Chromecast questions (implementing doorbell/event button)

Third party integrations
1

Hi guys,

I have obtained a zigbee button, and plan to use it as a doorbell.
This button being pressed can then kick off an audio file / send notifications / flash lights / etc.

I can do most of these using node-RED, but I have a couple of questions really:

  1. The google speakers I have take a small delay to play the audio (~1 second)… It’s not much but it’s noticable, and of course a person could always be confused at the door if the button press has slow feedback… Can anyone think of any way to speed this up? I know the problem is really with getting the chromecast devices to pull in the MP3 file and start playing it (just like TTS renders to MP3 and then sends that to the chromecast devices), is there a way to cache it maybe?
  2. The audio playing will disrupt anything already playing, and then it won’t go back to the previous state (playing in a playlist etc)… I would propose storing the current state and then reverting back to the previous state afterwards - however there doesn’t appear to be any sort of linearity in the flows itself (eg: the action of kicking off the audio doesn’t stop the message from being passed onto the next node)… You’d have to use the wait node or something. Is there something built into the chromecast integration/API to make my life easier here?

Thanks

old486whizz

2

All tts files are cached somewhere in the HA folders. I have seen it don’t know where though.
If you can’t find it then just use any tts service online and generate a mp3 and use that.

  1. Search for it. There are a few threads and blueprints of it.
3

Thanks - although it’s not really the TTS wav/mp3 file I want to cache within HA but more cache’d on the Chromecast (wifi speakers) devices themselves.

I’ve looked into it a little bit, and the functionality just isn’t there… However, is there a way to kick off Google automations (a scene, or alarm, or something) from Home Assistant?
I guess the only negative is that I would need to be online (although #1 I could code for that, and #2 no music would be playing on the wireless speakers so I wouldn’t be disrupting anything on them).

I’m thinking of subscribing to the home assistant cloud solution anyway - so that should allow Google to talk to Home Assistant - but I kind of want the opposite… To kick off an alarm or notification or something through the Google services so the devices pick it up using their “smooth” services and I can dismiss it and then it carries on doing whatever.

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old486whizz