Kinda stumped folks. Enjoying turning lights on/off, whole house fan on/off, letting me know when there’s mail, etc.
But I’ve got a request now from the wife for our stair-glide chair – the one our handicapped daughter uses to come up/down the stairs. But one we also use as a - well - “dumb waiter” to send laundry up/down, etc. Currently one of them has to “hold the button” to bring the chair up/down – and it’s always in the wrong place – we’d like to say "Alexa, bring the chair up" – but can live with “Alexa, turn the Chair switch on” (for up) and off for down.
The ultimate goal:
… Command via “Alexa” (amazon echo) to send the chair “up” or send the chair “down”
The ~current~ thoughts – I think I can handle it one of two ways:
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I can hack/modify the current press-button “call box” for the chair – two buttons – one up, one down. I can easily wire-in parallel inputs for “up” and “down” button each – a dry contact output for each (it’s a press button I’d wire in parallel to a dry contact relay)
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The “call box” generates Infrared (IR) commands to the chair – so I could also generate a “long” (it takes like 30 seconds or more to go up/down) – press of a “virtiual IR” remote/button/etc to command it to go “up” or go “down”
So, what I need to figure out is:
(a) A dual relay module (Smarthings controllable) that I wire into the “up” and “down” buttons and have them “pressed” for about 30 seconds
-or-
(b) Something to generate a 30-second long “ir” signal – one for “up” and a different one for “down”
I have a Smarthings hub. I also have a Harmony Elite Hub.
Ideas?
I’m considering “Anymote” as a solution for the IR idea. Not sure it can handle the continuous press/generate of an IR signal for that long.
Am looking at Zigbee/Z-wave modules that can generate the dry-contacts – but so far, only seeing those that have ONE output, not TWO.
Other ideas?