• 1
    Step 1

    Google Home is a great tool to turn everyday automation and the smart home into speech-triggered workflows. With the power of AI assistants like Google Assistant, the internet of things becomes more responsive and more flexible to our daily fluctuating needs.

    We will show you in this project how you can use the voice-recognition feature of your Google Home speaker (or alternatively of your Google Assistant enabled smartphone) combined with the powerful automation skills of Prota OS and IFTTT to turn your home into JARVIS-like smart home.

    FEATURES

    • Turn your lights into smart light for cheap and trigger them by voice-command
    • Trigger your current appliances by voice-command
    • Turn old speakers into smart music speakers
    • Turn an old webcam into a smart cam and receive a voice-triggered snapshot of any room you want to monitor

    FOR WHOM

    • Anyone who owns a Google Home hub or Google Assistant enabled smartphone (among which Google Pixel, Samsung Galaxy S7, HTC 10& U Ultra, LG G5 & V20, Sony Xperia XZ, Huawei P9)
    • Anyone who wants to learn more about smart home while using already owned or unexpensive equipment

    This project can be done in an hour, with no tech/coding skills and for less than $40!

  • 2
    Step 2

    Step 1: REQUIRED COMPONENTS

    • Raspberry Pi 2 or 3 // ~$25-$35
    • 16Gb SD card // ~$9
    • Any speaker with AUX cable = $0
    • An old webcam = $0
    • A USB stick = $0
    • RF transceiver for RPi ($3) + antenna to solder OR RF transceiver module with antenna included ($15)
    • RF switches (you can find 5 switches for $25 here)
    • OPTIONAL: MicroBot Push wireless button pusher ($49 here)
      + Your Google Assistant enabled device
  • 3
    Step 3

    Step 2: SETTING UP PROTA OS FOR RASPBERRY PI

    Prota OS can be downloaded for free on https://prota.info/prota/pi/. It’s only 3.8GB and easy to burn on a SD card (make sure to use a 16GB card).

    Follow the instructions of Raspberry Pi foundation to write the OS image on your SD card.

    • Extract the .img file from the zip folder
    • Plug in your SD card
    • Download and open Etcher, select the image and the drive and start the process.

    That’s it!

    Once Prota OS is burned on the SD card, you can follow this simple installation guide to set up your Prota hub (less than 1 minute!). You only need to define its name and password, your time zone and your email address and the rest is completely automatic!

    That’s it! In less than 15 minutes and with no hassle, you transformed your Raspberry Pi into a Smart Home automation hub!