New Google minis What to do?

Lounge
#1

So for a black Friday deal, I got two google nest minis for $18 a piece. So, I decided to scoop them up. I’m running node red, and I do have some wyze cams as well, so what’s fun that I can do with these? I already automated my classic radio with alexa, so she’s gonna stay, but I’d like to find something fun to do with these. I think you need fun things to keep the interest in automation. People aren’t awed much by automatic lighting anymore. But that radio sure shines. Shoot me some ideas. I’m all :eyes:

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#2

I use mine for announcements, but that is about it.

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#3

Well there are at least a hundred nodes for google. I guess I’ll just start picking through them.

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#4

I still have my Minis (7 in the house now… along with a couple Nest Audios… help me, I have an addiction) tied in to Hubitat. The reason is that I haven’t found a NR node that can change voices (not just US vs. GB, but multiple male and female voices for each)… Google has changed that to a paid integration… which apparently Hubitat uses. So I send announcements to Hubitat from NR.

But you can also voice integrate all of your devices… turn lights on/off, etc.

I have a flow that checks my garage door: when it opens, announce, change dashboard to red/open. Then, if it stays open for 10 minutes, turn the dashboard purple. If after sunset, announce on the minis (just a couple, not all) that the garage was left open. I also have a virtual switch that kills the announcements (for when I’m working in the garage).

I also picked up a couple HomeSeer light sensors on Black Friday (still on sale: HomeSeer HS-FS100-L Z-Wave Dual Sensor & Buzzer). Gonna hook them up to watch the “done” LED on my washer and dryer. Send Pushover and announce on minis.

Stuff like that.

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#5

I don’t have the luxury of taking advantage of that integration. Anything I do has to come through node red. So, any other suggestions?

#6

I do my announcements through NR, I had to setup a aws account though.

#7

You can announce straight from NR. Use the node-red-contrib-castv2 node. But you get just the stock voice and it sounds very robotic.

If it matters to you… The only way to avoid the cloud, however, is to play pre-packaged, locally-hosted mp3’s for your announcement. Anything using the Google TTS service goes to the cloud.

#8