Hey everyone, I wanted to share a cool setup I’ve been working on to monitor my front door using both Google Home and Alexa. It’s been a fun project and I think others might find it useful too!
So, the goal was to have a seamless way to check who’s at the door without having to physically go outside. I’ve set it up so that when I ask Google Home or Alexa, ‘Who is at the front door?’, it automatically turns on my living room TV and shows me a live feed from my front door camera. It’s super handy, especially when I’m not home or just want to keep an eye on things!
Here’s how I did it:
-
Hardware Setup: I used a Chromecast device connected to my TV and a Blue Iris camera system. The camera is positioned to cover the front porch, so I can see anyone approaching the door.
-
Script Configuration: I created a script in Home Assistant that handles the automation. The script uses the
remote.turn_onservice to power on the TV and themedia_player.play_mediaservice to display the live camera feed. Here’s a snippet of the script:
yaml
monitor_porch_livingroom:
sequence:
- service: remote.turn_on
entity_id: remote.livingroom
data:
activity: 12345678
- service: media_player.play_media
entity_id: media_player.living_room
data:
media_content_id: http://192.168.1.23:81/mjpg/cam2/video.mjpg?user=abcdef&pw=pqrs
media_content_type: image/jpg
- Customization: I added a friendly name to the script in the
customize.yamlfile so it’s easy to recognize in the Google Home or Alexa app:
yaml
script.monitor_porch_livingroom:
friendly_name: Who is at the front door
- Testing: After setting everything up, I tested it out and it worked perfectly! Now, whenever I ask the question, the TV lights up and I can see who’s at the door without lifting a finger.
I’d love to hear if anyone else has tried something similar or has tips to make this even better! Maybe adding voice notifications or integrating more cameras? Let’s brainstorm together!
Cheers,
[Your Name]