BlindGuard — Jetty Watch
PrototypeLive wind monitoring that raises the blinds before the gusts do
- React Native
- Expo
- Ecowitt
- IFTTT
- Arlo
- Rork
BlindGuard protects the blinds at a jetty property in Dudley Park, WA, from wind damage. It streams live wind, temperature, humidity and rain data from an Ecowitt weather station, automatically raises the blinds when gusts exceed a set threshold, and lets you check on things via an Arlo camera pointed at the house from the jetty — all from one app.
What it does
- Watch (Dashboard)
- A live wind gauge that shifts from green to red as gusts approach the danger threshold, plus wind direction, temperature, humidity, rain rate, auto-protect status and a chronological activity log.
- Blinds
- Raise, lower, stop or set a partial position (0–100%) for five Neo Smart Blinds — downstairs and upstairs — individually or all at once, via IFTTT webhooks.
- Camera
- On-demand snapshots from an Arlo jetty camera, overlaid with a wind speed badge and a live/stale indicator, alongside current wind conditions.
- Auto (Wind Protection)
- Arms automatic protection: checks wind every 30 seconds against a configurable KPH threshold, raises protected blinds to a chosen position when gusts exceed it, and rate-limits itself to once every 10 minutes.
- Settings
- Connects and manages the three integrations — Ecowitt weather station, IFTTT webhook key and Arlo camera credentials (including two-factor authentication) — plus notification preferences.
Wind-triggered auto-protect
The core safety feature: live Ecowitt readings are checked every 30 seconds, and any gust or sustained speed over the user-set threshold raises every protected blind to a configured position — with downstairs always covered and upstairs optional.
- Adjustable threshold in 5 KPH steps, with 25/35/45/60 KPH presets
- Raise-to position: 50%, 75% or fully up
- Fires at most once every 10 minutes to avoid repeat commands
- Every trigger is written to the activity log
Arlo two-factor authentication
Arlo requires 2FA on every account, so BlindGuard walks through the full flow in-app: choose email or SMS, send and enter the 6-digit code, and re-authenticate roughly every 2 hours as sessions expire.
- SMS favoured over email — Arlo's email delivery is known to be unreliable
- Resend code and factor-switching built in
- Camera tab clearly reports 2FA-required and login-failed states
Design
A utilitarian, at-a-glance monitoring aesthetic built around a single circular wind gauge whose colour — green, yellow, red — communicates risk faster than any number. Status pills* and activity-log colour coding (grey/blue/aqua/orange/red) carry the same severity language across every tab.
* Pills — the small rounded status badges (Weather, Blinds, Camera, Alerts) shown in Settings, which turn green as each integration connects.
5-tab bottom bar: Watch · Blinds · Camera · Auto · Settings
Built with
- React Native (Expo)·
- Ecowitt weather API·
- IFTTT webhooks·
- Arlo·
- Rork AI app builder