Smart Home Nespresso Coffee Machine with Amazon Echo - 2016
Before we pitched a major coffee company I was given one of their coffee machines to hack. I wanted to extend its capabilities so that it could integrate with the smart home via Amazon Echo and go beyond anything Nespresso offers in its current line of products.
I connected the machine to an Arduino Yún via a 5V relay switch. The Yún has a web server and REST API built in, so it's great for prototyping IoT apps. This allowed me to make coffee using just an API call. Then I developed an Amazon Echo app to make coffee using voice control.
Now when a user speaks a phrase such as, "Alexa, tell my coffee maker to make me some coffee," the machine will instantly begin making a cup of coffee.
Role
Concept
Interaction Design
Engineering
Technology
Alexa skill with AWS Lambda (NodeJS)
Amazon Echo
Modified Nespresso Vertuoline
Arduino Yún running web server and DDNS
5V relay switch
The coffee machine is powered by an Arduino Yún via a 5V relay module.
To hack the coffee machine, I identified the power and ground wires that connected to the Start button, a simple momentary switch. I clipped the wires and plugged them into the relay.