How to add the Nest robot skill
- Load the most recent release of ARC (Get ARC).
- Press the Project tab from the top menu bar in ARC.
- Press Add Robot Skill from the button ribbon bar in ARC.
- Choose the Misc category tab.
- Press the Nest icon to add the robot skill to your project.
Don't have a robot yet?
Follow the Getting Started Guide to build a robot and use the Nest robot skill.
How to use the Nest robot skill
The NEST (www.nest.com) devices (thermostat and co/smoke detector) connect your home to the internet. With the Synthiam Nest Control, your robot can request and set the temperature of your home. ARC will require access to the your Nest devices, which can be done with the following steps in ARC...Configure Nest Access
1. Press OPTIONS from ARC top menu2. Select NEST from Global Settings in top menu
3. Follow the instructions to activate ARC with your Nest account
Once activated, you will be able to trigger the Nest Control to query your registered Nest devices data. The request will store the data in EZ-Script variables, which you can use in script within your projects. There is an example Nest project in ARC which demonstrates how to use the Speech Recognition control, or Script control to speak the temperature of your Nest Thermostat device.
Tutorial Exercise
Load ARC.br />Load the latest JD project from the EZ-Cloud Robot AppStore
Let's give ARC access to your Nest Thermostats
Options. Global Settings. Nest
Get Verification Code
Agree to ARC having permission to access your Nest Thermostat
Login to the Nest website with your credentials
Copy the Pincode
Paste the Pincode and verify
ARC.now has access to your Nest Thermostat
Project. Add Control. Misc. Nest
Nest Control is now added to your project
Project. Add Control. Audio. Speech Recognition.
Speech Recognition is now added to your project
Your JD must be connected to your network in Client Mode. See the description of this video for a link to the Client Mode Tutorial
Connect to JD on your local network
Connect to JD's camera on your local network
Configure Speech Recognition
Enter the phrase "What is the temperature of my house"
Press the multiline script edit button
Cheat Sheet
Locate Nest and select the Control Command with parameter Run Once
Looking at all declared variables. We do not see any Nest variables yet.
Run this script to have the Nest control fetch variables from your Nest devices.
Refresh the variable list to see all nest variables
SayEZB("The temperature of your house is " + $nest_temp_c + " degrees")
Let's add an action at the beginning of this script to give JD some personality
In the cheat sheet, locate the Auto Position Action Thinking. and select
Save the script
Save the speech recognition config
If speech recognition has been configured correctly, speak the phrase "What is the temperature of my house" and receive a response from JD while he executes the Thinking animation.
Example Project
1. Press File -> Open in ARC top menu2. Press Examples from the File Open dialog
3. Select EZ-Script Examples folder
4. Scroll down or search for the project titled Nest
Example Code
Once the control has been added, the ez-script variable data will be configured with a manual nudge from EZ-Script. The code below shows how to have Nest update and speak the temperature out of the PC speaker.
# Update the variables with your Nest device data
ControlCommand("Nest", RunOnce)
# Speak the temperatue out of the PC speaker
say("The temperature is " + $nest_temp_c + " celcius")
# speak the temperature out of the robots speaker
sayEZB("The temperature is " + $nest_temp_c + " celcius")
Note: Synthiam is not a manufacturer of this third party hardware device. . Nor is ezrobot responsible for the operation of this third party device. For operational questions, it's best to consult the instruction manual for operational instructions.
I know that the Ezb can read the Nest thermostat and read the temperature. Does it have the ability to read the Nest Temperature sensors that are a separate add on to the Nest thermostat?
The nest thermostat will return Temp, Humidity, Battery health, CO2 alarm and smoke alarm.
It doesn't actually talk to the sensor - it talks to the Nest service, which holds the data from all sensor types. So technically, the plugin should be called "all nest stuff" lol
DJ, Here is the variable watcher list for the Nest. I don't see Living Room on the list, which is where I placed the temperature sensor. It does show up in the Nest App on my phone.
Having the ability to see and use multiple nest cameras and then use this with Cognitive vision would be a big deal. Can it be done?
Looks like you might be able to. Here is an older project where someone was able to access the camera feed: den.dev/blog/free-nest-video-recording/
It was done in C#, so you shouldn't have much trouble creating a robot skill from his sample code.
That is some pretty deep code. I can somewhat follow along with what he is doing but I am not fluent enough to write anything like that. Being able to cycle through different cameras and get the cognitive vision of what the numbers are or what the words are would be a big deal. May be able to have multiple USB cameras hooked up to my new gaming computer (trying to handle higher resolution cameras and faster rates with Microsoft Cognitive Vision) could possibly accomplish the same thing. Although I read that you have a new way handle data which will be 10 times faster -looking forward to it.