Indigo / Alexa Integration

Posted on
Sat Apr 21, 2018 3:12 pm
Krippi offline
Posts: 7
Joined: Apr 20, 2018
Location: Pottstown, PA, USA

Indigo / Alexa Integration

I have been searching for a solid home automation/smart home platform and I am leaning towards Indigo, but had a few questions I hope some of you can clear up...I am moving into a new home and want to make it easily controllable by phone/voice using Alexa in addition to some automated features.

How difficult is it to have Alexa control lights/fans. I believe I read that you have to trick Alexa into thinking you have a Hue connected or is there some other way. Does this cause any difficulties or problems. I plan on having 40+ smart switches/outlets. Will I be able to say Alexa turn the kitchen lights off or 50% or whatever I desire? Or setting a fan to low/med/high? Along those lines can I ask Alexa if something is open or closed if I have a sensor for say window or door? Is the door locked(granted I have a smart lock)?

Beyond that I would need to purchase a new mac to run indigo on. I saw in a 2012 mac mini w/8GB seems to be a solid recommendation. Is this still the general consensus or is it overkill as many seemed to be running on older mac mini? And to double check hackintosh or VM don't work or aren't supported? What would make me cause to have a more powerful machine.

Thanks for any advice.

Posted on
Sat Apr 21, 2018 3:23 pm
Different Computers offline
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Posts: 2533
Joined: Jan 02, 2016
Location: East Coast

Re: Indigo / Alexa Integration

I'm not an Alexa guy, but I ran Indigo on a 2008 Core 2 Duo Mini with 4 GB RAM for at least the first 8 months I used Indigo, and it had Zero problems until I tried using the then-less-optimized Security Camera plugin.

If you don't want it to process video, I think any Mac with a Core 2 Duo or better will be fine. You might find an old MacBook for cheaper than a Mini, as Minis tend to really hold their value. Think hard about the number of USB ports though--I'm very short on them with my broken screen MacBook Pro running Indigo. I'm surprisingly having no problem using a USB hub to connect some stuff to the MBP.

That is actually my recommendation if you're looking for a bargain Mac: Find a MacBook or MacBook Pro with a broken screen or severe cosmetic damage on Craigslist and run it headless. I remote into mine with Back to My Mac or just use the Indigo client remotely for 99.999% of my Indigo stuff.

If you have questions about how to do any of that, I'm happy to help.

SmartThings refugee, so happy to be on Indigo. Monterey on a base M1 Mini w/Harmony Hub, Hue, DomoPad, Dynamic URL, Device Extensions, HomeKitLink, Grafana, Plex, uniFAP, Fantastic Weather, Nanoleaf, LED Simple Effects, Bond Home, Camect.

Posted on
Sun Apr 22, 2018 6:19 pm
rehafer offline
Posts: 279
Joined: Feb 08, 2013

Re: Indigo / Alexa Integration

The nice about the 2012 model Mac Mini is that it’s easy to swap out memory. You could go with a cheaper refurbished unit and upgrade RAM if you need to.


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