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2013-03-01

How-To: Quantify Productivity with Twine

Our friends over at Handsome held FinishUp Weekend last week to inspire people to get things done! Supermechanical set up some Twines around the workspace to track just what goes into finishing projects up. You can check out the results here.

To keep track of coffee breaks, we set up a magnetic switch on the coffee urn so each time someone pressed the lever to up their caffeine levels, a rule would trigger.
Since the magnetic switch is normally closed, we set up a rule that looked like this:

To keep track of how many snack breaks participants took throughout the weekend, we set a Twine on top of the fridge, and monitored via vibration how often the doors were opened and closed (a magnetic switch would work well too, if your fridge is unusually stable).
Our vibration rule was set up like this, but you should adjust the vibration needed to trigger the rule based on your fridge:
You can read more detail about using the vibration sensor here.

With all that sustenance coming in, of course we had to measure it on its way out. Twine tracked bathroom breaks via magnetic switch.
We set up the magnetic switch on the handle so when the toilet was flushed it would come in range of the magnetic switch and trigger the rule (this also keeps Twine and the sensor safe from toilet water). This rule was just opposite of the coffee urn rule, because the magnetic switch on the toilet is set up as usually open.

And after all the coffee, snacks, bathroom breaks, and hard work, the reward was pressing a big red button at the finish line. You can read about how we hacked the Easy button here.

With the results graphed, it’s easy to track trends. How many times a day are you opening the fridge? Notice your toilet is getting more use than you thought? Maybe it’s time to look into ways to save water… Notice your employees are drinking a lot of coffee at certain times of day? Keep the pot full during those hours to maintain productivity levels.

2013-02-22

How-To: Chart Twine’s Course

Hey! My name is Risto and I do a little of everything here at Supermechanical. Most of my time is spent programming, assembling, and shipping your Twines around the world, but occasionally I get the itch to experiment with cool new ways to connect my world to the internet, like using Twine and HTTP requests to track the temperature at my house.

My AC has been acting up recently at home; every now and then it just cuts out. It’s not a big deal for me because I don’t usually leave perishable food lying around, but my StellaDog doesn’t really appreciate sweating it out the whole day. I set up my Twine to shoot me an email when the AC cuts out so I can come to her rescue as needed.

After I received a couple of email notifications I decided to use an HTTP request and ThingSpeak with my Twine to keep track of how often my AC is dying so I can prioritize getting it fixed.

When Twine’s rules are triggered, Twine can use an HTTP request to send information to ThingSpeak, and Thingspeak will graph the data from Twine and your world.

Twine notifies you when rules are triggered, but it doesn’t constantly log small differences in data. Remember: Twine will allow up to 30 notifications per hour.

To get started you’ll need a Twine and a free account at https://ThingSpeak.com.

First, set up an account at https://ThingSpeak.com/
Once you are signed in, click on “channels” tab, near the top left of the home page. Click on “create channel”, and you will see your new channel with a blank graph. Then click the “data import” tab. The second box on the right side of the page will include a link to tell your Twine where to send its data. The link should look something like this: http://api.ThingSpeak.com/update?key=YOUR_API_KEY_HERE&field1=0

Highlight and copy the link in the second box.

Next, go to your Twine’s rules, and create a rule for the temperature you want to monitor. I chose 79º F because that’s the high end of Stella’s comfort range. Side note: if you save an HTTP request with a Celsius temperature trigger, the rule will trigger, but the value will be translated to Fahrenheit (for now, we’ll be fixing this!).

Click “add an action” and choose “HTTP request” from the menu.

Paste the link you copied from ThingSpeak into the box.
Remove the “0” from the end of the link and then click on the sensor value you want your Twine to send to ThingSpeak (I used temperature).

Save the rule to your Twine and voila! Now, Twine is talking to ThingSpeak, and I can make sure StellaDog doesn’t turn into a hotdog.

If you go back to ThingSpeak and click on the “channel settings” tab. You’ll be able to edit field labels, add your location, and customize your chart.

What are you using your Twine and HTTP requests to track? Share in the Twine Community!

2013-02-14

How-To: Tell if your Love is Mutual

If I were actually doing this for a valentine, it would probably be the most romantic gesture I’ve made in my life, ever. So, if you were waiting for the perfect Valentine’s day surprise for your loved ones, here it is! We’ll set up Twine to send an email when it senses vibration.

Things you need: Twine, a stuffed animal, and needle and thread.

Step 1: Surgery. Put your Mr. Monkey on the operating table (or chopping block). You wouldn’t want him to feel any unnecessary pain, so make sure you give him enough anesthetic to knock him out. And for goodness sakes, put him in a hospital gown to preserve some of his dignity. Find an appropriate spot to make the incision, and carefully take out the seam. The butt seam works well. This would also be a good time to give Mr. Monkey the tattoo he’s always dreamed of. Maybe a heart? Or your initials? Or a butterfly tramp stamp?

Step 2: Stick your Twine inside. Try it put it in the middle of the stuffing so the hard Twine edges don’t poke out. I found it was easiest to take most of the stuffing out, put the Twine in, and then pack the rest of the stuffing around Twine. Make a note of which direction your Twine is facing (This will be helpful if you want to add an orientation trigger to your rule).

Step 3: Close Mr. Monkey back up. I just basted him back together. If you don’t want to have to rip out stitches and resew whenever you change your Twine batteries, you could use buttons, velcro, or a zipper. (If you aren’t into needlecrafts and you’re not giving this to a child, safety pins will work fine)

Step 4: Let your Twine tell you when someone moves Mr. Monkey. Set up a rule that looks like this:

True Story: A few summers ago, a girl I was dating gave me a valentine that said: You’re better than a banana.

You can play with the sensitivity to manage when you get notifications. Don’t want a notification when Mr. Monkey is only nudged? Set the value higher. In our experiments, I found that throwing him against a wall will max it out at 4000 milli-gs (and I throw like a girl), shaking Mr. Monkey back and forth reported around 2000 milli-gs, and just moving him to a new spot on my desk read 800 milli-gs.
You could also add an orientation trigger so you only get notifications when Twine is vibrating AND top side up (for example).

Caveats: Nobody loves a creeper! Tell whoever you’re gifting Mr. Monkey to that there’s a Twine inside (this’ll also encourage them to use the bear to send you love notes instead of just setting it on a shelf).
Your Twine will need to be set up on the wireless network of the whoever you’re giving it to, if it’s not the same as your network.
Don’t throw Twine against walls without the padding monkey guts (or other stuffing) provide. This will result in damage to Twine and your walls!

Similar rules could also be used as a general activity sensor. Put Twine on your chair at work to tell your family when you’ve made it to work safely, and when you’re on your way home.

What are you using your Twine’s vibration sensor for? Share in the Twine Community!

2013-02-08

How-To: Push your Twine’s Buttons

Confession: I’ve been spending a lot of time on Pinterest. There are A LOT of buttons on pinterest. This button though, it’s far superior to Pinterest buttons.

Want to turn your Twine into an Internet-connected button via your breakout board? We’ve got instructions for an easy button, and an Easy Button.

To start off, do some background reading about your breakout board.

For the easy button:
You’ll need: a Twine, breakout board, and a push button. (I used part number 275-0011 from RadioShack; the one in the link is similar, but not an exact match).

1. You’ll want to attach wires to the leads on your button. I had them soldered on (thanks David!), but you could also use conductive thread.
2. Stick the wires into the GND and IN terminals on your breakout board. If the white levers pop off, don’t worry! They’re easy to pop back on.
3.Connect your breakout board to your Twine. Need a longer cable? We’ve got 10 footers. Here’s how it should look when it’s all connected:
4. Setup a rule on your Twine to tell you when your button is pushed. When you push the button, the circuit will be closed, so your rule should be set up for when the breakout board reads closed. Like this:

If you have button-happy friends/enemies you can increase the untrigger value under “Options”, so you won’t get as many notifications. I didn’t set an untrigger value, because I like it when my Twine complements me.

5. Push your button!

Bonus Step:
You wouldn’t want your button to be naked! Put it in a box and hide your Twine inside, or fit it inside a piece of pipe! Other ideas? Share in the Community.

Now, for the (inappropriately named) Easy Button!

You’ll need: Twine, a breakout board, soldering equipment/wire, and an Easy Button.

Caveat: The Easy Button circuitry has changed over time. Your Easy Button may not work the same as ours.

1. Take the rubber pads off the bottom of your Easy Button, and unscrew the screws underneath them. Set these aside, but don’t lose them!

2. Disassemble the Easy Button.

3. Find an electrical engineer. Hand him your easy button, and trust that he’ll get it working. Congratulations, you can skip to step 9.

4. If no electrical engineer is available, scratch off the traces as shown in the picture here with an X-Acto knife. This will isolate the button from the rest of the circuitry.
6. Solder wires on the pads as shown here:

6. Drill a hole in the side of the grey outer ring to feed the wires through.
7. Feed the wires through the hole and reassemble your Easy Button.

8. Attach the wires to GND and IN terminals on your breakout board.

9. Make a rule, like above!

10. Push ALL the buttons.

What would you use an Internet button for? Any other ideas for using the breakout board? Share in the Twine Community.

2013-01-28

Update 1.2

It’s here! Twine 1.2!

What’s included in this release:
1. Vibration sensor functionality.
2. Several small reductions in power consumption.
3. Celsius functioning, for all our international friends.
4. UI improvements, including Wi-Fi signal and battery life bars and an improved fast mode switch.

To get the update, resave the rules on your Twine.

Here’s everything you need to know about the vibration sensor:

The vibration status indicator shows you how many milli-gs (g being gravity) of vibration your Twine is currently experiencing.

The vibration threshold slider is how you will set the vibration limits in your rules. If you click on the camera while your Twine is vibrating, it will set the sensitivity to the current level of vibration.

The rule conditions are how you control when your Twine notifies you. The trigger value is the length of time your Twine needs to be in the state in your rule before it will trigger. The untrigger value is the length of time your Twine needs to be out of that state before it can trigger again (this is useful to avoid having your rule fire several times in a short amount of time).

The vibration sensor is continuously evaluated when it’s used in a rule, so you won’t miss any notifications. It updates on your dashboard whenever your Twine sends an update (every 45 seconds in normal mode, and about 5 times a second in fast mode).

Dashboard interface improvements

To put your Twine in fast mode, click on the “fast/slow” switch at the bottom of the Twine’s dashboard. You’ll be prompted to flip your Twine bottom side up, and then you’ll be in fast mode (once Twine is in fast mode, you can flip it back over). In fast mode, your Twine will update on the website about 5 times a second, compared to the every 45 seconds in normal mode (warning: this eats batteries at 100x the normal rate, so don’t spend a lot of time in fast mode unless your Twine is running on external power).

The dashboard also displays Wi-Fi signal bars when your Twine is in fast mode, so you can check the reception your Twine gets in its location (no reception, no notifications). You can leave fast mode by using the fast/slow switch again (or it will automatically switch back to normal mode after a minute).

Need ideas for how to use the vibration sensor, or a complete tutorial? Check out our laundry alert how-to.

What are you using the vibration sensor for? Share with the Twine community!

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How-To: Laundry

Don’t you just hate it when you forget to put your clothes in the dryer? (Heads up: the people you live with hate it when you do that too.) Good news! Twine’s built-in vibration sensor is ready to text you when your clothes are clean.

Vibration’s not showing on your dashboard? Well, resave your rules and it’ll be there!

What now? First, put your Twine on top of your washing machine (orientation doesn’t matter) and do some laundry. I’m assuming you already know how to do this. If you don’t know how to do laundry, call your Mom. (If you do, call her anyway. Her Twine told me she misses you.)

While the washing machine is running, take note of what the vibration reading is on your Twine’s dashboard, and any prolonged lulls in the spin cycle, this will help you determine the conditions for your rule. You’ll want to put your Twine in fast mode to do this. To put your Twine in fast mode, click on the “fast/slow” switch at the bottom of its dashboard, and flip your Twine bottom side up. Once you’ve got a good feel for the vibration levels of your washing machine, you can leave fast mode by using the fast/slow switch again (or it will automatically switch back to normal mode after a minute to save power).

Once you’ve got this information, it’s time to set up your laundry rule. In your Twine’s dashboard, click on the “rules” button, and add a rule. While doing my research load of laundry, I found my washer was usually shaking at 63 milli-gs, but it had a lull when it refilled with water mid-cycle and not much shaking was happening. So I set my rule up to have a 3 minute trigger value, and I set the value to 0 milli-gs.

The trigger value is the length of time your Twine needs to be in the specified state before the rule will trigger. This means I won’t know my laundry is done until Twine is still for 3 minutes (life is so hard), but it’s better than getting a false trigger. The untrigger value is the length of time your Twine needs to be out of that state before it can trigger again. So, if you have a 3 minute untrigger value, your rule won’t fire again until your Twine has been vibrating for 3 minutes. This can cut down on false positives if someone bumps into the washer.

Here’s what my rule looks like:

Click “Save to Twine”, and then flip your Twine bottom side up when prompted or wait until your Twine next checks our server for your rules to load.

If you’re planning on leaving your Twine on your washer or dryer as a permanent installation, you can attach it with tape, 3M strips, or something else sticky. If you’re planning on moving it from washer to dryer to other location, you don’t need to attach it, just set it on top. I just put my Twine on the lid (got to remember to move it before you take laundry out) like this:

Now you and your Twine are ready to do more laundry (you’re a pro at this now, right?).
Don’t forget to fold your clothes before they get wrinkly!

Want to level up your laundry even more? Set up a mag switch rule to tell you if your laundry has migrated. Here’s how the setup could look:

Share your plans for the vibration sensor in the Twine Community!

-Christina and the Supermechanics

2013-01-11

How-to: Animal Control

Hi! I’m Christina, and my Twine is named Helga. By day, we answer your questions, write blog posts like this, drink tea, and try fun things out with Twine — like monitoring the pet door.

Pets can be difficult. They can’t speak so you never know exactly what they are thinking. Do they want in? Do they want out? Are they hungry? Where exactly are they? Who knows? No one, except for the dog whisperer.
If you use a pet door to try to cut down on interspecies communication problems, you can use a magnetic switch with your Twine to track when your pet comes and goes.
To monitor the movements of your cat/dog/squirrel/ferret/small child:

1. Attach your Twine and magnetic sensor securely to your wall (if you need to set up your mag switch farther than the included cable reaches, we also have 10’ cables available). You can do this with screws, duct tape, electric tape, gum (pre-chewed, of course), 3M strips, etc. I used packing tape, on the outside side of the pet door. If you don’t live in a place where the outside is secure, you should probably put the Twine on the inside to keep it safe. If you put it outside, make sure it is sheltered from the elements (Twine isn’t waterproof).

2. Attach a magnet to the side of the door so that when closed, it’s within 0.5” of the magnetic sensor (you can check whether it’s close enough on your Twine’s dashboard). The magnet included with the Twine magnetic switch has adhesive on one side, or you can stick to tape. Tape is less permanent than the magnet adhesive, so that may be a better option if you plan on moving your magswitch in the future. But, if your pet likes to chew on things, something permanent may be better. We wouldn’t want anyone to accidentally swallow a magnet. Your Twine/magnetic switch/magnet setup should look like this:

3. Set up a rule that looks like this:

The reset value under ‘options’ lets you tell Twine not to check this condition again for a while. This can be useful depending on how your door operates. Does it swing back and forth when it’s closing? Put in a 15 second reset value so you won’t be notified each time it swings. If it doesn’t swing, you can use a lower value. The text in the email can be changed to whatever best describes your pet’s behavior. And now you’ll know when your pet has used his/her door.

Looking for more ways to use your Twine?

Check out how Robert is using his Twine to monitor if he’s left his garage door open: http://www.savagehomeautomation.com/projects/twine-garage-door-monitor-revisit.html
(You can see all of Robert’s Twine projects here: http://twineprojects.com/)

What are you doing with your Twine? Share it with the Twine community! (That’s also the place to go for more ideas and general Twine talk).

2012-11-28

How to use your Twine breakout board

Short version:

The easiest way to use the Twine breakout board is to hook up a set of contacts (switch, button, wire) between the IN and GND terminals (Fig 1). When the contacts are touching, the breakout is “closed”. When they aren’t, it’s “open”.

Longer version (for nerds):

The breakout has three terminals: “3.3V”, “IN”, and “GND”.

3.3V — power supply from the Twine. This voltage on this line will vary between 2.3 and 3.3V depending how the Twine is powered. When running on external power, this will stay constant at 3.3V. When running on batteries, this voltage will vary between 2.4-3.0V. The voltage will always be boosted to 3.0V just before the input is sampled. An internal power circuit limits current on this line to 50mA. Remember that any power drawn from this line will directly affect battery life.

IN — input to the Twine. This line is pulled to the Twine’s internal power rail by a 4.7K resistor. It is highly recommended to only pull this line low, and never drive it high. A great way to do this is to use an NPN transistor (Fig 3) or relay (Fig 4). Under no circumstances should you connect more than 3.3V to this port.

GND — connected directly to the Twine ground bus.

2012-11-22

One year in: A very Twine Thanksgiving

One of our customers sent us this photo of his Twine monitoring the temperature of a turkey thawing in the garage. It’s a reminder of how awesome our community’s creativity and support is — thank you. We’ve learned and done a lot in the time since we first put Twine on Kickstarter, one year ago. And we’ve got miles to go!

In our latest update, we report our blessings for the last year; status on the Kickstarter; a bright new hardware partner; and a Black Friday sale at our store — $10 off any Twine on the 22nd.

Read it all on our Kickstarter page.

2012-11-09

Early moisture sensor on top, production one on bottom. Originally these were V-scored, which means that the panels of sensors have grooves to snap them apart, and provide support along the long edges during assembly, but it left a rough edge that might give you fiberglass splinters. Not great — so we redid them with a fancier process.

The new moisture sensors have a nice smooth edge produced by a router. It took extra time to make sure it would hold up in assembly, but we think it’s worth it. And now we’re shipping them!