No problem, it will be nice to know if it is working with the google calendar.
If you would like it the day before the event, then you must enter “-1 (minus 1 day)”. Currently you have set it to “1 ( + 1 day)” so this will notify you 1 day after the calendar event. So if you are testing 1 day before and it is 3pm now on 17 Sep 2023 then your calendar event must be set at more than 3:15pm on 18 Sep 2023. Then you would enter as below, again note the minus value.
Question I want to use this blueprint to remind my kids it is time for bed for a school night. I know for the offset it has to be negative, so it can check the next day. Is there a place where I can use 8:40pm as the trigger to check every day to make the announcement?
No, there are no time inputs for triggers just a calendar event.
There are a few ways to do this.
Option 1
Go through the year and enter all the calendar events for each night at 8:40 called something like “School Night It Is Time For Bed”. Make sure some thought goes into the calendar summary as you can use this in the notify message.
In the description add a trigger key word something like @bettimeschoolnight or @child1 & @child2 etc
Then create the automation and just use the start, no offset required. Or depending on your key words you could create one automation or separate automations, one for each child and have set up similar to the bin reminder in the FAQ so you could have action buttons where each child could notify you that they have received the message and or a follow up reminder.
Option 2 (recommend)
Go through the year and enter all the calendar events for school called something like “School Day”. Start and End time example Start 9am End 3:30pm. Setting it up like this will allow you to also create automations at the end of a school day if the catch the bus home to let you know they are home and OK.
In the description add a trigger key word something like @bedtimeschoolnight or @child1 & @child2 etc
Then create the automation and just use the start, offset is required. Depending on your key words you could create one automation or separate automations, one for each child and have set up similar to the bin reminder example in the FAQ so you could have action buttons where each child could notify you that they have received the message and or a follow up reminder.
Before you go nuts and enter everything in just do one week and see if you like it, then add the rest if your happy.
PS: You could also create a different calendar just for school, that way you can filter everything much easer. To create a new calendar called “School” when adding a calendar event in and in the area you select a calendar just type a new one called “School” and when you click save it will create one for you.
Hi Robert, that is totally fine it will still work exactly the same. You will just have different offsets. I think you would like an announcement (On your speakers) the day before school at 8:40pm then your offset will be 12am - -3hh -20mm = 8:40pm so your input will be with negative values for the “start” like shown below.
You will have to select the calendar you used to enter the calendar events in and hopefully you entered in a key word. If so then you would also enter in that key word example; something like @schooldaybedtime or @schoolday or whatever key word you used. You can also use “School”, “Day” or “School Day” as this in what you used in your summary but if any calendar event has those words this automation will fire so I would strongly recommend you enter in a unique key word like “@schoolday” or “#schoolday”.
Then you need to decide if you would like to have a message sent to your phone by enabling the “The Start Notify Options”. You dont need to use this for the blueprint to work it is just an option you can choose. If you do choose this option then you have another option to use the “Action Buttons Options”. Note; if you enable action buttons then all actions (action 1, 2 or 3) will wait for a press of an action button or the time delay passes before any action will be done. Because I think you would like an announcement (On your speakers) you wouldn’t use the action buttons unless you would like to choose if the announcement (On your speakers) happens or not every time and I don’t think you would like to do this. So if you would like a message sent to the phones an move onto the auto actions then don’t enable any “Action Buttons Options”. Again you don’t need to use any of the notify message options for it run any of the actions 1, 2 or 3.
Your next option is " Start Auto Action Options". This is the option that will allow the announcement (On your speakers). So you would select any of the enable options for 1, 2 or 3. Let just say for this example we will use “Enable start auto action 1”. Then in the “Start Action - Action 1” you would put in all your announcement (On your speakers). Add action / play media / pick your speakers / and the media you would like example text to speech and enter in your text. Then add more action for the other speaker if you like.
The trigger works with a key word in your calendar events. So you will need to put a keyword into every event you would like to be notified. Click Here for more information on keywords.
thanks for testing it and letting us all know 