APIs and MT30 "The Button"

TRBO_KCMO
Getting noticed

APIs and MT30 "The Button"

Anybody find or write any APIs for The Button? We want to see how much we can do with it and if we can get a head start that would be awesome.

5 Replies 5
seivrivf
Meraki Employee
Meraki Employee

These are pre-built and cover some common tasks for your Meraki stack: https://documentation.meraki.com/MT/MT_General_Articles/MT_Automation_Builder

 

The more powerful one is the Webhook Payload Templates—this answers your question on how much you can do with it–basically anything that accepts a webhook: https://community.meraki.com/t5/Developers-APIs/IN-BETA-Webhook-Custom-Payload-Templates/m-p/130824#...

 

@TRBO_KCMO: any ideas for useful automations? I haven't started working on these yet but have some vacation time coming up soon to play with the MT30.

BDillon
Here to help

We would love to use the MT30 as a method to fire backup network switches and wireless APs on the network. Not found a method to allow for this as yet.

MT30 won't allow for override Scheduled ports - AP's are shutdown overnight and majority of the weekend.
Also wish to use MT40 Power sensor to powerdown the network switches, need a button method to bring these back online when required.

thanks

 

sungod
Head in the Cloud

If you want to use MT devices 24x7 they must have at least one live gateway MR/MV device in range 24x7, so you need your physical+logical network design to meet that requirement i.e. if you want to power down switches etc., they can't be the ones in the sensor-Dashboard communication path.

 

The automations you mention are two distinct topics...

 

i) can you control MT40 downstream power via the API?

 

Yes, using these...

https://developer.cisco.com/meraki/api-v1/create-device-sensor-command/

https://developer.cisco.com/meraki/api-v1/get-device-sensor-command/

 

For just APs, you can also control PoE via the API.

 

ii) you need somewhere you can receive a webhook from the MT30 to trigger i)

 

This is the part you need to develop, host and secure.

 

Bear in mind, the button is stateless, i.e. you can use it as an on/off switch, but unless you can independently determine the current power state, you cannot predict whether pressing the button will turn things 'on' or 'off'.

 

A simple workaround would be to use two buttons, one for 'on', one for 'off', though this still leaves the actual pre-press state unknown without independent verification.

 

Of course if the button is 'local' to the switches, then the verification issue goes away and you could use one button, but then why not just use a power switch.

 

Also, I'd want a protective cover for the button(s), things get pressed by mistake, it's only a matter of time 🙂

 

stevediaz
New here

I'm also interested in exploring the capabilities of the MT30 "The Button." Has anyone found or developed any APIs for it? We're eager to see how much functionality we can unlock and would appreciate any resources or head start that others might have.

sungod
Head in the Cloud

Any/short/long press, can each be used to trigger an automation.

 

You build button automations in Dashboard via Sensors->Automations

 

 

An automation can trigger one or more actions, currently the choices are...

 
Send a Notification
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Camera snapshot
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Toggle SSID
Control internet access by turning a Meraki network SSID on or off
 
Toggle Switchport
Toggle any Meraki switchport and adjust your network to real-time feedback
 
Send a Webhook command
Tap into thousands of smart automations by setting up a custom Webhook integration
 
There's an example here of chaining together different things to take a snapshot from an MV camera and send the picture or the video to a Webex Teams Space...
 
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