Homebrew Google Home Integration (no cloud servers!)

[Rob_in]

Hi all,

So I was at a loose end yesterday arvo & looking for something to tinker with... as you do ;)

I don't really like these cloud based 'home assistants' (Alexa, Google Home, etc) but we were given a Nest Mini so are using it and figure... this thing needs to be connected to our Loxone system.

Think I've seen spam around about a subscription based service that claims to do this (jk - those guys are waaaay annoying!) but would rather not subscribe to anything.

Anyhow, so I spun up a HTTPS server, poked an appropriate hole in our firewall and equipped the server with an Oath provider and an Actions on Google fulfilment service. Created a project in the Actions on Google console and pointed it to the server at home. Voila! Just a proof of concept but works a treat.

The good thing about this is that the authentication & fulfilment services are running in our LAN so no cloud servers required for that. Yes, yes, when you speak to your Google Home device that still needs an internet connection to do stuff but that's never going to change. Think this could be improved further with Actions on Google 'local fulfilment' whereby the Nest Mini (or other Google Home device) can speak directly to the fulfilment server on the same LAN (rather than fulfilment requests coming in over the internet to that HTTPS server)... but that's for later.

So why do I bring this up? Well, currently it's a standalone proof of concept but I'm going to clean it up and stick it in an ioBroker module (we already run an ioBroker instance which already has a permanent websocket link to the Miniserver so would save a bit of time with that). Is anyone so minded as to want to use this if I make it clean and flexible enough?

Disclaimer - because it requires SSL certificates, firewall config and using the Actions on Google console it's never going to be non-trivial but if you are technical none of these are deal breakers so thought I would ask.

Cheers,

Robin

[Tico]

Yes, I'm interested!

I'm currently subscribing to the 1Home service...(I had a moment of weakness and went with the easy option). It's due to run out by the end of the year.

I'm also running about half my voice requirements with the NORA service on Node-Red -

https://www.npmjs.com/package/node-red-contrib-nora

https://www.npmjs.com/package/node-red-contrib-google-smarthome

It's messy having two options and I'd like to clean it all up with a self-hosted option. The capacity to self-host is documented in the second link, but I haven't researched it fully.

Any new options are very welcome.

[Tomasz Nowak]

I'm also using Node-RED with Nora plugin to control Loxone over websocket API.

Simple enough and works fine in duplex mode with Google Home ecosystem.

I also have ioBroker so I might try another approach.

[Rob_in]

Hi,

OK, so a bit of interest. Cool :)

At the moment I'm mulling over the best way to map the SYNC, EXECUTE and QUERY requests from Google back to something useful and in a flexible way. As with most things think this will come down to: more flxeibility == less user friendly.

Think what will be required is some custom config (will start with user entered JSON) that will do that mapping for each device.

At least this way maximum flexibility will be retained. Then, sometime in the distant future (if ever) the adapters in ioBroker that create devices in it's object tree could provide that config (or even third parties could) in a more user friendly way. Maybe?

Anyhow, will post back here when I have a working adapter to play with, but don't hold your breath ;)

Cheers,

Robin

[Brad]

I have been using Openhab as a middle man. Works well but they also have a tutorial on how to stand up your own cloud services server.

[Rob_in]

For anyone who stumbles across this... Google Home integration now working and available to try out. See https://groups.google.com/g/loxone-english/c/JisHUiTMi70/m/OoaiqBEDAwAJ