Cuckoo Clock With Google and ESPHome

I wanted to build a cuckoo clock with sound which is controlled by Home Assistant.

I prefer an old style cuckoo's clock with an Austria design.

The real cuckoo clocks have more detail but this is a start.

The house is build from wooden plate because this is flat and easy to build with some jigsaw skills.

The windows and clock mechanism are 3D-printed.

You can make the wooden house as fancy as you like with more details. I look forward to see your results.

Parts used:

1. Servo (MG-90S)
2. Wemos D1 (ESP8266)
3. Small breadboard (47x35 mm)
4. Wires for breadboard
5. some screws M2 and M3
6. metal inserts M2
7. wood plate (5-6 mm) and wood glue (jigsaw, see pdf)
8. Google home for cuckoo or other sounds
9. Home assistant running on Raspberry Pi

For the 3D-print files, see: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5962496

For the windows I printed fancy parts because this is easier to make but you can make this also of wood parts

Make sure the frame with the shutters run smoothly. You need some filing to get to.

For the hinges I used 2mm ashes, cut two of 30mm length. The holes have to be drilled afterward to make it run smoothly.

Also make sure the tooth rack glides smoothly.

To make a good link between the shutters and the rods I used M2 metal inserts. If you don't it might get loose after some while.

You are free to build and design your own cuckoos-house but I added mine to get started.

Parts to jigsaw:

• 2x side walls with window hole
• 1x floor for mechanism
• 2x roof slope and 1x middle flat part
• 1x ornamental front
• 1x front top
• 1x front bottom (optional) before google home

The window openings are needed to talk to Google home and hear the sound of it.

1. Glue 3D-printed windows to the side-walls
2. Glue side walls with floor and make it stand horizontal
3. Bore holes in the floor to mount the mechanism
4. Mount the mechanism with the bird, rods and shutters. If it suits well, you can glue the shutter frame to the wooden front.
5. Mount the servo with the pinion to the 3D-printed body. To test you can use a servo-tester.
6. Glue roof parts, the roof is kept loose to take away for problem solving and make adjustments.

For the electronics I used an ESP8266 module (wemos-D1). This is a good module with wifi to connect with Home-Assistant. It is also possible to make it standalone with an Arduino and clock-module but I wanted to add sound for the cuckoo. I used a small breadboard which is easy to expand with other features (RGB-led, PIR-sensor, oled-display)

1. Add pins to your ESp8266 module for mounting on breadboard
2. I used an micro USB cable to supply power to the module
3. For the servo you need the following 3 pins on the ESP8266 module
4. pin D3 for signal (yellow/orange)
5. pin GND (brown) and pin 5V (red)
6. In the pictures I added a oled-screen but is not needed!

For the software I used Home Assistant with ESPhome. The code is written in Yaml scripts.

The sound is played from Home Assistant to the google home speaker. This is very nice because you can use any sound you can get.

1. To install Home-Assistant see the website: https://www.home-assistant.io
2. Add integration ESPhome
3. To use ESPhome see also: https://esphome.io
4. Upload yaml to ESP8266 module
5. Add automation to Home-Assistant
6. Add sound-file (mp3) to Home-Assistant map: config/www/
7. Go for testing

The attached txt-files has to renamed tot yaml-extension

I am working on some adjustments to add more smart things like sensors, light, oled screen. These are also controlled by Home Assistant. The beginning of a smart house! Let me know if you have some more nice adjustments.