send an on/off signal from an Arduino to your Twine account. The relay board I used is from engineeringshock.com but there are many others -- the cheapest I found is around $4 on Amazon.

The Auduino opens and closes the relay using 1 pin on the Arduino. The sketch is 4 lines of code. The relay connects and opens the ground and signal inputs on the Twine breakout board. The voltage from the Twine breakout board is not needed.

If anyone is interested, I am happy to share more information to get you going.

Off course, you don't get the nifty capacitance sensors like you do on the Cloud Shield...

Number of rules limitation

Stan Vermeulen — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 07:11:19 +0000

hi guys,

I hardly cannot imagion, but I cannot find it anywhere:

is there a limitation to the number of rules you can add?

I have a 'workaround' for the temperature logging, but takes many rules. wonder if there is a limit to that.

Germinating Seeds / Moisture sensor - DRY alert

Everett Peacock — Thu, 30 May 2013 14:21:07 +0000

using the moisture sensor to alert me when my germinating seeds get DRY. These valuable seeds need to remain moist during the germinating process and I'm now using TWINE to give me an alert when I need to add water to the dish. (see picture)

Making a door-knock alert?

D Lueb — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 23:24:01 +0000

I am interested in having Twine send an alert whenever someone knocks on my front door when I am not home. However, this would also be set off by me entering/exiting. I was thinking about a way that my phone could 'check-in' to a database whenever it enters/leaves my home network. Then, if the twine registers a vibration alert to the same database, there could be a rule to either send a text or not depending on whether I am home.

Does anyone have an idea how to best go about doing this?

TWINE Action to PC program launch?

Everett Peacock — Tue, 14 May 2013 20:35:11 +0000

I would love to know how to structure a TWINE Action to launch a program on my PC.

IFTTT doesn't have anything yet...any ideas would be greatly appreciated

Connect Twine to a simple switch (N.O. Dry Contact)

Andrew Boutin — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 20:37:33 +0000

Can I simply plug in a 2.5mm headset jack and monitor a Normally Open dry contact for closure, or do I need to purchase the breakout board to monitor ANY external sensor?

selling a moisture sensor and breakout board

Vince Silvestri — Sun, 05 May 2013 01:54:37 +0000

both are for sale here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/230975319353?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

WiFi range

Matthew Lohbihler — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 14:32:36 +0000

My twine can only see the wifi base station within probably 20 feet of it, which is not nearly far enough for my purposes. How do i increase its range?

Breakout board and magnetic reed switch wires

Will Luke — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 09:24:39 +0000

Sorry for the newbie question, but I am hopeless with electronics. I have a cheap (UK) reed switch, four wires: red, black, yellow and blue. I've put them into the breakout board's IN and GND in various combinations but it refuses to close the switch.

Simple question then: which wires go where?!

Temperature alert for the RV...

Doug Cook — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 12:14:49 +0000

I just purchased a Twine to use in our RV. Campers, like automobiles, quickly get hot in the summer when the power goes out, and campground power can sometimes be unreliable. Our dogs will be in the camper alone should the wife and I step away for a bit, so we need to know if the temperature starts rising. This way we can get back to the camper quickly and be with our pets. If the feature of triggering when the Twine switches from external power to battery get implemented, this could give us even earlier warnings to head back to the camper.

blue tooth to free up sensors

hash halim — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 13:00:37 +0000

it's ashame to need a cord to connect the sensors. this limits the amount of sensors you can use with each twine. blue tooth would make twine extremely valuable. all the sensors would be utilized with one twine simultaneously.

How to get the MAGSWITCH to work?

M W — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 14:20:59 +0000

Hi all,

Just got my Twine and Magswitch and am trying to figure out how to set up the Magswitch in my mailbox to alert me when the mailbox door is opened and mail is delivered. I can't quite figure out how the Magswitch works. Any ideas on how to set up something like that?

Thanks,

MW

Garage door and magnetic switch sensor

Jody Farr — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 12:38:03 +0000

Got mine mounted so that when the door opens, the magnet approaches the switch and I get a notification. But I cannot consistently get it to tell me when the switch is open, when the garage door is closing. Any tips on the right way to setup that rule?

Help bell for sick child

Brian Shotola — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 20:54:48 +0000

My daughter is unfortunately ill with the flu. While wishing I had a little bell for her to ring like I had as a kid I realized I had my TWINE. Thus I set up a shake notification to txt me if she needs anything during the night without having to get up and find mom & dad. Hopefully she is well enough tonight so she won't need it, but if she does, I'm hoping the TWINE comes through for us. Also, this is my first practical use of my TWINE, so we'll see how it works.

Goodbye Twine!

Philipp Eierund — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 17:59:34 +0000

I'm going to return my twine this week. The network connection issues are driving me absolutely crazy. Sometimes the twine connects. Sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes for a few minutes. Sometimes for a few hours. When it is connected it sometimes sends email notifications. Sometimes to both emails that I have set up. Sometimes to just one. Sometimes the other. Most of the times neither.

10 days ago Chrstine from tech support promised me the the November modem firmware update which is supposed to take care of these connection problems. I wouldn't know since I'm still waiting. And just like the Twine itself customer service has stopped responding to my emails. And while Ive got a lot of patience and good will with new products from small companies I have absolutely zero tolerance for lack of transparency and updates to keep the customer in the loop.

Ayways, I'm very happy that I ordered from Amazon so that my best experience with the Twine will be the hassle free return. Should've listened to all the 1-star review on Amazon. I sure will be adding mine.

Ciao (for now) and good luck you guys!

Door Casing Mount/Larger Magnet Size

Rob Blake — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 01:55:43 +0000

I picked up two Twines to monitor temperature and access to my ski condo at Copper. My lower and upper exterior doors have 3 1/2" wood casing around them; it's the type of casing that's thicker on the outside and thinner as it gets to the door. My struggle is the best way to get the motion circuit board close enough to the door to detect the magnet, or finding out how big of a magnet I need to keep from having to mount the circuit board directly on the casing itself. I wish I had it as easy as the picture on the Forum of the setup for the workplace bathroom door (no trim around the door) but I'm not so lucky. I'm planning on heading to one of the local big box stores to by a handful of larger/stronger door magnets to do trial-and-error but was hoping someone had beaten me to it...=).

Anyone have door casing mount photos or larger magnet sizes they'd like to share?