Solution - Echo Alarm Clock Like Reminder

#1

1) Give a description of the problem
I would like my echo to remind me that it is time to go to lunch

2) What is the expected behaviour?
I work every other week from Wednesday through Tuesday. My lunch is at 11:00 every day except weekends when it is at 1030. I would like my echo to remind me at those times. How would I use timers to achieve this? Would it be easier to somehow retrieve that information from my Google Calendar? How would that be accomplished?

3) What is happening/not happening?
I have no idea where to start.

**4) Post a Green Snapshot of the piston!
Nowhere even close to that point

5) Attach logs after turning logging level to Full
As above

#2

The first part can be something like this,

Everyday at 11:00 but only on monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday
With Echo speak (you need to install that)
Say "Lunch time"

Everyday at 10:30 but only on Saturday, Sunday
With Echo speak (you need to install that)
Say "Lunch time"

If you want use google calendar that’s is bit more complicated.
Virtual switches and IFTTT come in to play.

#3

But it is not every day. It is every other week on Wednesday through Tuesday.

#4

My bad i missed that part…
You can also select week numbers even months under TIMERs part.

#5

Here is a similar solution that structures around a two week work cycle.
(of course, your working days are not the same as his, but the concept is solid)

As far as getting a verbal reminder, this is the method that I use to get voice alerts on demand.

#6

So between the two suggestions, I came up with this:

vy00q
vy00q.png1178×1159 57.8 KB

Have no idea if it actually works. I will wait and see.

#7

I haven’t dug deep, but line 21 needs to happen every week… Not every two weeks.
(the variable needs to flip every 7 days)

#8

OK, I will try that.

#9

One other food for thought…

If this is your working week, then one small adjustment is needed. At the bottom of the piston (not in edit mode) you can initialize the local variable “dynamic workWed”. (this would only needed to be done once) Simply click on the little pencil next to “workWed” and set it to True.

temp

On the other hand, if right now it is your week off… please disregard this post…

#10

Thanks! Fortunately, this is the week off!

#11

I use the ST GCAL Search smart app (Google Calendar Integration?)
This lets you search the calendar for an event and then sets a trigger you can use in webcore.
I use it to set a “work from home” event when I add “wfh” in to my calendar.

#12

Well that looks interesting. But the set-up looks like a nightmare of gobbledygook.

#13

Yes, I thought that, but it wasn’t too bad. It worked first time for me. Just follow the instructions carefully. The complication is around supplying the authorisation for webcore to access your calendar.

I think its worth the effort, theres a lot of scope. Its much easier to change a calendar event rather than changing a piston. The access is better too, as you can easily add a calendar entry from your phone.

#14

This piston is working to my satisfaction, so I am going to mark this post as Solution -

This is the “Final” version:

vcvo
vcvo.png1178×1153 48.5 KB

I have a global variable, @holidaysObserved, from Garbage Collection Reminder

in Example Pistons, that I may use as another condition to include holidays in the Saturday or Sunday alarm, but this post is “Case Closed” as far as I am concerned.

As far as ST GCAL (Google Calendar Integration? ), I will explore that as a separate issue that may provide an alternate path to the requested results.

Thank you everybody for your marvelous advice on this, my first post!

#15

@Paul1964 Somehow, probably by accident, I was able to get ST GCAL installed and working. I found that when using Firefox, I could not get the App Settings to “stick”, perhaps because of pop-up blocking. However, when using Edge, which I hardly ever use, I was able to complete the installation Thanks for the tip. It does look easier to change the calendar event rather than the piston, and was worth the effort.