Alexa & Cayenne? Yes! (Preview)

Hello everyone, this is a small project that I started a couple of weeks ago. The idea is to control widgets of the Cayenne Dashboard by voice, like switchs, or read values of temperatures, sensors, etc.

This is a first test I did with my Amazon Echo Dot, in which I control the power on / off of a channel (ch1).

I still have to finish, but I wanted to show my progress.

I need to improve stability, because as you see sometimes the actions do not run the first time, they are understood by Alexa, but apparently the connection with Cayenne is not very stable.

Once I finish my Skill (a stable version to publish) I will make a more detailed post of how you can use it to be able to create their own Skills to control their dashboard, and to apply home automation to your houses :wink:

For now you can review my progress in this repo:

What do you think of this connection between Alexa and Cayenne?
It’s a good couple for me hehehe

9 Likes

very cool! looking forward for the final version

Hi, I am very interested in this. I had already suggested a Cayenne-Alexa integration us IFTTT.

Last week I tried to implement another project that controls GPIO pins using Alexa. It all went well, the Skill was recognized by Alexa but it does not seem to understand the command and nobody is answering my help requests and I’m stuck. I would rather also use Cayenne.

Regards

Roger

@neiva.rogerio, Amazon has full detailed documentation for create Skills, but if you need more help; you can contact me :wink: I’ve made more skills for past Amazon Contests.

Thanks for the offering but I haven’t programmed for 30 years and I can’t do it know. My suggestion was to control the GPIO pins with voice. For example: Alexa, set pin 25 to On. This pin would lit up a light.

I tried this project for the same purpose:

but, although the Skill simulator works and Alexa recognizes the skill, I cannot make it work, it seems as the instructions are not being recognized by the Rasp.

It wanted here the same in order to use Cayenne instead of another app. By the way, I use Cayenne to control the blinds and lightnin in my study.

Again, thank you and regards

Well, if you watch my video, I have to talk twice to Alexa the Connect Command, I don’t know why the first time don’t works always. I have to check that response issues for improve my skill :wink:

Thanks, I am looking forward to the final version. Please keep us posted.

Thank you and regards

Roger

laurencehr, thanks for offering help. The skills is working now. I just had to change in Dot from UK English to US English. Amazing. Well I could profit from your expertise. Let me explain:

By controlling the pins I am able to turn ON/OFF anything. Now, instead of having a general Skill and having to say “Alexa, ask raspberry to turn on pin 25”, I want to say “Alexa, LEFT BLIND UP”. My left blind is connected to a specific raspi GPIO pin which must go ON. So, what I need is an interaction model (Intent schema, Slot Types and Utterance) that, with a command sets a GPIO value to ON. ON hearing the command “Alexa, LEFT BLIND UP” it would set a GPIO pin ON. As I am using a remote to control the blinds, after going ON it must reset the same pin to OFF. Otherwise it will be the whole time “pressing” the button and wasting battery.

I tried several options but I am not a programmer. The idea would be to create a skill for every GPIO on the Raspberry (7 in total) to control the blinds (Up, Down, Stop, 2 blinds) and a Light.

Can you help ? I believe this is very simple.

Thank you and regards

Hey! thanks for be interesting in my project.

Really, I offer a lot of apologies for leaving it a little abandoned, I’ve been busy with other Alexa and Cayenne projects. But these days I’m going to take over this project again.

First, this project get a connection between Alexa & Cayenne (via MQTT Server), if you want see reflected actions in Raspberry, you must to install a MQTT Client in Raspy (like Mosquitto) and suscribe to Cayenne MQTT Channel, you can use a Raspy or any compatible board.

For phrase, unfortunately when you create your own skills, this skill name must be in the invocation phrase; but Alexa is able for detect “Alexa, lights off” phrase, but that is only with compatible devices (like smart bulbs of philips, or some official products), for the rest you have to tell the Skill Name, you can use a friendly phrase for that, for example, for automatize my house I’m thinking in create a Skill called “Daxes Home”, then I can tell to Alexa… “Alexa, launch Daxes Home and turn off my Beedroom”, or “Alexa, ask Daxes Home for Blind Up kitchen”

For now, I can improve my project for able to understand more friendly commands, like “Beedroom, Kitchen, Room”, You have to attach after, each Topic (from MQTT Channel) to any pin that you want.

Let me first to work in the Skill and after try attach that in Raspy, but I will spend some time in that, if you need fast help, you can contact me :wink: I promise help you.

Regards

Thanks for the answer but I was asking help for this project that is already working, athough with Cayenne: Control Raspberry Pi GPIO With Amazon Echo and Python : 11 Steps (with Pictures) - Instructables

I just need to create a skill as per my previous post and then copy it 7 times.

I know it’s not Cayenne but, for the moment, it will allow me to have voice control over my blinds. I believe what I need is ver easy to implement but I no dot have the skills to do it.

Thank you and regards

Roger

2 Likes

Hi @neiva.rogerio

this instructable works great! thanks.

1 Like

Great combination and appreciate your work. Please move ahead and let us know once you finish the project.

look at this project Alexa Smart Power Strip with Temperature - Hackster.io