A Way to be Notified When Your Parent Doesn't Get Up on Time

Issue #40

The Problem:

Your dad lives alone, and you worry about him getting up every morning. You have been calling him daily to check, but that is not always a good time for either of you. Daily text messages to him have worrisome, delayed responses. If there was only some way to have an indicator that he was on his regular schedule and an alert if he wasn't…

Simple Solution:

This solution uses a YoLink motion sensor and a YoLink hub at your dad’s house and a YoLink Hub and a single YoLink Smart Plug with a green light using a YoLink automation at your home.

Your YoLink account controls all the devices. This is possible because YoLink devices are “bound” to your YoLink account, NOT a hub, as in other smart home solutions.

The setup instructions detailed below in the Set-Up section cover the Advanced Solution, but for the Simple Solution you only need the YoLink setup steps and this one YoLink automation instead of the four YoLink automations.

This solution will turn on the green light at your house if dad has movement between ad adjustable time, e.g., 5:00AM- 5:30AM

You can configure all the devices at your home and then later place the YoLink Hub and YoLink motion sensor at your dad's home.

Here is a YouTube video of it in action:

Advanced Solution

This solution builds on the simple solution by adding two more smart plugs at your home. They show yellow, green, and red lights based on your dad's morning wakeup status using additional YoLink Automations at your home. This gives you a “Traffic Light” indication that the system is checking (yellow), dad got upon time (green), or dad failed to get up on time (red)

There are three YoLink smart plugs with colored lights: one for green, one for yellow, and one for red. They automatically scan for motion detection between 5:00 AM and 5:31 AM. You can adjust the schedule to meet your needs.

Set up:

If you don't have a YoLink account, create one.

·      Add the YoLink app (iOS or Android)

You can add the following devices to the YoLink account while at your house and position them later at your dad's house. YoLink uses a simple "scan QR code" method to install a device.

·      Add the Yolink hubs

o   One for your home and one for your dad's home

·      Add a YoLink motion sensor

·      Add an outlet extender (for easy arrangement of the smart plugs)

·      Add 3 YoLink mini–Smart Plugs (I suggest using the names "YoLink Yellow Plug, YoLink Green Plug, and YoLink Red Plug " to easily follow the info in my table.

·      Plug in colored lights

o   Be sure to tape off the dusk-to-dawn sensor on the colored lights

NOTE: If you already use a YoLink account, you can also receive SMS messages since you will be the admin for these automations.

Optional- Create "Alarm strategies". (If you want email/SMS notifications)

One is for normal (Default) notifications, just using the YoLink app notification and the other is for alert (Activity Notification) such as Email or SMS text message)

Testing

Be sure to install the YoLink motion sensor in a location where your dad would be detected during his morning routine.

While you could wait until the actual time of day to test these, you may be tempted to edit the times for a more convenient test. Just be very careful in adjusting the green-light and the red-light timing settings in relation to start and stop times.

Usage

You should see a normal pattern of yellow light when the scanning has started, followed by a green or red light based on whether your dad got up on time. You do not need to go to your dad's home to adjust timing as the settings appear in your YoLink account.