Amazon Alexa (Echo) as a controller

[nero0762]

I'm an Apex user, and I love the automation and control it offers. I think there are plenty of areas for improvement, but I think our tank is a lot better with it than without it.
That said, the lack of openness of the system and the lack of integration with other systems, like Amazon's Alexa, got me thinking about alternatives.
Yes, I know Neptune just announced Alexa support coming soon, but honestly it appears that they only did it because someone figured out how to hack one around them, and they wanted the control it...
Anyway, I started thinking about if it was possible to build an decent controller using Alexa. This came up when I set up a powerhead in my sump attached to a piece of tubing that I use to clean the sand. I wanted to turn this on/off by voice, since my hands were holding the tubing about to squirt water all over the place. With no "hands-free" options on the Apex, I plugged the powerhead into an Alexa "smart-outlet". I just say "Alexa, turn on cleaner", and its on.
I also use smart outlets to control lamps in the house. They go on based on a timer, as well as being voice controlled.
So, can you build a complete controller with Alexa as the base/brain behind it?
Obviously simple control of outlets is covered. For ~$15 you can add a smart-outlet (once you have an Echo/Alexa). And voice control and timing are pretty easy to set up.
Unfortunately, its gets a lot more complex from there on...
There's no out-of-the-box support for:

• Probes (pH, Salinity, temp, etc)
  • Reading current state
  • Charting historic data/trends
• Other inputs (float switches, Feed "buttons", etc)
• Triggering actions based on:
  • The state of another device (e.g. "when return pump is off, turn the heater off")
  • The state of a probe or input (e.g. "when float switch is on, turn on the ATO pump")
• Alerting (alarms, emails, texts based on a condition/state)

Much of this is just a SMOP (small matter of programming). A custom Alexa "skill" (Alexa equivalent of an app) could address charting and triggering actions. And I suspect there's a tool, like IFTTT, that could also make the triggering/logic stuff pretty easy.
The "hard" part (for me, at least) would be supporting the various input devices (probes, switches, etc). I'm sure there's a solution here involving Particles, arduinos, or something similar. But, for me (a software guy), that makes a project like this less feasible.

I'd love to figure out an easily extendable solution. Something that a community could easily contribute to. Something built off existing, reliable components (a la Alexa, smart outlets, etc).

So, any thoughts on this?

 

[DLHDesign]

Take a look at the Reef-PI project, perhaps? I've not been following it closely, so the contributors may already be talking about adding voice-control - not sure...

 

[Samina]

You just bought up such a good point! It’s your type of thinking that creates those genius ideas that people like me later are like ‘why the heck hadn’t I thought of that’. But now you’ve got me thinking as well. The easiest way I would say to integrate something like that to work alongside and in conjunction with a controller that already provides you a clean dashboard and host of other functionality (apex, profilux, and so forth) seems to be using just a smart outlet plugged into the controllers power strip. So in other words, maybe just simply plugging your equipment into the smart outlet adaptor and plugging that into the controller power strip. That way, you can setup Alexa voice control and still utilize your controllers various programming guides. Maybe something like this:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B06X...SY340_QL65&dpPl=1&dpID=412v-AA4thL&ref=plSrch

By the way, I am definitely going to be doing this!! [emoji3]

 

[spifftempo]

Or you can just wait for the controller (Apex) to integrate Alexa control like they showed off last weekend at RAP Orlando. There is a video of it on their Facebook page.

 

[cyrusthevirus]

Did they provide a timeline on when they would release?

 

[rkpetersen]

It's under official development, they're already showing the beta so probably not too long. The development was actually initiated by a private forum member here; I believe Neptune hired him to complete it officially.

 

[Maximitsurugi]

Old thread but i dont like being forced to buy a $1000 Neptune system to support Alexa. I believe another company could make a budget interface and a modular Alexa based system be used.

No offence to Neptune at all but i like when my eggs are in mutiple baskets.

 

[Adamantium]

Old thread but i dont like being forced to buy a $1000 Neptune system to support Alexa. I believe another company could make a budget interface and a modular Alexa based system be used.

No offence to Neptune at all but i like when my eggs are in mutiple baskets.

I just use smart plugs. Tell Alexa to “turn on feed mode”, and everything shuts off at once. Then, things turn back on slowly. Power heads, then return pump and UV, then skimmer, and finally ATO.

 

[Brewski262]

Great ideas! I currently use the kasa 6 outlet power strip that is Alexa compatible for my WB10 cube. It's perfect. It also has run time monitoring in the app along with energy monitoring. Engery monitoring is nice because I know at what wattage everything is suppose to run at and if I see something out of those ranges I know something is wrong or failing. I.e. return pump and or wave maker. There's also tons of YouTube videos out there that walk you through how to make your own voice enabled smart devices. Pretty awesome stuff

 

[gobygrits]

I was also using a kasa strip on my tank. It worked great for about 2 months and than one day it started making a buzzing sound and than one of the outlets caught on fire and was shooting a small flame out. Luckily I was sitting close by and heard it pop and catch fire. So now I manually plug in and unplug my refugium light every day.