In this racing world, we have no time to do every work in our home. We all need a personal assistant to do our time taking works such as washing clothes in washing machine, making a cup of coffee, controlling appliances such as T.V., lights, fan, air conditioners, etc. which are far away from us. The solution for all these problems is this Smart Switch Board. We can control it with voice commands through Alexa , Alexa app in our Mobile phone and PCs and also in our traditional way controlling with manual switches. We can also get real time feedback in Alexa app while operating with manual switches. Moreover, it is portable and compact device.
Objective
The main objective of this project is to control any Electrical appliances with both voice commands, Alexa app and with manual switches from anywhere in the world.
- The project aim is to make our works done sitting at a place with a single voice command.
- We can also check the state of appliances whether it is turned on or off in our mobile at anytime and anywhere in the world.
- You can also control the appliances with manual switches when the internet connection is not alive.
Components required
Hardware
1. Node MCU board:
We will upload our code into this development board. It is more compatible than any other development boards available.
Buy Node MCU ESP8266 IoT Development Board
Buy ESP 12E ESP8266 Wifi Wireless IoT Board Module
Don’t forget to add 3.3v voltage regulator (AMS 1117 3.3v regulator is recommended)
2. 4 channel relay board:
It acts as a switch. It can be controlled with little dc voltage to control high voltage appliances.
3. Jumper wires:
As its name, it is used to connect pins of nodemcu and relay board as well as switches.
4. Switches, Sockets and 8-way Gang box:
There is nothing to talk about it. These are familiar to everyone. These are available in every electrical shop.
5. Any Alexa device:
Alexa is a voice assistant made by Amazon.
Some Alexa devices are mentioned here. You can buy any of these for this project:
1. Alexa Echo Dot 3rd Generation
2. Alexa Echo Dot 4th Generation
3. Alexa Echo Portable
Software
Arduino Software (IDE): It is an open-source Software (IDE) which makes it easy for us to write code and upload it to the Arduino boards. It runs on Windows, Linux etc.
Sinric Account : Sinric acts as bridge between our switch board and Alexa server. You have to go to Sinric.com and create your own account. Do not share its API keys and device ids with anyone.
Code
To upload the program, follow the below steps:
1. You should add Esp8266 to your Arduino IDE. To do this please watch this video: https://youtu.be/OC9wYhv6juM
2.Go to Sinric.com and login with your account.
3.Now click on “Add” button to create a smart home device.
4.Write “Switch One” at friendly name and at device type select “Switch” and save.
5. Repeat this process up to three more times. But at Friendly Name, you should type now type Switch Two, Switch Three, Switch Four respectively in each Add.
6. After all these steps try to create the code for Arduino IDE
Just in case you require a reference or are new to Arduino programming, you can visit and view the sample code for the experiment. The necessary libraries for the code are already provided in the Arduino IDE.
Click here to obtain the sample code
