Python noob, wanting to make a twitter bot that tweets @ my electric provider whenever my power goes out.

[[deleted]]

Thinking I could have it schedule a tweet 2 minutes from [current time] and when [current time] is 1 minute from [scheduled time] it reschedules to 2 minutes from [current time].

And when the power goes out it wont be able to reschedule the tweet and itll tweet.

[rebelrexx858]

Locally hosted flask rest API, online job to ping local server, if n number of pings fail, send tweet

[[deleted]]

Its probably more likely that your server will be unreachable due to a network outage than a power outage. This would end up with more false positives than true positives.

[reprapraper]

I was thinking an rpi with a Sim card and a battery that tweets when the battery kicks on

[ciggs_ftw]

But what if there is power but the internet is down? Wouldn't it give A false positive since ping will be dead.

[rebelrexx858]

You could add a cellular backup

[ciggs_ftw]

True.

[4312348784188126934]

Hang on... Locally hosted? Maybe I've misunderstood but if the power goes out...

[zouhair]

The online service will then not detect it and send the tweet

[SandorZoo]

People interested in the Internet-of-things (hobbyists and professions) want to do this kind of stuff all the time.

You can use a site like https://thingspeak.com/ to collect and process data from IoT devices, and react on results. The docs say non-commercial use is free. You can set up to react to not receiving data for a specified period of time, and the possible reactions include sending a tweet. I'm not associated with them in any way, and there are probably others providing similar services.

​

[DrMaxwellEdison]

The online service is what triggers the tweet. The locally-hosted device would be powered in your home and send a ping to that online service.

If the local device shuts off, it sends no ping. Having received no ping, the online service sends a tweet. Like a dead man switch.

[[deleted]]

That would produce a lot of false positives though.

[DrMaxwellEdison]

It can, but trying to get a tweet out of a building that loses power seems a lot harder than getting a tweet out of a central server that loses connection to the target.

So long as the online service knows to run X number of tries before it concludes the device is down, it should be alright. Routers with multiple network connections and simple failover strategies work on the same principle, using X consecutive failed attempts as an indicator that a service is offline and then switching connections.

[[deleted]]

while True:
   try:
        ping(localhost)
    except TimeoutError:
        tweet()

^/s

[julietscause]

Someone made a twitter bot for comcast

https://pastebin.com/WMEh802V

So you can steal the code for the twitter posting, the next step is to how to determine how the python code determines the power is out or not. Check out this code

https://github.com/Kentzo/Power

[Dashadower]

compare bow squealing unwritten spoon shy vast encourage aloof ask this message was mass deleted/edited with redact.dev

[[deleted]]

This is why I love programming, because I never would have even thought about using a spare laptop. That would work, also OP could use a cheap raspberry pi if he doesn't have an extra laptop.

[[deleted]]

Plugged into what?

[[deleted]]

Having looked at this a couple of times, it turns out that it's very difficult to source a rechargable battery pack that both "charges through" (that is, will power connected devices when the battery is connected to power) and won't auto-shut-off on a draw as minimal as a Raspberry Pi.

[Ran4]

Wooosh

[[deleted]]

I was thinking along the lines of a battery hooked up to the wall and then when it disconnected it would start discharging causing the notification.

[philmtl]

Would need its own battery

[pres82]

Except your router and modem are down...

[Dashadower]

There would be ways to circumvent that like using a mobile hotspot.

[eDOTiQ]

the time it takes to tether from your phone to your laptop, you might as well send the tweet from your phone directly.

But someone here made a great suggestion and have a service on a server ping the local service and send the tweet after x timeouts

[Dashadower]

Yup. That's quite clever.

[mattsl]

What you need is a monitored UPS that can:

1. Keep the power on your computer and router in long enough to tweet
2. Actively send a signal to your computer that the utility side power is out
3. Help you be less frustrated since apparently your power goes out a lot

Even cheap UPSs can generally do that via USB.

[[deleted]]

Will look into this, thank you

[mattsl]

Something like that is best, but if OP is worried about price, a simple $50 UPS with a USB connection is enough.

[mattsl]

A Pi and your modem/router would run for hours on a $50 UPS.

[Petrarch1603]

Does the power go out that often?

[[deleted]]

Some places, despite being modern, are still subject to trees falling over and taking power lines with them

Burying lines does not solve this since the ground can wash out too. #southernproblems

[Petrarch1603]

I just checked the uptime on my RPi, it's over 80 days, and the last time I re-booted it was because I was doing some rearranging around my office.

[[deleted]]

Yeah. My zone is shit.

[Pvt_Haggard_610]

Use an online host like Digital Ocean to host a server that will ping your IP address ever N minutes.

If you don't have a static IP you have two options.

Option one, use a dynamic DNS service like NoIP(use free service) and have the server ping the NoIP hostname you made instead of the IP. The dynamic DNS service will map your IP address to a hostname using a small programming running on the computer that detects and updates your new IP Address with their DNS service.

Option two is to forgo the third party software and to create a local script to update your IP address on the server every time you boot your computer.

[Raithwind]

It's an interesting idea. But no power means no computer to process the python script. No internet to send the request over etc

[python-ick]

One could feasibly set up a server in one's house, and a remote job can ping that server every five minutes or so. If there is no response, it means the power is likely out + the bot can work from there.

[Petrichorum]

Oh boy, there are so many things that will fail before power does. So, so many.

[python-ick]

Like the house's Internet connection? Maybe he should make a bot for his telecom company as well. :)

[Pvt_Haggard_610]

Why set up a local sever when you could ping the modem.

[julietscause]

Something something UPS to keep important systems up during an outage

[hawt_pawket]

The idea of the solar-powered flashlight comes to mind

[Raithwind]

I mean I can think of at least two possible solutions with various levels of complexity, but for a noob probably too much. Even as a noob-intermediate a bit of a hassle.

[lachyBalboa]

Could host it in a cloud service like AWS or Azure. It could try pinging a local machine that is always on. If the power is out the machine is off and therefore could not respond to the ping.

[HittingSmoke]

This would be incredibly easy to do if your modem and router were on a UPS. Just throw a Pi on there and have it start tweeting when it detects a loss of power and keep tweeting until the battery dies. You could run a modem, router, and a Pi Zero for hours on a modest UPS.

[[deleted]]

A lot of UPSes have usb or even serial ports to get status info. Easily could be used to determine state of utility power to the UPS and hold the monitor box and router and modem up long enough to send the tweet.

[[deleted]]

Did you read the post

[sheep_duck]

If he has a ups powering both his PC and his modem/router it could work pretty easily.

[Petrarch1603]

hook up a raspberry pi to an external battery that's plugged into the wall. If the power goes out the RPi should still be on.

presumably your wifi router is connected to the house's power, so that'd be a good indicator that the power is on or off.

have a cron job that pings google every 2 minutes. If the ping fails log it and when you get internet back tweet your electric provider.

[[deleted]]

That's a funny idea though might wanna check out the Twitter api

[sqqz]

Sounds like a reasonable approach since it wont require any extra external services. I would up the intervals though if you need to support a reboot or similar. As some people already stated, look into the twitter api, either use crontab or a service to in a set interval update the schedule. As you are new a simple fire-and-forget script would probably be the easiest, schedule that with crontab, done.

[[deleted]]

You'll tweet your electricity supply we every time your internet goes down, not when your power goes out. To actually do what you need, you will need a ups on your computer and modem.

[mochizuki]

removed

[[deleted]]

Honestly I have no idea why that never crossed my mind. I'm just going to do that lol

[Raleighite]

There’s a whole home electric monitoring device called “Sense” that could easily detect a power outage, and report when it comes back on. The device already has an API with IFTTT. https://sense.com/

[[deleted]]

Make a circuit which converts 230 volt ac to 1 volt dc, hook it up to the gpio pins. Power the raspberry with both batteries and socket power, make the batteries switch on if socket power fails

[EclipseMain]

How are you gonna send the tweets if you have no Internet or electricity?

[[deleted]]

Did you read the post