So if I understand correctly, I could have a tag set up, tap my phone on it and something would happen in the house?
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Yup. I used to have one in the car for my garage door.
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I immediately thought about kids phones at night. Both have NFC and we have a policy of turning them in at night so they aren't on them all night. Designated spots for them with NFC tags that set a boolean to true would be great.
I assume it would just need NFC enabled and data a local network connection? Don't really want to have extra apps on their phones.
Sorry for the dumb questions! I'm pretty shaky on the finer points
Hmm not sure, I used a free app to create them, but don't think you need it to use.
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There are lots of users, (myself included) that turn security cameras into motion sensors through the use of local endpoints. Fairly straightforward thing to do with Blue Iris and Hubitat.
Depending on the time of day and the status of HSM (Home, away, nightime) this endpoint (that triggers based on motion in the cameras field of view) could do one or more of the following:
- turn on light(s)
- automatically have android wall tablet switch to camera view
- send notifications
- have stereo system play a file the realistically mimics the barking of a large dog
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Looks like I'll have to order some and play around with them.
Very cool. This is the kind of stuff I had no idea about.
Buy stickers NOT plastic tags. So much more convenient.
I never figured out how to do this and could never find a walkthrough for it. It's been one of my biggest frustrations with smart home stuff.
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I do exactly this. I have an NFC sticker by my front door, and I tap it with my phone whenever I leave/return. I use Tasker app on my phone to recognise the NFC tag, then by way of a local endpoint I activate/deactivate HSM on HE.
Similarly, I have a tracker box inside my car that sends a message to my phone when I leave/enter a geofence area around my home, and another one around my parents' home. Again, I intercept this via Tasker and this time via cloud endpoints, I feed into location/presence routines within HE.
I find both local and cloud endpoints reliable and responsive
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I dont think you can do this, although I'm sure others can chime in. NFC tags/stickers can contain only a small amount of data and i dont think you can encode actions within them. So the reading device needs to know what to do
Personally i use Tasker on my android phone. This intercepts the NFC data, and depending on the unique code i have embedded with it, it performs certain actions (see my earlier post for how i use this)
The benefit of this is that the actions triggered by the NFC tag reside securely on my phone, rather than on the NFC tag. Any other phone reading the NFC tag simply receives a jumble of letters and numbers, but has no idea what to do with that.
If the endpoint were somehow encoded on the NFC tag itself, then any phone reading the tag would trigger your actions. As I use mine to enable/disable HSM (amongst other things) it's important that this does not happen
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Another broad use of cloud end points is connecting with external functions that don't normally connect with HE. You could for example use a service like IFTTT to send an alert to HE via a cloud end point when a particular blog gets updated. This can even carry variables that RM could then act on.
Good point about keeping endpoint URL's out of strangers' hands. Let's not forget that those URLs contain your super-secret Maker API Token, which means anyone could modify the URL to do all kinds of scary, unwanted stuff (read Maker's entire Devices list, change settings maliciously, activate modes or unlock locks, shutdown your hub, etc.).
NFC tags/readers is certainly one scenario where obfuscation is your friend.
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Do you currently use Blue Iris for your securty cameras? If so, I could provide the steps to take to make this work. Just a littly busy at the moment and may not get to it till the weekend of the 17th to 19th.
This topic is about RM endpoints. That access token doesn't open Maker API, only the rule in question.
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RM endpoints? Never knew such a thing existed. Thought this entire thread was about Maker API. Sorry, everyone, if I got my wires crossed.
EDIT: Neat, now I see "Cloud End Point" and "Local End Point" listed as Triggers within RM. Definitely going to be exploring those one day.
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Oh God yes please. If your going to do that you may as well make a fresh post for everyone to follow. That way others can reference it.
I have found that the benefit to using the RM endpoints is that one HTTP request can make multiple or complicated things happen. Maker API only affects one device. I use both options. I do recommend setting up both a cloud and local endpoint for each rule. Then, in Tasker, you can setup logic so that your Android phone will send the local endpoint when connected to home Wifi and use cloud endpoint when not. I also recommend that you setup those rules on your phone so you can cut & paste the URL into your Tasker Task.
If you have a iPhone, I offer my condolences. 
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Like a dummy, I had been passing variable expressions from Tasker to HE via the Maker API, for the purpose of flashing a light whenever the smartphone rings. Similarly, setting the same VS to "On" via IFTTT whenever my Ring Doorbell rings.
I think using RM end points directly would make the process a little more streamlined (if only marginally "faster"). Always a new toy to play with!!
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