Voice & Manual Controlled Home-Automation System Using Alexa

The article is being published in collaboration with JLCPCB. It is one of the most experienced PCB manufacturers with more than a decade in the field of PCB prototype and fabrication, they are committed to meeting the needs of their customers from different industries in terms of quality, delivery, cost-effectiveness and any other demanding requests.

Introduction

In this article we are going to make a very interesting home-automation system.

In this home-automation system, we will able to control our home-appliances through voice command.

In this project we will control our appliances using Alexa and apart from this Alexa, We will also control via manual switch button as we traditionally do.

and we can also control devices from amazon Alexa smartphone application and also monitor the status of devices either it is ON or OFF.

You can give instructions to Control your devices even in your regional language.

Like in Hindi.

Apart from these features I also created routine.. for example if in the night I want to turn off all the devices. Just we need to say Good NIGHT.

And in morning if we want to turn on all the lights just we need to say good morning.

This is very Basic routine...you can create routine according to your need.

here our Alexa will directly connect to ESP32 via local server, so we don't need any third party cloud.

for making of this project we only need Alexa smart speaker and 8 node SMT Home-automation PCB.

In case if you don't have Alexa speaker, even then you can make this project using amazon Alexa smartphone application, which is available for iOS as well as Android.

And this smartphone application will work in same way as the Alexa speaker smart work.

Designing the PCB.

To design the circuit and PCB, we used EasyEDA which is a browser based software to design PCBs.

Designing the circuit works like in any other circuit software tool, you place some components and you wire them together.

Then, you assign each component to a footprint.

Having the parts assigned, place each component. When you’re happy with the layout, make all the connections and route your PCB.

Save your project and export the Gerber files.

Ordering the PCBs at JLCPCB.

This project is sponsored by JLCPCB. JLCPCB is a full feature Printed Circuit Board manufacturing service.

Turn your DIY breadboard circuits into professional PCBs– get 10 boards for approximately $5 + shipping (which will vary depending on your country).

Once you have your Gerber files, you can order the PCB. Follow the next steps.

1. Download the Gerber files –click here to download the.zip file.

2. Go to JLCPCB website and Click on Quote Now button under PCB assembly.

3.Upload the Gerber file you downloaded in the last step. Upload the.zip file or you can also drag and drop the Gerber files.

After uploading the zip file, you’ll see a success message at the bottom if the file is successfully uploaded. You can review the PCB in the Gerber viewer to make sure everything is good.

JLCPCB can grab all the PCB details and automatically fills them for you.

To place the order, click on “SAVE TO CART” button.

Now select the shipping method, the one you prefer and has cost efficient.

Before finalizing your order you can use the promotional code JLC-REBE to get a discount and then click pay.

After seven days, PCBs arrived at my place. As usual the quality of PCB is very premium.

And the SMT Components are soldered very well.

CODE

To flash the code into esp32 chip I will use esp32 development board.

Make the connections as shown in the schematic below.

Download this code and open it in Arduino ide.

Before you upload the code you need to make some changes in the code., first of all you need to add the esp32 boards in your Arduino IDE.

And also you need to add espalexa and ace button Library in your Arduino IDE to run this code.

For this go to tools then manage libraries, a popup will come, In the search box type espalexa.

Install the first library that has come, after selecting latest version of it.

In same install the acebutton library.

In this section of code you have to enter the SSID and Password of your router or hotspot.

And here we define the total 8 devices, also we give the name of each devices.

These names will appear in the Alexa App when we will connect esp32 with Alexa.

More truly these are the names of devices. You can give any name you want according to your choice.

After that code will remain same no need to change anything just download this code from the video description and make the changes that I just told and straight forward upload this code after selecting right board and COM port.

Amazon Alexa App Configuration.

Download Amazon Alexa app in your smartphone, this app is available for both iOS as well as for Android.

In the app tap on devices.

then tap on plus icon on the right top corner of the app, then add devices.

Scroll down and select other......

Click on discover devices.

Alexa speaker will search for the devices....it will take few seconds to find the devices.

Connection of bulb & switches.

Make all the connection of bulb and switches as per the schematic shown below.

Our home-automation project is ready, you can install this home-automation system in your home or in office to automate the devices.

I f you have any query or any question please comment below.

I will definitely try to solve.

For now thank you so much for reading my article.

Video tutorial.