Get Notified If ISS Passes Over Place with Bolt IoT

I got early access to the Bolt WiFi Module to test and give feedback on how it works. You can grab one for yourself in the Kickstarter campaign. In addition to the WiFi Module you get access to a Lifetime cloud service.

This is a quick 15 minutes project with Bolt WiFi Module. I break down the project into 3 sections.

1. Setting up the Bolt WiFi Module

Once you configure the Bolt WiFi Module for the first time using Android/iOS application, your device is connected to the internet. You can also see the status of the connection in Bolt's Cloud panel at cloud.boltiot.com

Well, now that the device is online, I am going to test if the API to control the device's pin works. In order to do this, lets fetch the API for my cloud account. Just click on the API icon on the left panel of the window:

In the Generate Key section, select Enable and you can either view the existing API key or Generate a new API key if you think your existing API Key has been compromised.

To test if you can remotely control your device's pin, build the following URL using your API Key and Device ID:

https://cloud.boltiot.com/remote/

Here I have chosen to control Pin 0 of my device and hence my hardware setup looks like this:

After building the URL using my API Key and Device ID, I go to that link using the browser. The response I received was {"success": "1", "value": "1"} and this means that the API is working fine. Just make sure you use state=LOW to turn off the LED and state=HIGH to turn on the LED.

2. Creating the IFTTT Recipe

I'll walk you through every step of creating a recipe now. Login to yout IFTTT account and click on your profile link and select New Applet.

(If you are new to IFTTT, just know that IFTTT stands for IF This Then That, so we configure This and That while creating a new recipe.)

You will see +this link once you are into the New Applet page. Click on the link and in the next page, search for space.

Currently there is only one applet that can be built with space. Click on that:

You will find a number of options here, click on the ISS passes over a specific location tab here to configure the location.

Use the + / - icons to Zoom in and Zoom out. You can also enter the location in the text bar there. Once you fix the location, click on Create Trigger.

You have successfully defined the This section, now its time to define the That section.

Click on the +that link and search for webhooks.

Click on the Webhooks tab.

Select the Make a web request option to define the action in the next page.

Enter the URL you built using your API Key and Device ID. Select GET Method and application/json as Content Type. This completes the That section. Now click on Create action.

Give a name to your applet in the next page.

And make sure your applet is turned on.

3. Wohoo, time to get notified!

You may put your hardware setup in a nice box, be artsy, maybe add a buzzer or tone generator too and just wait for the ISS to pass over your configured location now.

Get a Bolt WiFi Module for yourself here.