Purpose of the project
I have three kids and I’m utterly sick of them not coming down for tea when I call them because they have headphones on and whatever game they are playing is clearly more interesting! It was driving me and my partner nuts!
Solution Overview
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There is a big red button (think an emergency cut off switch). When it’s pressed all of the kids computers (through their speakers) and alexas in their room will announce that they must come downstairs now!
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After 30 seconds they get another warning.
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After another 30 seconds they get another warning, their monitors get turned off and their network connection is turned off.
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After another 20 seconds their internet is restored (it needs to because I use MQTT to control their machines so I need to restore internet!)
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After 10 seconds I send a final notification and lock their computer
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After another 30 seconds there computers shut down.
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Twisting the switch to release it will restore internet and prevent any additional things from happening.
Parts List
The switch (https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07WJDWYYK/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_image?ie=UTF8&psc=1 £12):
A Mini esp32 - £12 https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B098B23NN9/ref=ppx_od_dt_b_asin_title_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I’m running ESPHOME on here to expose the switch inside Home Assitant
3rd Party solutions
IOTLink
This project allows us to turn off the screens, lock them machines and shutdown the kids computers
IOTLinkTTS
This is a plugin I wrote to IOTLink that will say any text you want through the kids computers
Node Red
This is where I have written the automation
I also use Unifi networking kit which allows me to switch off network ports, and I use the Alexa media player custom component to announce its tea time to the kids!
The automation
Conclusion
The kids now race down. It’s working brilliant (and they like it because they swear blind they couldn’t actually hear us before). I did joke with the kids before creating this and they thought it was really funny!
It’s my partners favourite automation (and I need some wins thats for sure!)
Sometimes the IOTLink disconnect and doesn’t reconnect (if computers have gone to sleep). This can prevent a lot of the automations from working.