Using IFTTT and Zipato is not as straight forward as adding a skill/channel to your IFTTT account and seeing all your Zipato devices there. You but it is not to much harder either. Below I’ll outline a step by step process to trigger something from IFTTT on your Zipato HUB.
Next i’ll show you how to trigger something FROM the Zipato HUB on IFTTT.
Obviously you will need to set up your IFTTT account first.
IFTTT to Zipato
- Login to your Zipato online Control Center
- Create a virtual meter ( i use this as it give me many variables all in one device, you can use a virtual sensor also if you only want a 2 stage device trigger)
- Once created you will need the url call for this meter. To find this go to the devices tab, open up the new Virtual meter menu and each menu under it until you get to the Value1 meter. See attached pic here. Then open the setting tab (cog pic)
4. Once opened you will see the url here. It will end with an = sign.
5. Now you have the url to trigger something within Zipato. I usually open up Notepad or something similar and paste the url to here so I have it on hand when I need it. If you were to simply paste this url into your web browser with a number after the = sign, you will see the value of your meter, Value1 (look under device browser tab, under http devices) change to this number. Now you have a trigger within Zipato.
6. Lets create a rule with a value of the Virtual meter. Open up the rules and start with something like this attachment. Of course you can use any device, but here are some examples of different methods with different types of devices.
7. Now you can see that if the meter equals a certain value, something within Zipato will react. Be sure to always reset you V Meter back to 0 at the end of the IF block rule.
8. Now lets login to your IFTTT account and Open a Webhooks channel. Webhooks (formerly Maker Channel) is what will send you URL for you.
9. For this example we will use Google Voice assistant to trigger the IFTTT program. Of course once setup, you can use anything within IFTTT to trigger the virtual meter. Thus, an email from your Google email address can make you RGBW light flash red. But for now, we will just stick with Google Voice.
10. Select new Applet from the menu under your account name, now you will see the if this then that menu. Click on “+this”
11. We select Google Assistant here. Then Say a Simple Phrase.
12. Next you will see a page with what it is Google will listen for, there are 3 different ways to say something here if you need it. This will also depend on your rule within the Virtual meter to, for example if you have a value that simply toggles you light (my Vmeter 3), from on to off to on etc, you may want to include in the voice description, “turn on living room” & “turn off living room”.
13. next is the +that
14. search webhooks, if not already added, add this channel. Select Make a Web request.
15. Next apge will look like this. You simply need to add your url copied from the Zipato meter settings, and add the number at the end that corresponds to your rule value, for our eg 3.
16. Select “post” NOT “get”.
17. Content type is “plain text”. Leave body field and hit “Create action”
18. You have not done your first IFTTT trigger with Zipato. Go through and add any other devices you want or triggers you want from IFTTT channels.
Going the other way. Zipato to IFTTT
How about if you wan to use your Zipato controller to trigger something not supported by Zipato, but supported in IFTTT? Its easy.
- In IFTTT, select “go to services” under your account menu. Type webhooks and open webhooks channel. View the documentation to get a better description of what you need to post in the URL field. The url listed here actually IS your post with your key inserted. So you will only need to copy this to your Notepad and when ready replace the EVENT word with your words
- This url is what will be added to your http request puzzle within Zipato.
- So, lets start a new Applet. Select the +this. and search for webhooks
- Select “Receive a web request”
- Event name is what you will enter into your EVENT replacement word. Let use for our eg LiteAutomation (free publicity)
- Select +that, search for gmail and select
- Select “send yourself an email” This will use the email account of your IFTTT account
- As you can see, most of the filed you will probably need are already pre filled out for you. You can delete or edit them as you wish
9. Select Create action.
10. Now log into your Zipato Control center and create a rule that will send a http request. Eg we are using an contact sensor and a door opening
11. open the http request puzzle and insert you webhooks url, with your event word, LiteAutomation, remember the exact wording including uppercase letters.
12. Save and sync
13. Now when your door opens, it will send the url to IFTTT and you will get an email.
14. So now you can see how you can create a virtual switch to trigger a RoboVac that has a channel on IFTTT but not supported on Zipato.
Enjoy. I hope this was an easy enough tutorial. If you need further explanations leave a comment below.