Alexa control - 12v relay

[Jamesb4uk]

Hi all,

I've been working through a project controlling a 12v diesel heater for my houseboat.

Basically its an Arduino, 12v shield for power & a relay which is connected to soldered wires on the back of the main heater control panel on/off switch.

I modified some code which emulates a Belkin wifi switch (I honestly cant remember where to give credit, probably kakopappa) & is picked up by alexa, then when it activates it pulses the relay for 600ms then turns the relay off emulating the button press, turning off is the same but with a longer delay of the relay turned on to turn off the heater.

Its all working 100%, i have control & heater fires up & shuts down as it should.

The last little niggle for me is that the relay is only on when it needs to be & not on all the time when the heaters running, so Alexa sees the pulse & registers it on then its default to registered off when the heaters running.

Does anyone know how Alexa sets its state ? I figured it was with isHeaterButtonOn but even setting that to true it turns off anyway, I'm actually now wondering if i can take it out of the loop function & set it to On afterwards?

bool HeaterButtonOn() {
  int i;
  
  Serial.println("Heater On");
  for(i=0;i<2;i++)
  {
    Serial.println("Heater On");
    digitalWrite(Heater_pin,HIGH);
     delay(600);
    digitalWrite(BUILTIN_LED,HIGH);
     delay(100);

    digitalWrite(Heater_pin,LOW);
    digitalWrite(BUILTIN_LED,LOW);
  }
 

  isHeaterButtonOn = true;
  return isHeaterButtonOn;
}

Full code below

#include <ESP8266WiFi.h>
#include <ESP8266WebServer.h>
#include <WiFiUdp.h>
#include <functional>
/* For Alexa */
#include "switch.h"
#include "UpnpBroadcastResponder.h"
#include "CallbackFunction.h"
unsigned long previousMillis = 0;
long int startDelayMilliseconds;
int delayInMilliSeconds = 10*1000;
const long interval = 1000;
boolean connectWifi();

const int Heater_pin=D1;

//on/off callbacks 
bool HeaterButtonOn();
bool HeaterButtonOff();



// Change this before you flash
const char* ssid = "****";
const char* password = "****";

boolean wifiConnected = false;

UpnpBroadcastResponder upnpBroadcastResponder;

Switch *HeaterButton = NULL;

bool isHeaterButtonOn = false;


void setup()
{
  pinMode(BUILTIN_LED, OUTPUT);  // set onboard LED as output
  Serial.begin(9600);
  Serial.println("Setup");
  digitalWrite(BUILTIN_LED,LOW);

  //PIN SETUP
  pinMode(Heater_pin, OUTPUT);
  digitalWrite(Heater_pin,LOW);
  
  
  wifiConnected = connectWifi();
  if (wifiConnected) {
    upnpBroadcastResponder.beginUdpMulticast();

    /* Switch setup */
    HeaterButton = new Switch("Diesel Heater" ,83,HeaterButtonOn, HeaterButtonOff);
    Serial.println("Adding new Heater switch device" );
    upnpBroadcastResponder.addDevice(*HeaterButton);
   
  }
}

void loop()
{
  if (wifiConnected) {
    upnpBroadcastResponder.serverLoop();
    HeaterButton->serverLoop();
  }
}

bool HeaterButtonOn() {
  int i;
  
  Serial.println("Heater On");
  for(i=0;i<2;i++)
  {
    Serial.println("Heater On");
    digitalWrite(Heater_pin,HIGH);
     delay(600);
    digitalWrite(BUILTIN_LED,HIGH);
     delay(100);

    digitalWrite(Heater_pin,LOW);
    digitalWrite(BUILTIN_LED,LOW);
  }
 

  isHeaterButtonOn = true;
  return isHeaterButtonOn;
}

bool HeaterButtonOff() {
  int i;
  
  // Turning Heater off is same as turning it on - just pressing button
  Serial.println("Heater Off");
  for(i=0;i<2;i++)
  {
        Serial.println("Heater Off");
    digitalWrite(Heater_pin,HIGH);
     delay(1200);
    digitalWrite(BUILTIN_LED,HIGH);
     delay(100);

    digitalWrite(Heater_pin,LOW);
    digitalWrite(BUILTIN_LED,LOW);
  }

  isHeaterButtonOn = false;
  return isHeaterButtonOn;
}



// connect to wifi – returns true if successful or false if not
boolean connectWifi() {
  boolean state = true;
  int i = 0;
  WiFi.mode(WIFI_STA);
  WiFi.begin(ssid, password);
  Serial.println("");
  Serial.println("Connecting to WiFi");
  // Wait for connection
  Serial.print("Connecting ...");
  while (WiFi.status() != WL_CONNECTED) {
    delay(500);
    Serial.print(".");
    if (i > 10) {
      state = false;
      break;
    }
    i++;
  }

  if (state) {
    Serial.println("");
    Serial.print("Connected to ");
    Serial.println(ssid);
    Serial.print("IP address: ");
    Serial.println(WiFi.localIP());
  }
  else {
    Serial.println("");
    Serial.println("Connection failed.");
  }

  return state;
}