2019-01-06, 13:23
I have been busy over the Christmas break.
I now have 4 Google Home Minis, 1 in the lounge and 1 in each bedroom. I still haven't managed to get CEC working with my AVR/TV in the lounge, so I have given up and have come up with a hacky solution. Basically I have got a smart socket with the TV and AVR plugged in. The AVR will stay in the powered on state when the power is disconnected, however the TV returns to standby. I noticed that the TV supports WOL (wake on lan), so it occurred to me that I could use WOL as a solution. What I have done is using IFTTT I have setup 2 triggers that use the exact same phrase to activate them (TV on). The first trigger switches on the smart socket which powers on the TV and AVR. Next I have set the Advanced WOL addon to send a packet to the TV, then I have added it to my favourites and re-named it 'On'. The second trigger calls the favourite named 'On', which sends the magic packet and the TV duly comes out of standby. This all happens inside 10 seconds which is about how long it took to turn on the TV/AVR with their respective remotes. To turn it all off you just say 'TV off' and it switches them both off at the wall. As I say it is a little hacky but it works. I am going to come up with a less hacky solution in time. There are two on the drawing board. The first is to buy a Broadlink IR blaster and turn on the TV/AVR with that, this would free up a smart socket. The second is to write a WOL script on the Acer and have the Node.js server call it via IFTTT, it does exactly the same as the Advanced WOL addon, but TBH I don't like relying on Kodi Addons. I favour the second option as it comes at zero cost.
So far I have the following functions controlled by voice...
Playing of Movies/TV Shows/Music/Favourites.
Pausing/Resuming/Stopping of playing content.
Library Updates.
Binge watching TV shows.
Turning TV/AVR on/off.
Returning to the Home screen.
That is about all I think I am going to bother with as to do any of Kodi's higher functions would be a bit of a faff.
I was intending to use a Raspberry Pi Model B to run the Node.js server and the Cron job for DuckDNS, to take the load off the Acer, but it makes no difference to the Acer at all and running another Pi 24/7 would cost money, not much, but it would still be some.
Also, a mate of mine just gave me a unused Raspberry Pi 2. He bought it and installed OSMC to get 'free' movies. When he discovered 'free' movies would mean constant tinkering to keep it running the RPI2 hit the back of a draw. It has been pressed into service replacing the Raspberry Pi Model B in my youngest Daughter's room. This is connected to an LG TV that works perfectly with CEC, which made voice control a breeze.
All of this voice control required me to use DuckDNS, which added an extra layer to the process, there was a couple of seconds of delay after the Google Home Mini said OK. So I experimented with using IFTTT directly to my public IP address, it was way much faster, almost instant. So I have bought a static IP address off of my ISP, it was only £5 for the life of my contract with them, which is about how much running an RPI 24/7 would have been a year.
I now have 4 Google Home Minis, 1 in the lounge and 1 in each bedroom. I still haven't managed to get CEC working with my AVR/TV in the lounge, so I have given up and have come up with a hacky solution. Basically I have got a smart socket with the TV and AVR plugged in. The AVR will stay in the powered on state when the power is disconnected, however the TV returns to standby. I noticed that the TV supports WOL (wake on lan), so it occurred to me that I could use WOL as a solution. What I have done is using IFTTT I have setup 2 triggers that use the exact same phrase to activate them (TV on). The first trigger switches on the smart socket which powers on the TV and AVR. Next I have set the Advanced WOL addon to send a packet to the TV, then I have added it to my favourites and re-named it 'On'. The second trigger calls the favourite named 'On', which sends the magic packet and the TV duly comes out of standby. This all happens inside 10 seconds which is about how long it took to turn on the TV/AVR with their respective remotes. To turn it all off you just say 'TV off' and it switches them both off at the wall. As I say it is a little hacky but it works. I am going to come up with a less hacky solution in time. There are two on the drawing board. The first is to buy a Broadlink IR blaster and turn on the TV/AVR with that, this would free up a smart socket. The second is to write a WOL script on the Acer and have the Node.js server call it via IFTTT, it does exactly the same as the Advanced WOL addon, but TBH I don't like relying on Kodi Addons. I favour the second option as it comes at zero cost.
So far I have the following functions controlled by voice...
Playing of Movies/TV Shows/Music/Favourites.
Pausing/Resuming/Stopping of playing content.
Library Updates.
Binge watching TV shows.
Turning TV/AVR on/off.
Returning to the Home screen.
That is about all I think I am going to bother with as to do any of Kodi's higher functions would be a bit of a faff.
I was intending to use a Raspberry Pi Model B to run the Node.js server and the Cron job for DuckDNS, to take the load off the Acer, but it makes no difference to the Acer at all and running another Pi 24/7 would cost money, not much, but it would still be some.
Also, a mate of mine just gave me a unused Raspberry Pi 2. He bought it and installed OSMC to get 'free' movies. When he discovered 'free' movies would mean constant tinkering to keep it running the RPI2 hit the back of a draw. It has been pressed into service replacing the Raspberry Pi Model B in my youngest Daughter's room. This is connected to an LG TV that works perfectly with CEC, which made voice control a breeze.
All of this voice control required me to use DuckDNS, which added an extra layer to the process, there was a couple of seconds of delay after the Google Home Mini said OK. So I experimented with using IFTTT directly to my public IP address, it was way much faster, almost instant. So I have bought a static IP address off of my ISP, it was only £5 for the life of my contract with them, which is about how much running an RPI 24/7 would have been a year.
