The project as is works great - it has a nice date and time display with a touch screen switch. However, when combined with Adafruit IO, it can control a connected light or appliance through the internet or voice command. This is done using an Adafruit IO feed. This feed is then used to create a virtual switch. This web based button allows you to turn on and off your smart switch remotely. Later this will be extended to voice commands using Alexa or a Google Assistant. But first is to get the switch working in Adafruit.io.
Read the Welcome to Adafruit IO learning guide to get learn about the features of Adafruit IO.
Integrating Adafruit IO with CircuitPython
Earlier you created an Adafruit.io account and entered your Adafruit.io credentials aio_username
and aio_key
into the secrets.py file. Now to create a virtual switch using Adafruit.io. This requires creating a feed at Adafruit.io . The feed name is hard-coded into code.py as pyportal-switch
. You can change this if needed, particularly if you creating more than one switch when you will need different names.
Creating a New Feed
To create a new feed, navigate to the feed list using "Feeds | View All". Create a new feed from the "Actions" menu and name it "PyPortal Switch". Verify the feed key is pyportal-switch
since this is the name the PyPortal uses, not the name.
Once the feed is created, next is to create a virtual switch using an Adafruit.io dashboard. This is not necessary for use with Alexa or Google Assistant, but it is a easy method to test the feed using a web browser.
Creating a New Dashboard
Navigate to "Dashboards | View All", create a new dashboard. You can name it whatever you would like. For our guide we named it "PyPortal Smart Switch".
Now to create the switch by clicking the blue plus sign icon on the right side of the dashboard. Create a toggle block from the list of block types. Then, select the "PyPortal Switch" feed from the "Choose Feed" dialog and proceed to the next step by clicking the "next step" button. Finally, give this block a descriptive name and keep the default button text values. Click the "create block" button to save the button.
To verify the switch and the underlying feed is working correctly, you can click on the "ON" or "OFF" button that appears on the dashboard. If your PyPortal is correctly running the code.py file and the proper Adafruit.io credentials were entered, You should see your PyPortal's switch icon change as the value is changed on Adafruit.io. If you have a light or appliance plugged in to the relay switch, it should also turn on or off when the virtual button is pressed.
You now have a web controlled smart switch. You can turn your appliance on or off from a web browser on your PC or smartphone. Continue to the next section to configure you smart switch for voice commands using either Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant.
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