How to use Google Assistant to control your smart home with Ilevia
Before starting the conifguration
If you are in this page because you are approcing the voice control integration with the Ilevia server to a new installation or just taking a look on how to set it up, we suggest to take a look to the new integration procedure here.
How to control your smart home using Google Home
- ilevia has made it possible to use Google Home with KNX devices, Vimar By Me, My Home by BTicino, Z-Wave and other protocols by EVE System.
- One of the greatest strengths of our system is to be able to use the Google Assistant app or Google Home app on your smartphone even on systems not managed by our EVE server.
- Check that you are using the same google account on Google Home, Google assistant apps and on the voice recognition Google devices.
- After the installation of our system the user, without using any app, will be able to control devices simply using the Google Assistant voice recognition or through Google Home.
In the following sections, we will explain how to configure a KNX light via Eve Manager and the related configuration of the Google Assistant.
Google Home speakers enable users to speak voice commands to interact with services through Google’s intelligent personal assistant called Google Assistant. A large number of services, both in-house and third-party, are integrated, allowing users to listen to music, control playback of videos or photos, or receive news updates entirely by voice. Google Home devices also have integrated support for home automation, letting users control smart home appliances and KNX devices with their voice. Multiple Google Home devices can be placed in different rooms in a home to control specific devices in a specific room. In this guide, you will learn how to set up simple KNX light in a living room and control it through voice.
A reminder before continuing:
- Google Home device is not required, you can simply use the Google Assistant App on your smartphone/tablet.
- Please refer to this documentation to set up Google Home devices
- Download and Install EVE Logic plugin to enable plugins (Follow this link);
- Update your server with the latest firmware available following this guide;
LEARN BY DOING
STEP 1:
In this guide, we will see how to correctly set a Switch that will turn on and off a light in our living room using a Google Home device. Once you have selected the Components screen, insert a Switch, assigning the User interface title to “Living Room Light” (you can choose a different name according to your preferences) that will identify the keyword to be pronounced on our Google Home device.
STEP 2:
Now within “Select Tags” you will have to select “Light” and “Google Home“, this step will allow you to correctly use the service and correctly identify which device is a Light and which not. This step must be made for each component of the system that you want to make the user manage through Google Home, in the case that the selected device is not a Light you should only use the “Google Home” tag.
STEP 3:
Click Project->Upload by putting the connection parameters of you Ilevia’s server, then click OK, this will start the uploading procedure. Time to move on to the next topic: “Google Assistant and Google Home app”.
Madatory operation
Once the project is correctly uploaded, it is asked to restart the logic module. The Logic module is a software inside the EVE server that manage all the logical operation of the project such as the comunication between the server and the Ilevia cloud. This operation can be easily carried out by connecting to the server from Project menu -> Connect then Tools -> stop logic and start logic, this way the software will be restarted.
STEP 4:
ILEVIA Account creation
Subscribe to the ILEVIA cloud:
STEP 5:
EVE Server registration
Add your EVE Server to the ILEVIA cloud:
- Server Name: You can choose a name of your preferences.
- License ID: to find your license ID please follow this guide.
STEP 6:
App Configuration
1. After you have installed the Google Home app open it and this will be the first screen that you’ll see. Tap on “GET STARTED”.
2. Choose new devices
3. Set a nick name to your new Home then proceed with the configuration
4. Tap on Home or Create another home if you have more devices in different houses, for this example we will use the default Home.
5. Tap on + Add.
6. Tap on Set up device.
8. Here you will find all the companies that support Google Home, search for ilevia Smart Home.
9. Now you should log in with the credentials created before (if you didn’t do that please go back and complete the procedure here.
11. Tap on Home.
12. Here you can choose where your devices are placed, pick the room that best suits your needs.
13. Finally, you can now see that your components created inside Eve Manager are available inside the Google Home app and ready to be used! .
ADD / REMOVE DEVICES
If you need to add or remove devices such as lights or deprecated devices. You must need follow this procedure:
1. Tap on + Add.
2. Tap on Set up device.
3. Tap on Have something already set up?.
4. Tap on ilevia Smart Home and press Unlink account, this will disconnect your Cloud account.
5. Now search again ilevia Smart Home and link again the account as explained before here . The devices that has been added or removed should be now updated.
GOOGLE HOME VOICE COMMANDS LIST:
You can use your voice to enjoy Google Home features like Scenarios, User Scenarios, Activation, Lights & Temperature, Shutters and much more. You can do all this simply by following these examples:
Lights:
| Voice command: | Say “Ok Google” or “Hey Google,” then… |
| To turn on/off a light | “Turn on <light name>” |
| Dim a light | “Dim the <light name>” |
| Brighten a light | “Brighten the <light name>” |
| Set a light brightness to a certain percentage | “Set <light name> to 50%” |
| Dim/Brighten lights by a certain percentage | “Dim/Brighten <light name> by 50%” |
| Change the color of a light | “Turn <light name> green” |
| Turn on/off all lights in room | “Turn on/off lights in <room name>” |
| Turn on/off all lights | “Turn on/off all of the lights” |
“Ok Google, turn on Living Room Light”
“Ok Google, set Living Room Light to 30%”
“Ok Google, turn Living Room Light blue”
Switches:
| To do this: | Say “Ok Google” or “Hey Google,” then… |
| Turn on/off switch | “Turn on/off the [switch name]” |
“Ok Google, turn on/off the Popcorn machine”
Scenarios & User Scenarios:
Note: For this type of component we recommend to follow the examples in this guides to better understand how creating a Scenario and an User scneario. Using also the Script component will allow creating endless possibilities of customization so as to make each Scenario personalized like temperature control, shutters and much more…
| To do this: | Say “Ok Google” or “Hey Google,” then… |
| Activate | “Activate [scenario name]” |
| Activate | “Activate [remote scenario name]” |
“Ok Google, activate Irrigation”
Note: if you are planning to add other components to be controlled via Google Home inside EVE Manager you will need to tell to Google Home device or the Google Assistant App “Ok Google, update devices” to implement them correctly within your app, otherwise, you will not be able to view them.