6 ms·

Show HN: Control IKEA Lights Using Google Home and IFTTT

alvarlagerlof 9y ago
Or just use a Hue hub
brianjking 9y ago
Nice. I use Home Assistant for my Home Automation setup. https://home-assistant.io/ https://home-assistant.io/ [Over 1,000 components](https://home-assistant.io/components/ https://home-assistant.io/components/) are available with more added daily, including [IKEA Tradfri lights](https://home-assistant.io/components/tradfri/ https://home-assistant.io/components/tradfri/). My Home Assistant config files can be found at https://github.com/brianjking/homeassistant-config https://github.com/brianjking/homeassistant-config if you're interested. Cheers!
- pretty_bubbles 9y ago
  That's cool. I mostly wanted a quick REST API to use with IFTTT, without a ton of dependencies. Home Assistant looks interesting. Maybe I'll give it a try sometimes.
  - brianjking 9y ago
    It's really easy to setup with a multitude of methods of setting it up. Several installation methods for Raspberry Pi, Linux, Windows, Mac, etc.
  - ReverseCold 9y ago
    Home Assistant can even replace IFTTT for certain tasks with it's "automations" Bonus: everything runs locally without having to trust IFTTT
- yegle 9y ago
  I'm currently rely on Google Home which allows me to remotely control things away from home. What are my options when I switch to Home Assistant? Can I still control things using Google Assistant? Can I still remotely control things without VPN back home?
  - brianjking 9y ago
    Yea, I can access Home Assistant away from home via my web browser. I have NGINX setup which allows me to connect to Home Assistant running on my Raspberry Pi. Home Assistant is setup with password protection along with fail2ban as well. You can also set it up with a hidden Tor address, VPN, no remote access, Apache proxy access, etc. I also utilize Google Home & Amazon Echo Dots which are integrated into Home Assistant. LIFX & Z-Wave for lights, door sensors, motion sensors, etc. You can check out my configuration here: https://github.com/brianjking/homeassistant-config https://github.com/brianjking/homeassistant-config
- oulipo 9y ago
  If you are using Home Assistant and you want a free, open-source and 100% on-device solution to build a Voice AI you can take a look at what we build at Snips https://snips.ai https://snips.ai You can build your Voice AI in English, French, German, and soon Japanese and Korean, with more European languages coming It runs on a Raspberry Pi 3 and will be 100% free for makers
  - ReverseCold 9y ago
    That's really cool. With the way voice assistants work these days (memorize these sentences, when you say them stuff will happen) along with the fact that people only use a few functions of their voice activated products, it makes a lot of sense to be able to pick and choose which commands to enable. It also has the added benefit of being local/private/on-device. I will definitely be using this for a project or two.
    - oulipo 9y ago
      Awesome, we would love to see what you make with it, come see us on our Discord channel to talk and ask any question you have, and if you are using it in your home or to build cool interactions we would love to feature it on our site!
  - gingerlime 9y ago
    Perhaps I didn't search well enough, but is there a way to buy a ready-made snips device? Like I would buy an Amazon Echo? I'd be keen to use something like Snips instead of Alexa, but I'm not too sure I have the time and energy to solder things, or even just attach wires to some connector... Or even just figure out which part to order from where... And I already have a pi3 running Home Assistant. To me this is the biggest barrier of entry. The 2nd one (which is the same pretty much), is convincing my wife to replace this thing[0] with this thing[1], and also preventing my 4 year old from messing with the wires... [0] http://d2ydh70d4b5xgv.cloudfront.net/images/e/1/new-echo-dot-2nd-generation-white-alexa-voice-amazon-ready-original-tv-w-media-5aef1950bef6e89144b47aa2337f7c4e.jpg http://d2ydh70d4b5xgv.cloudfront.net/images/e/1/new-echo-dot... [1] https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/660238369_640.jpg https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/660238369_640.jpg (please don't take it the wrong way, I really want Snips to win over proprietary cloud-based solutions)
kuschku 9y ago
One of the most amazing things about TRÅDFRI is that it’s actually well-designed. The software is minimalistic, and designed for security by default, it’s fault-tolerant, and it’s local by default. A massive contrast to the silicon-valley node.js on each lightbulb products, reliant on cloud servers, with analytics everywhere; or the cheap chinese unsecured lightbulbs that are just days after purchase infected with Mirai. A welcome change, indeed.
- pretty_bubbles 9y ago
  I agree. I also really appreciate the build quality in the remote. I am a bit disappointed by their slowness in supporting Google Home by default - hence my project. It would be a lot better if they actually open-sourced the code for the gateway.
- nitrogen 9y ago
  How's the responsiveness/latency? I have a Hue setup with the old circular bridge and can't stand how unpredictable the delay is between sending a command and the lights responding.
- ToyToyTotsToy 9y ago
  They're so amazing that someone felt the need to poison them with more nodejs garbage. Yay!
gregmac 9y ago
I don't mean to diminish the work done here, but I can't bring myself to use any home automation that relies on internet and 3rd party services. The whole "I can't turn off my lights/adjust my thermostat/close my garage door because the internet is down" is a cliche these days, but also reality when you use services like these. There's a difference between core and nice to have services (eg, ability to tell you the weather), but I consider light, door, and temperature control to be "core": having a dozen separate points of failure is just bad design. You could consider voice control nice-to-have, but if it works well, I have a feeling it would move to being core. If it doesn't work well enough to be used all the time (and thus irritatingly missed when it's broken), why bother? I'm aware of Mycroft; anyone have experience with it or alternatives?
- fred256 9y ago
  The IKEA lights that the article talks about have remotes [1] that work independently of the smart home gateway. [1] http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/20303317/ http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/20303317/
- melling 9y ago
  I guess if it doesn’t work for you, you should skip the thread so as not to drown out the effort. Someday someone might come along and build the thing you want. Perhaps they will build on this project.
  - dpark 9y ago
    His criticism is reasonable. There is a line between valuable criticism and pointless negativity. The latter deserves the “if you don’t like it, go away” response. The former does not. The line is fuzzy, so err on the side of leniency. Now, if there is a flaw in the criticism, address that, not the mere fact that it is criticism.
    - melling 9y ago
      It’s like people who jump in an a discussion about electric vehicles then filling the comments with “I won’t buy one until the range increases“. Their criticism is also legitimate. People should simply realize the product isn’t for them.
owenwil 9y ago
This is super cool! To be honest, I think the easier way to do this is using the Hue Hub, which can connect to Tradfi AND integrates directly with Google Home

Or just use a Hue hub

Nice. I use Home Assistant for my Home Automation setup. https://home-assistant.io/ https://home-assistant.io/ [Over 1,000 components](https://home-assistant.io/components/ https://home-assistant.io/components/) are available with more added daily, including [IKEA Tradfri lights](https://home-assistant.io/components/tradfri/ https://home-assistant.io/components/tradfri/). My Home Assistant config files can be found at https://github.com/brianjking/homeassistant-config https://github.com/brianjking/homeassistant-config if you're interested. Cheers!

pretty_bubbles 9y ago
That's cool. I mostly wanted a quick REST API to use with IFTTT, without a ton of dependencies. Home Assistant looks interesting. Maybe I'll give it a try sometimes.
- brianjking 9y ago
  It's really easy to setup with a multitude of methods of setting it up. Several installation methods for Raspberry Pi, Linux, Windows, Mac, etc.
- ReverseCold 9y ago
  Home Assistant can even replace IFTTT for certain tasks with it's "automations" Bonus: everything runs locally without having to trust IFTTT
yegle 9y ago
I'm currently rely on Google Home which allows me to remotely control things away from home. What are my options when I switch to Home Assistant? Can I still control things using Google Assistant? Can I still remotely control things without VPN back home?
- brianjking 9y ago
  Yea, I can access Home Assistant away from home via my web browser. I have NGINX setup which allows me to connect to Home Assistant running on my Raspberry Pi. Home Assistant is setup with password protection along with fail2ban as well. You can also set it up with a hidden Tor address, VPN, no remote access, Apache proxy access, etc. I also utilize Google Home & Amazon Echo Dots which are integrated into Home Assistant. LIFX & Z-Wave for lights, door sensors, motion sensors, etc. You can check out my configuration here: https://github.com/brianjking/homeassistant-config https://github.com/brianjking/homeassistant-config
oulipo 9y ago
If you are using Home Assistant and you want a free, open-source and 100% on-device solution to build a Voice AI you can take a look at what we build at Snips https://snips.ai https://snips.ai You can build your Voice AI in English, French, German, and soon Japanese and Korean, with more European languages coming It runs on a Raspberry Pi 3 and will be 100% free for makers
- ReverseCold 9y ago
  That's really cool. With the way voice assistants work these days (memorize these sentences, when you say them stuff will happen) along with the fact that people only use a few functions of their voice activated products, it makes a lot of sense to be able to pick and choose which commands to enable. It also has the added benefit of being local/private/on-device. I will definitely be using this for a project or two.
  - oulipo 9y ago
    Awesome, we would love to see what you make with it, come see us on our Discord channel to talk and ask any question you have, and if you are using it in your home or to build cool interactions we would love to feature it on our site!
- gingerlime 9y ago
  Perhaps I didn't search well enough, but is there a way to buy a ready-made snips device? Like I would buy an Amazon Echo? I'd be keen to use something like Snips instead of Alexa, but I'm not too sure I have the time and energy to solder things, or even just attach wires to some connector... Or even just figure out which part to order from where... And I already have a pi3 running Home Assistant. To me this is the biggest barrier of entry. The 2nd one (which is the same pretty much), is convincing my wife to replace this thing[0] with this thing[1], and also preventing my 4 year old from messing with the wires... [0] http://d2ydh70d4b5xgv.cloudfront.net/images/e/1/new-echo-dot-2nd-generation-white-alexa-voice-amazon-ready-original-tv-w-media-5aef1950bef6e89144b47aa2337f7c4e.jpg http://d2ydh70d4b5xgv.cloudfront.net/images/e/1/new-echo-dot... [1] https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/660238369_640.jpg https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/660238369_640.jpg (please don't take it the wrong way, I really want Snips to win over proprietary cloud-based solutions)

kuschku 9y ago

One of the most amazing things about TRÅDFRI is that it’s actually well-designed. The software is minimalistic, and designed for security by default, it’s fault-tolerant, and it’s local by default. A massive contrast to the silicon-valley node.js on each lightbulb products, reliant on cloud servers, with analytics everywhere; or the cheap chinese unsecured lightbulbs that are just days after purchase infected with Mirai. A welcome change, indeed.

pretty_bubbles 9y ago
I agree. I also really appreciate the build quality in the remote. I am a bit disappointed by their slowness in supporting Google Home by default - hence my project. It would be a lot better if they actually open-sourced the code for the gateway.
nitrogen 9y ago
How's the responsiveness/latency? I have a Hue setup with the old circular bridge and can't stand how unpredictable the delay is between sending a command and the lights responding.
ToyToyTotsToy 9y ago
They're so amazing that someone felt the need to poison them with more nodejs garbage. Yay!

gregmac 9y ago

I don't mean to diminish the work done here, but I can't bring myself to use any home automation that relies on internet and 3rd party services. The whole "I can't turn off my lights/adjust my thermostat/close my garage door because the internet is down" is a cliche these days, but also reality when you use services like these. There's a difference between core and nice to have services (eg, ability to tell you the weather), but I consider light, door, and temperature control to be "core": having a dozen separate points of failure is just bad design. You could consider voice control nice-to-have, but if it works well, I have a feeling it would move to being core. If it doesn't work well enough to be used all the time (and thus irritatingly missed when it's broken), why bother? I'm aware of Mycroft; anyone have experience with it or alternatives?

fred256 9y ago
The IKEA lights that the article talks about have remotes [1] that work independently of the smart home gateway. [1] http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/20303317/ http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/20303317/
melling 9y ago
I guess if it doesn’t work for you, you should skip the thread so as not to drown out the effort. Someday someone might come along and build the thing you want. Perhaps they will build on this project.
- dpark 9y ago
  His criticism is reasonable. There is a line between valuable criticism and pointless negativity. The latter deserves the “if you don’t like it, go away” response. The former does not. The line is fuzzy, so err on the side of leniency. Now, if there is a flaw in the criticism, address that, not the mere fact that it is criticism.
  - melling 9y ago
    It’s like people who jump in an a discussion about electric vehicles then filling the comments with “I won’t buy one until the range increases“. Their criticism is also legitimate. People should simply realize the product isn’t for them.

owenwil 9y ago

This is super cool! To be honest, I think the easier way to do this is using the Hue Hub, which can connect to Tradfi AND integrates directly with Google Home