Alexa (voice) Controlled RF Remote

The Amazon Echo, I absolutely love it, I finally have the home of the future

But When I want to turn on a ceiling fan, or use any device that uses a RF (Radio Frequency) Remote

its back to the pile sitting on my coffee table in my living room.

I searched high and low for a learning remote for RF, but they do not exist.

so how does the saying go? The impossible just takes a little longer.

Step 1: Finding a Solution

There is a WONDERFUL company called ‘adafruit’

Adafruit website and Feather Demo

that makes wearable Arduino modules.

I found them originally when I was working on one of my costumes, well in that time they

have grown into a full fledged DIY paradise with boards, and parts, and gadgets and scripts to

do anything imaginable.

The part I used was a “Adafruit Feather HUZZAH with ESP8266 WiFi” board,

its a tiny 1″ x 3″ board that costs like $17.00

Code and tutorial based on the great open source lib & example code at http://tinkerman.cat/emulate-wemo-device-esp8266/… which is based off of the Python example code by http://tinkerman.cat/emulate-wemo-device-esp8266/…

Step 2: Hardware

Since RF remotes are still kinda proprietary, the only way I assumed i would be able to use one is

to “Assimilate” the remote, as part of my project, So I hardwired the select buttons on the remote

and would have a relay trigger them (as the button push)

I used ‘ribbon’ wire since I would be cramming this all into a project box, I needed wire that

has a bit of flexibility to it.

Step 3: The Software Monster

I haven’t coded in 5 years, maybe longer – but there where a lot of helpful guides and people on the Adafruit website.. they gave me tremendous guidance with the project.

Here is my Code;

// Five DEVICES WORKING
#include #include #include “fauxmoESP.h”

#define WIFI_SSID “YOUR WIFI NAME” #define WIFI_PASS “YOURWIFIPW”

#define SERIAL_BAUDRATE 115200

fauxmoESP fauxmo;

#define FAN_PIN 12 // White wire — “1” // (LOW) – CLEAR #define TWO_PIN 13 // Black wire — OFF — RED #define MEDIUM_PIN 14 // Black — connector pin — YELLOW #define FAST_PIN 15 // Gray wire “6” — GREEN #define BREEZE_PIN 04 // Red wire (connector) //working BLACK

// PIN 16 UNUSABLE // PIN 0 UNUSABLE

volatile boolean fan_state = false; // off by default! volatile boolean fan_desired_state = false; // off by default!

volatile boolean medium_state = false; // off by default! volatile boolean medium_desired_state = false; // off by default!

volatile boolean fast_state = false; // off by default! volatile boolean fast_desired_state = false; // off by default!

volatile boolean Breeze_state = false; // off by default! volatile boolean Breeze_desired_state = false; // off by default! volatile boolean two_state = false; // off by default! volatile boolean two_desired_state = false; // off by default! // —————————————————————————– // Wifi // —————————————————————————–

void wifiSetup() { // Set WIFI module to STA mode WiFi.mode(WIFI_STA);

// Connect Serial.printf(“[WIFI] Connecting to %s “, WIFI_SSID); WiFi.begin(WIFI_SSID, WIFI_PASS);

// Wait while (WiFi.status() != WL_CONNECTED) { Serial.print(“.”); delay(100); } Serial.println();

// Connected! Serial.printf(“[WIFI] STATION Mode, SSID: %s, IP address: %s\n”, WiFi.SSID().c_str(), WiFi.localIP().toString().c_str()); }

void callback(uint8_t device_id, const char * device_name, bool state) { Serial.printf(“[ECHO] %s state: %s\n”, device_name, state ? “ON” : “OFF”); if ( (strcmp(device_name, “medium”) == 0) ) { // MEDIUM medium_desired_state = state; // Remember the new desired state }

if ( (strcmp(device_name, “fan”) == 0) ) { // FAN fan_desired_state = state; // Remember the new desired state }

if ( (strcmp(device_name, “fast”) == 0) ) { // FAST fast_desired_state = state; // Remember the new desired state } if ( (strcmp(device_name, “Breeze”) == 0) ) { // BREEZE Breeze_desired_state = state; // Remember the new desired state } } void setup() {

pinMode(FAN_PIN, OUTPUT); digitalWrite(FAN_PIN, LOW); pinMode(TWO_PIN, OUTPUT); digitalWrite(TWO_PIN, LOW); pinMode(MEDIUM_PIN, OUTPUT); digitalWrite(MEDIUM_PIN, LOW); pinMode(FAST_PIN, OUTPUT); digitalWrite(FAST_PIN, LOW); pinMode(BREEZE_PIN, OUTPUT); digitalWrite(BREEZE_PIN, LOW); // Init serial port and clean garbage Serial.begin(SERIAL_BAUDRATE); Serial.println(); Serial.println(); Serial.println(“Echo Control”); Serial.println(“After connection, ask Computer to ‘turn shit on and off”);

// Wifi wifiSetup();

// Fauxmo fauxmo.addDevice(“fan”); // works fauxmo.addDevice(“medium”); // works fauxmo.addDevice(“fast”); // works fauxmo.addDevice(“Breeze”); // works fauxmo.onMessage(callback); } void loop() { fauxmo.handle();

if (fan_state != fan_desired_state) { if (fan_desired_state) { // Transition to on Serial.println(“activating…”); digitalWrite(FAN_PIN, HIGH); delay(1000); // Safe to use delays here Serial.println(“…fan”); digitalWrite(FAN_PIN, LOW); } else { // Transition to off digitalWrite(TWO_PIN, HIGH); delay(1000); // Safe to use delays here Serial.println(“…turning off relay”); digitalWrite(TWO_PIN, LOW); } // We handled the state change, so the desired state becomes the current state fan_state = fan_desired_state; } { if (medium_state != medium_desired_state) { if (medium_desired_state) { // Transition to on Serial.println(“activating…”); digitalWrite(MEDIUM_PIN, HIGH); delay(1000); // Safe to use delays here Serial.println(“…Medium speed”); digitalWrite(MEDIUM_PIN, LOW); } else { // Transition to off digitalWrite(TWO_PIN, HIGH); delay(1000); // Safe to use delays here Serial.println(“…turning off relay”); digitalWrite(TWO_PIN, LOW); } // We handled the state change, so the desired state becomes the current state medium_state = medium_desired_state; }

}

if (fast_state != fast_desired_state) { if (fast_desired_state) { // Transition to on Serial.println(“Activating High speed…”); digitalWrite(FAST_PIN, HIGH); delay(1000); // Safe to use delays here Serial.println(“…Turning off Relay”); digitalWrite(FAST_PIN, LOW); } else { // Transition to off digitalWrite(TWO_PIN, HIGH); delay(1000); // Safe to use delays here Serial.println(“…turning off relay”); digitalWrite(TWO_PIN, LOW); }

// We handled the state change, so the desired state becomes the current state fast_state = fast_desired_state;

}

if (Breeze_state != Breeze_desired_state) { if (Breeze_desired_state) { // Transition to on Serial.println(“Activating Random Breeze…”); digitalWrite(BREEZE_PIN, HIGH); delay(1000); // Safe to use delays here Serial.println(“…Turning off Relay”); digitalWrite(BREEZE_PIN, LOW); } else { // Transition to off digitalWrite(TWO_PIN, HIGH); delay(1000); // Safe to use delays here Serial.println(“…turning off relay”); digitalWrite(TWO_PIN, LOW);

}

// We handled the state change, so the desired state becomes the current state Breeze_state = Breeze_desired_state;

} }

Step 4: The Hardware Monster

A lot of soldering both on the Adafruit and to the relays, The company sells relay boards, but they where SPST

relays, and are kinda pricey, ($8 per) I went out onto the internet and bought a pile of relays, to see which ones

would work.. and found THESE: Kest KS2E-M-DC3 Relay 3V – about $2.00 a piece on All Electronic’s website

Then went about the fun of mounting them in a case, and wiring them all together.

Step 5: The Completed Project

This was about a week of coding and soldering, all for a small convenience, of not reaching for ANOTHER remote.

Source: Alexa (voice) Controlled RF Remote