Alexa-Controlled-LED-Table

NOTE: THIS IS STILL A WORK IN PROGRESS. SEE todo.txt

This is for enabling my led table to be controlled by alexa. Goal is for it to be able to set certain animations based on voice commands to my alexa.

//TODO: ELAB MORE ON PROTOCOLS USED AND SETUP

Tested on Echo Dot GEN4

Hardware

ESP32 from Amazon [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09J94HPZB/]

• The board name in the Arduino IDE is ESP32 Wrover Module
• You also need to download the CP2102 driver. I got the download from Polulu (https://www.pololu.com/docs/0J7/all) but there are other sources.
• You also need to add the ESP32 device to arduino IDE: https://randomnerdtutorials.com/installing-the-esp32-board-in-arduino-ide-windows-instructions/

Arduino Uno R3, using Fast LED library for the LED strip animations [https://www.amazon.com/ELEGOO-Board-ATmega328P-ATMEGA16U2-Compliant/dp/B01EWOE0UU/]

LED strip, w/ WS2812B controller: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LSF4Q0A/

Alexa <> ESP Comms

Credit to https://github.com/vintlabs/fauxmoESP for their examples and ESP <> Alexa interface. Their code is included in this repo for personal reference but all credit and respects should go to respective authors.

Exploration on ways for ESP to talk to Alexa

1. Method one

   • https://github.com/makeratplay/AlexaVoiceControl
   • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11NMUUlDJmw
   • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7T4hS5EFB_I
   • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AaS32MWL8E&t=0s

2. Method two:

   • https://github.com/Aircoookie/Espalexa

3. Method three:

   • https://github.com/vintlabs/fauxmoESP <--- Selected Method
     • Note: I'm using the Colour branch (not master) in my application.
     • URL: https://github.com/vintlabs/fauxmoESP/tree/Colour

ESP32 Documentation

Pinout:

1. https://randomnerdtutorials.com/esp32-pinout-reference-gpios/

References for the UART:

1. https://github.com/espressif/arduino-esp32/blob/master/cores/esp32/HardwareSerial.h
2. https://github.com/espressif/arduino-esp32/blob/master/cores/esp32/HardwareSerial.cpp

u8g2 Lib for OLED Documenation

https://github.com/olikraus/u8g2/blob/master/sys/arduino/u8g2_page_buffer/HelloWorld/HelloWorld.ino

https://github.com/olikraus/u8g2/wiki/u8g2reference

Troubleshooting

1. Arduino likes to send a bunch of random and garbage characters to the ESP. Things like carriage returns and line feeds and null characters. These need to be accounted for.
2. Need to unplug ESP32 and normally power cycle the arduino before uploading code. This is probably because the UART is on the same serial port as the USB so the comms probably interfere.