The Alexa (please dont sue me) Enabled Garage Door Opener

Inspiration

My parents would always yell at me if they woke up and I forgot to close the garage door before I went to bed. Of course, when I was in bed I would realize I didn't close the garage door, but cmon I'm not gonna walk all the way downstairs just so my Dad's Lexus doesn't get stolen. So I needed a way to close the garage door from the comfort of my bed.

What it does

A custom smart device that can open and close my garage door. The device is also connected to a sensor to know what position the garage door is currently in. Through voice command and routines in the Alexa app, the garage door can be opened and shut from anywhere.

How I built it

I used an esp8266 as the microprocessor of the device. I wired a spare garage door opener and a reed sensor I had to the board and started coding. The board is able to simulate a fake smart device through the fauxmo Arduino library, a custom library someone smarter than me designed. I then figured out the logic, plastered the whole thing with superglue, and stuck it to the wall.

Challenges I ran into

Originally I did not have a sensor attached to the board. So if the garage door was already closed and I told Alexa to "close the garage", the door would open back up, not ideal. By adding the sensor, the board was now able to sense the current state of the garage door, and only act if needed.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

It works! Soldering, wiring, and understanding the difference between amps and watts is not my specialty. So the fact that I didn't fry the board or blow up the house was pretty sick.

What I learned

I learned to solder, the ability to make really really dumb smart devices, and how good it feels to finish a project (bc lets face it most are abandoned after a few days).

What's next for The Alexa (please dont sue me) Enabled Garage Door Opener

Honestly, I don't know. It works kinda flawlessly. The Alexa app offers a lot of features through routines to control smart devices such as location-based actions (so when arrive or leave my house the garage door will open or close respectively), time-based actions (such as closing the garage door every day at midnight), and more. I think I am going to make another one to fine-tune the process of building it.

Built With

• arduino
• fauxmo