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Hey,

I've developed a web service which I aim to offer as a bridge between virtual assistants (Alexa, Google Home etc) and home automation controllers. For now it only supports Alexa and zway.

I will be looking for beta testers in the near future, once I've ironed out a few things. I need to get the Alexa skill certified first. Let me know if you're interested.

To keep it simple my app:

1 - Pulls all devices from a controller
2 - Displays each device sorted by location
3 - Allows the user to easily set a friendly device name which the virtual assistants will use when reading a device
4 - Accept commands from the virtual assistants, such as turning on/off a device, setting device level e.g. dimmer

My app should also support multiple controller configurations, even multiple z-way controllers, which I thought could be useful for some users.


This hasn't been easy. I've had to study the Amazon home kit API, setup a Lambda service and an OAUTH server, code my app and study the Z-way API. In time I do aim to make this a paid for service (small yearly fee), but only if it's of interest to the public. If not, it's been an interesting leaning curve.


So far it works really well. When I get time over the next week or so I'll try and post some video examples.


The problem I have at the moment is with how my app connects to a users controller. Currently you have to store your z-way username/password in my app, which then stores your password within a DB in cleartext....urghhh. I have secured the service the best as I can, but regardless I still do not like this.

Do Z-Way have any plans for a Cloud solution that would be more appropriate for integrating 3rd party apps?

So far my app also requires the user to input their IP/Hostname (Dynamic DNS should be supported). This isn't ideal, as it requires router adjustments. I believe Z-way has a Cloud service at https://find.z-wave.me, but so far I cannot even login...no do I know if the Z-WAY api will allow me to use that as the end point.

One thought I did have was to develop some form of module for each controller which can then connect to my app and act as a relay, maybe via a web socket or something, but I'd rather avoid that route.

Please let me know your thoughts.

Hi Sparkacus,

this would be a very nice idea, at the moment i use some D-Link DSP-W215 and it works like
a charme with Alexa.
If you can integrate it like you wrote, it would be perfect.
To be honest, I expect this from the Z-Way Team.
Sorry, no more ideas, but add me to the beta tester
Nico

Sure thing.

I'll try to get some video examples ready for the weekend.

I'm currently testing the features I've written to be sure they work correctly and are secure. Once I feel confident enough I'm going to start looking through the Alexa certification process (hopefully there will be no surprises).

Once certified I can then setup accounts for users to test. No idea how long this whole process will take, but I'll post when I know more.

What I would really love to solve is a better way for my service to communicate with a z-way controller. I need to think about this some more as I really do not like storing user/pass in my DB, but have no choice at the moment. If the Z-Way team are reading this, I'd appreciate your thoughts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKmX8awWXrs

^ Is a prototype demo which shows how to:

Create a z-way configuration
Pull in devices
Set custom device name (Optional)

The rest of the video shows how Alexa finds the devices and a couple of live demonstrations.


There are are a number of things I need to tweak and improve etc, but it's a fun project so far.

I'd be interested to know peoples thoughts.

Hi, good work. If you get rid with the user/pass in the cloud database, this would be the skill for me.
Maybe the Z-Way team can give some hints.
Thanks
Nico

enbemokel wrote:Hi, good work. If you get rid with the user/pass in the cloud database, this would be the skill for

It's certainly something I wish to avoid. So I'll give it some thought over time.

I'm just improving on features and error handling at the moment. I have now integrated an enable/disable button for a device which stops a virtual assistant (alexa) from being able to read or action a change relating to said device.

I'll post more updates in the near future.

This looks like a really interesting project. I have done a bit with Alex and Zway, including writing a skill to allow control via the command Alexa tell zway to .... using an adaption of a roku skill I found on github

https://github.com/julianh2o/RokuAlexaLambdaSkill

But yiou project looks much more sophisticated. I would love to get involved and would be delighted to help you test it. Any plans to publish the code on Github or similar.

good work so far.

I could recommend you read this article called How to Create Virtual Assistant Apps like Siri and Google Assistant
Hope it will be useful!

So far you have done good work