For my system i use Telegram messenger for notifications.
It’s not so hard to setup so here’s a quick how-to:
First go to here and use it to install Telepot.
Follow the tutorial to get a token and your Telegram ID.
Now create a python script somewhere using this code:
#!/usr/bin/python import sys import re import telepot message=(sys.argv)[1] print message #print "argumentlist: ",str(sys.argv) bot=telepot.Bot('YOURBOTTOKEN') bot.sendMessage(YOURID,str(message))
Make sure to edit the YOURBOTTOKEN and YOURID.
Next in pimatic you can create a rule like
when it is 30 minutes before sunset then turn Lights on and execute "python PATHTOYOURSCRIPT/SCRIPTNAME.py \"I turned the lights on\" "
Now every time the lights are turned on it will notify you of it’s action. You can also use this for other rules like website scrapers (i use it to get the ambulance/fire department/ police notifications for my village), CPU overload, etcetc…
Now i would like to make this a two way communication so Telegram could ask you if you would want to turn on the lights and by a press of the buttom (inside Telegram) it would do so.But it would need some help from someone who is mote into the telepot module…and has more time