Now that there's IFTTT intigration you could use a
bt.tn I'm not sure what you want to have happen when someone pushes it but that should do it. I personally have dogs so the idea of more noise when someone comes to the door doesn't appeal to me.
Got my bt.tn in yesterday. Took about 2 weeks to ship from Finland, not too bad. It's a beast :biggrin:
I haven't had much of a chance to play with it since I had to run out for work last night, but it looks like you just hook up to the internal SSID to program it for your network, then tie it into your bt.tn account online. Definitely going to mess with it using IFTTT & Wink and see how it works. Just a quick critique list:
1. Takes (4) AA's, which are not included. That's a bit annoying since the button literally cost
a hundred dollars.
2. No A/C adapter included. Again...$100 button.
3. Mine arrived super scratched up. I thought it was used at first, but I think it just got jostled in shipping. Really disappointed; it looks terrible. I contacted the manufacturer to see if I can get a replacement button cap. My guess is they'll need to change the material in future production runs or put on some kind of protective coating to prevent visual wear & tear on the plastic material.
4. The springy switch inside reminds me of something, I'm not sure what, but something cheap that will break. It has that "boing" that super-cheap toys from China has. I can't place it, but I've heard it before.
On the positive side:
1. Super neat concept. Just a big freakin' button you can put anywhere, to do
anything. I love the idea! I've been sketching out more ideas; there are just so many great use-case scenarios for something like this. It's big, it's visual, it's tactile; it's a really great idea!
2. IRL, the button is physically
awesome. I can't explain it; you just have to hold one. We are tactile creatures: this is big, it's red (other colors available, but c'mon...push the red button!), it's clicky, it gives visual LED feedback; it's just very satisfying to use.
3. Despite what I said above about the cheap-feeling switch, it actually is very nice. It presses well & it makes a nice physical boingy sound when you press it, so you
know when you've pressed it properly. It's not soft or quiet, so you're not stuck wondering if the click went through or not (plus you have the LED feedback, which is a nice visual notification system).
4. I was mulling over other button options (ex. the Amazon Prime re-order button, Aeotec's doorbell button, etc.), but having a very large, colorful button is really in a different category because it's eye-catching and again, tactile. It really amps up the "easy" factor in terms of "I'll actually use this" due to those features. Again with the laundry example, I always forget to swap my laundry from the washer to the dryer - it's not that I don't have other options, I mean, I could always just set a timer on my phone to remind me, but I never remember to do that. Sticking a ginormous red button on top of my washing machine makes it pretty easy to remember because you visually trip over it every time you run a load of laundry. I think that's just really great; there's not really anything else out there like it on the market.
It will be interesting to see how complex the programming can get. For example, having one on your bedside table. If it's morning, have it do X, Y, and Z (ex. turn on bedroom lights, open bedroom blinds, play radio in bedroom & bathroom, start hot water to shower, etc.). If it's evening, have it do A, B, and C (ex. lock all doors, turn off all lights, turn down A/C, make sure garage door is closed, etc.). As IoT hardware & hubs progress, it will be really fun to program this thing with IFTTT, time-of-day, and so on. It would be cool to see a v2 that has (1) audible feedback (ex. beeps or a little MP3 player type of deal), and (2) a glowing cap (button glows like a shop lightswitch, instead of just an LED ring).