Voice-Activated Gate Imp

By calling out "Alexa, trigger the gate," I literally don't have to lift a finger to let people in.

This is the future we were promised. Glory be.

1. Gate buzzer setup

So, at my house, we used to have to descend from the third floor and open our gate by hand every time. Then, they installed a button so we don't need to run down 2 flights of stairs (as much). Next, my housemate Scott hooked up an Electric Imp so that we can simply access a URL on a phone, and it unlocks within seconds. Really useful for getting out of the rain when you've forgotten your keys, or never leaving your blanket fort.

2. Electric Imp setup

This isn't necessarily how Scott did it – he put it in a little box, and I'm frankly afraid to take it out, lest I break it. But I would do it by splitting/doubling the wires that run to and from the button, then placing a relay or transistor in parallel, toggled by a digital pin on the Imp. Here's what that could look like:

This way, the gate buzzer is activated whether someone pushes the button or pokes the Imp.

When you set up the Imp, you get a URL that you can access from anywhere, and will trigger the process.

If you want a more in-depth example, check out this similar project on the Electric Imp forums.

3. Alexa setup

This is hilariously, almost disappointingly, easy:

• Take your Echo out of its box.

• Plug it in.

• Install the app (Android/iOS).

• Tell it your WiFi.

• Ignore the peppy little video.

• Install a few of the official available apps, if you like.

4. IFTTT setup

Log into IFTTT and create a new recipe.

Select Alexa as the input ("this"), and give it a command. Note that IFTTT will prepend the verb "trigger" – so, if you put "open the gate", you'll have to say "trigger open the gate" to make it go. Stick with nouns... maybe something cool like "Security Protocol A".

For "that" (the output), choose the Maker channel, and the action "Make a web request". Give it the URL for your Imp action, with "POST" as the method. The content type is apparently optional: I went with "text/plain", and it works just fine.

That's it! Save the recipe, and you're ready to go.

5. Test!

Alexa, trigger the gate.

Alexa, trigger the gate.

How many times can you do this before your housemates hate you?