Sending Tweets Automatically With TimeControl

TimeControl can be used to send Tweets automatically at predetermined times.  In this tutorial, we’ll be sending a Tweet every weekday with the current time and the current CheerLights color.

The first step is to link a Twitter account to ThingSpeak.

Next, we’ll create a new TimeControl with the following values:

  • Name: “CheerLights to Twitter”
  • Frequency: “Recurring”
  • Days: “Mon”, “Tue”, “Wed”, “Thu”, “Fri”
  • Time: “9:40 am”
  • Fuzzy Time: “+/- 10 minutes”
  • Action: “ThingTweet”
  • Tweet: “It is currently %%datetime%% and CheerLights is %%channel_1417_field_1%%.”
  • Twitter Account: (select your linked Twitter account)

Save this TimeControl and you’re finished.  Every weekday within 10 minutes of 9:40 am in your timezone, TimeControl will send a Tweet with the current datetime and the current CheerLights color.
The CheerLights Channel ID is 1417, and colors are saved in field 1, so %%channel_1417_field_1%% will be replaced with the current CheerLights color.  You can change these values to access the most recent data from your own Channels.

Here’s an example Tweet from this tutorial.