How to connect devices and apps, create projects and manage
dashboards
Our platform enables you to interconnect smart devices, apps and services from
different manufacturers and brands. It also enables different smart home systems
to communicate with each other.
Conrad Connect allows you to execute complex home automation routines that
would normally require using separate manufacturer-supplied apps for each and
every device. Moreover, our platform also lets you incorporate services by a
variety of different providers. Whether we are talking lighting, air conditioning,
home safety, CCTV, smart locks or heating systems, everything’s part of a single
network, working together. This both saves you time and gives you a plethora of
options when it comes to running your home the way you want.
To help you ease your way into all things Conrad Connect, we talk you through
how to use our platform. This Beginner’s guide shows you how to.
Please note:
- Business customers:
Conrad Connect Professional customers can start connecting devices immediately (see step 1 of this guide). - Private customers:
Immediately after registration you can use the STARTER package to get to know Conrad Connect.
If you want to use Conrad Connect with your devices, you can upgrade your account to a PREMIUM package at any time.
1. connect smart devices and services to our platform
2. create your own projects
3. set up dashboards to keep an eye on things
Here we go!
1. Connecting devices to our platform
Why? To operate all your different smart devices, apps and services on our
platform, your Conrad Connect account needs to access the cloud accounts
you’ve set up with each brand or service provider. This is achieved by using a
web interface to link the respective products and services to Conrad Connect.
How? First thing you need to do is setting up your devices and creating a cloud
account using the manufacturer app. If that’s done, log in to your Conrad Connect
account and follow the steps listed below.
1. Click “Products & Apps” in the navigation bar. This opens an A-Z list of
all compatible brands.
2. Scroll, and select the brand, or enter the brand name in the search box.
3. Click “Connect”. This opens a brand-specific page.
1. Connecting devices to our platform
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4. Click “Authenticate”. This results in you being temporarily redirected to the
brand’s login page.
5. On the login page, sign in to your cloud account using your login details
(usually your email address and password). The screenshot shows the Sonos
page as an illustrative example. Don’t worry. The authentication process is
pretty much standardized across brands.
6. Confirm that you want to link the product to Conrad Connect.
7. You’ve now successfully connected one or more products from this
particular manufacturer to our platform. Means you will be directed back to
Conrad Connect page listing the interlinked products, also suggesting projects
centered around these devices.
8. Repeat above steps for other brands you want to use on Conrad Connect.
Tip: By the way, it’s you who is in charge when it comes to what
happens to information you collect. Any of your devices can be
disconnected from our platform at any time, with all collected data
being erased in the process.
2. Creating your own Conrad Connect projects
Why? Don’t want to fiddle around with zillions of different apps? Want to
automate as many smart home tasks as possible? Welcome to Conrad Connect.
Create projects that use automation routines that tell your smart devices and
services what to do, and when to do it.
How? We’ll use a simple example to talk you thru the process. Objective of this
project: receive a text message and make smart lighting change the light colour to
blue whenever someone opens a window at the main entry.
Before we go ahead, and if you haven’t already done so, you need to set up the
device, create a cloud account via the manufacturer app, and afterwards connect
the cloud account to our platform. Otherwise just log in to your Conrad Connect
account and follow the steps below.
1. Select “Projects” in the navigation bar.
2. Click “+New Project” on the right-hand side of the page. This opens the
project editor.
3. First, specify the sensor used to trigger project execution in the left-hand
corner (in our example, it’s a window contact called “Main Entry Open”).
4. Click, hold and drag the sensor name to the project field in the centre of the
page.
5. Now you need to add an actuator. In our example, this is the service
responding to the sensor going off, namely a text message service. However,
the actuator doesn’t necessarily have to be a service, choosing a smart device
is equally okay.
6. Using the mouse, interconnect the two elements (i.e. sensor and service)
by drawing a line between them.
7. Click the text message service again in the project field.
8. Use the menu on the right hand side to specify phone number and
message content. Choose the status of the window being open as project
trigger.
9. Drag the lighting actuator from the left-hand side into the project field. Use
the mouse to connect it to the sensor.
10.Specify the lighting actuator selecting the light colour and choosing the
status of the window being open as project trigger.
11.Click “Save project” (upper right-hand corner).
12.This will open a window that allows you to add a project title and
description.
13.Click “Save project”. Done!
Tip: Need a bit of inspiration? Why not check out projects created and
shared by members of our community? All of them are ready to use
and easily modified to fit your requirements.
Moreover, sharing your own projects on our platform means you’ll be
able to use more projects for free. In order to do so, click “Publish” in
Step 13. However, you don’t need to publish your projects right away.
Saved projects can be shared at any time. In order to do so, go to the
Conrad Connect homepage and select Projects > My Projects >
Publish.
3. Setting up a dashboard to keep an eye on what’s
going on
Why? Instead of using a separate manufacturer-supplied apps for each of your
devices to view data or check the device status, our dashboard lets you do all of
that in one place.
How? Room temperature. Weather. Heating settings. Open windows. Widgets
are a convenient way of displaying a wide range of information on our dashboard.
Below a walkthrough how to create and arrange widgets using a weather forecast
widget as an example.
Before we go ahead, and if you haven’t already done so, you need to set up the
device, create a cloud account via the manufacturer app, and then connect the
cloud account to our platform. Otherwise just log in to your Conrad Connect
account and follow the steps below.
1. Click “My Dashboard” in the navigation bar. Dashboard opens in a new
window.
2. Click the + button in the bottom right-hand corner. This opens a menu listing
all available widgets.
3. Setting up a dashboard to keep an eye on what’s going on
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3. Select the relevant section (in our example: Weather Forecast).
4. Click the #Weatherforecast button.
5. Dashboard now shows the weather forecast widget for where you live.
Basically, that’s it. However, you can modify the widget if you like.
6. Click the cogwheel icon of the widget to add another city or town. In the
dropdown menu, select “Configure”.
7. You can add a total of three different locations (in our example: Bejing)
8. Click “Save”.
9. Repeat this procedure for any of your smart home devices connected to our
platform.
Tip: Did you know that you can share both individual widgets and
entire dashboards with people who do not have a Conrad Connect
account? In order to do so, either click the cogwheel icon and select
“Share”, or use the arrow shown in the bottom right-hand corner of the
dashboard.
And if you want to use multiple dashboards, upgrades are available
from our section Services ...
Have fun with Conrad Connect!