[yoyotechKnows] built an Alexa-controlled garage door opener after his Liftmaster stopped working. Now all he has to do is holler at his mobile phone and he can raise and lower his garage doors at will.
His project is based around a Photon WiFi kit, with a pair of LCC 120 digital relays triggering the two doors, reed switches, and a serial-equipped LCD to display door status, with Alexa, IFTTT, and OpenHab to process the commands. You can find his code in the project writeup.
Currently he has a LCD display informing him of the status of each door, hot glued a reed switch to keep track of whether each one is closed. This might seem a little bit extraneous since he can also just look at the doors from within the garage. However, he’s thinking about putting the display inside his house. But couldn’t he just ask Alexa?
We love us our home automation here at Hackaday, with everything from swimming pools to chicken coops rigged for app control and datalogging.
Hey, Now I can walk up to his front door or patio door and yell at Alexa to open the garage door. She can hear very well, so she’ll listen to me.
Oh … but you say Alexa when in fact it’s Google? I’m confused now. They are not the same thing.
TSK TSK HAD. You might want to edit your article.
Now all we need is a hack to let Google Home empty out your bank accounts and we’ll be all set.
Obligatory XKCD:
https://xkcd.com/1807/
Ew I hate creamed corn!
alexa and home security in one sentence? good idea. what could possibly go wrong here?
why open the door with some direct automation method when you can send the command over the internet (which may or may not be available at the time) to google or amazon or whoever, so they can send it back to your garage (and log all of your garage door opening and closing activities, possibly carelessly posting it somewhere for other people to download).
Alexa, open the garage door and help me load the truck with their valuables.
I would comment, but I only have terrible things to say about this.
Great idea well presented tutorial.
Nice idea. For additional security I wonder if you can have Google Assistant go through a challenge/response sequence with the requester and it would only open the door if it receives the right response. Or, maybe, use the Google Authenticator app.
Well, he could just press a butto… OH WAIT, THAT’S NOT THE THE MAKER’S WAY.
I pity the fool who invites google into his home (or garage).
Display display
Came here to find Alexa related article, found google home one.
The author clearly understands his position by POLITELY ASKING SOMEONE ELSE’S COMPUTER to open HIS door.
What a coincidence, i just created the same thing to control micro:bit with Assistant. https://www.facebook.com/microbitsingapore/posts/505452916459628