A quick and dirty attempt to create a "magic button" with an ESP8266 board, a Raspberry Pi and Node.js Or, more precisely, a Wi-Fi button that triggers a Telegram message and a piezoelectric buzzer.
My 96-year-old grandma recently needs help with more things. Since now more than before I find myself using my computer most of the day, with headphones on, sometimes I couldn't hear when she called me. So I decided to use some components that I had at home to receive notifications whenever my grandmother needs help.
- A Raspberry Pi (I used Model 1B, GPIO pinout is a little bit different, but that's a single line change in the code).
- An ESP8266 board, like the $2 chinese "NodeMCU" thing.
- A push button.
- A breadboard, unless you have a better way to put it all together.
- A piezoelectric buzzer (I used a passive one with a PCB and 3 pins but the other ones are fine).
- Jumper wires.
Create a Telegram channel and bot with BotFather.
Clone the repo:
git clone https://github.com/ncr6/nodemcu-button
Replace your Wi-Fi settings on the Arduino-like C file (sketch_nodemcu.c) and write it to your board. If required, replace the pin numbers according to your Raspberry Pi Model.
Connect the components like this:
I used an old Raspberry Pi 1B (to prevent e-waste) which only has 26 GPIO pins, so if you're using something less outdated with 40 pins, just change the pin numbers in the code. Alternatively, you can wire it like this:
Copy the project files to your Raspberry Pi via SSH or your preferred method.
Install dependencies with npm install
Run the Express.js-based server with the following environment variables:
- NODEMCU_IP (Your ESP8266 board local IP address, this should prevent other devices on your network from accidentally triggering the alerts).
- TELEGRAM_NDTOKEN (Your Telegram bot token given by BotFather).
- CHANNEL_ID (Telegram channel ID where the alerts will be posted, if it's public, use the username here, if it's private, look for a number like -123456789 in API responses, remember to add your bot to the channel).
Of course, this has a lot of flaws. Pull requests and issues are welcome ;)