Using OpenMQTTGateway with Amazon Alexa or Google Voice Assistants

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Myself and @1technophile have been working on adding support for voice assistants ( Amazon Alexa and/or Google Home Voice Assistants) to OpenMQTTGateway and are getting ready to launch an early beta of the integration. With Amazon Alexa, you will be able to see and interact with your supported RTL_433 and Bluetooth sensors, and control switches/buttons connected to OMG.

For example, this is from the Amazon Alexa App, and you can see my various rtl_433, bluetooth and BME280 temperature sensors, and the Theengs plug ( actuatorONOFF )

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And here is the Amazon Energy Dashboard with sample data from the Theengs plug

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For the early beta, it will require you to run a custom version of OMG, which includes an additional module with support for the cloud servers. And perform a couple more steps to integrate the device with Amazon Alexa.

At the present time, temperature sensors, switches, buttons, contact and motion sensors are supported.

If you’re interested in participating, please let us know and we will share with you the steps to get started.

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What a fantastic offer, I am really surprised that there are no replies yet.
I am very interested in linking OpenMQTTGateway to Amazon cloud and would do some work. Establishing an AWS-developer account, setting up things and skills I might have to learn.

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Thanks for volunteering to try this out, the steps are a bit involved for the beta, with the most complex step being the requirement for a custom build. If you have any questions or concerns, please let us know.

Account creation ( Amazon and OMG Cloud )

1 - An Amazon account ( US based is best if you want to see the energy dashboard for the Plug)

2 - Download the Amazon Alexa App on your phone, and set it up

3 - Send me the email associated with your Amazon account ( A direct message via community.openmqttgateway.com is best )

4 - Create an account here - https://cloudbeta.openmqttgateway.com

OMG Build with Cloud and WebUI Module’s

5 - Build an instance of OpenMQTTGateway with this PR included - WebUI - PoC of a WebUI by NorthernMan54 · Pull Request #1544 · 1technophile/OpenMQTTGateway · GitHub

6 - In your build, include these compiler directives

; *** OpenMQTTGateway CLOUD Module ***
  '-DZgatewayCloud="CLOUD"'
; *** OpenMQTTGateway WebUI Module ***
  '-DZwebUI="ZwebUI"'

Linking OMG Device with Cloud Servers

7 - With your browser, connect to the WebUI on your OMG device ie http://192.168.1.100 . You will need the ip address of your OMG device. ( Please note that the WebUI is still a work in progress and only Information, Cloud Configure, Restart and Reset Configuration are working )

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8 - Select Configuration, then Cloud Configure.

9 - Select Link Cloud Account, this will take you to https://cloudbeta.openmqttgateway.com and allow you to provision your OMG device. After logging in, Confirm your device, and 'Send` the provisioning information. ( You can ignore the ‘This is a non-secure form.’ message, this is due to your OMG WebUI not use SSL ).

10 - On the WebUI, under the Information button, the cloud options should now all show true.

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Amazon Smarthome Skill Enabling

9 - Once I have enable your test Amazon account you will receive an email for the OpenMQTTGateway Smarthome skill

10 - On your mobile with the alexa app, click the link in the OpenMQTTGateway Smarthome skill email, and it will add the OpenMQTTGateway SmartHome Skill to your Amazon Alexa profile

11 - In the alexa app, click to enable the skill, and it will take you to https://cloudbeta.openmqttgateway.com and ask to authorize Amazon to access your account. Please enter your cloudbeta.openmqttgateway.com account

At this time you should have everything connected and ready for enabling devices

12 - On the Screen at https://cloudbeta.openmqttgateway.com, you should see your OMG Devices listed and any remote sensors ( BT and RTL_433 )

  • Enable any device you want to share with Alexa

13 - Ask alexa to discover devices by tapping the alexa button on the app

14 - Alexa should now discover all your devices, and enable you to see and control them.

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@NorthernMan54 Thank you for your detailed instructions. I will work them through. It will take some time. Earlier today I already failed with step 1 because of a credit card problem. I will let you know about failures and successes. Thanks again.