Adding Alexa to existing Node Red / ESP8266 433mHz controlled sockets / Node-RED Alexa Home Skill Bridge
I recently got an Amazon TV stick and sideloaded some apps. Its an OK stick for not much money. Its fast and the remote has Alexa Voice (Press the Mic button and say "Hall lights on") etc. To set up I used a free web service called Node-RED Alexa Home Skill Bridge this links the Amazon Alexa voice service to Node-Red. I tried a couple of other Node-Red Alexa tools but could not get them working reliably. Node-RED Alexa Home Skill Bridge worked flawlessly out of the box and it's a free service. Well designed and documented!
This is my setup it binds the Alexa requests to my existing web server URLs eg. http://w.x.y.z/HALLON
In the third party site, which is free, I set up an account. And defined the words I wanted to use e.g. turn on hall lights, etc. In Node-Red I added the control that waits for and processes the incoming voice commands and linked them to the HTTP GET to the relevant commend. All works fine. Not sure how useful this is for me in the long run but it works fine :)
Read more from the developer's site here https://alexa-node-red.bm.hardill.me.uk/docs the author explains the background to the skill, this is a term for an add-on for Alexa, he developed here: http://www.hardill.me.uk/wordpress/2016/11/05/alexa-home-skill-for-node-red/
This is my setup it binds the Alexa requests to my existing web server URLs eg. http://w.x.y.z/HALLON
In the third party site, which is free, I set up an account. And defined the words I wanted to use e.g. turn on hall lights, etc. In Node-Red I added the control that waits for and processes the incoming voice commands and linked them to the HTTP GET to the relevant commend. All works fine. Not sure how useful this is for me in the long run but it works fine :)
Read more from the developer's site here https://alexa-node-red.bm.hardill.me.uk/docs the author explains the background to the skill, this is a term for an add-on for Alexa, he developed here: http://www.hardill.me.uk/wordpress/2016/11/05/alexa-home-skill-for-node-red/