Feature proposal: Local Alarm on the device

[ChristianKuehnel]

Hey folks,

I was thinking about contribution an alarm clock feature to the device. Something that is running locally on the ESP, that can then be triggered from HA via voice commands. So the alarm would be independent from HA, once it's set, similar to the timer.

For the first iteration I propose to set only a single alarm:

• add a time source (e.g. platform homeassistant)
• add a global int variable with the next alarm and a gobal bool variable if the alarm is active
• once a minute, check if the alarm has expired and then trigger the sound, similar to the timer.
• alarm can be configured through a actions from HA, something like:
  • set_alarm (set alarm to specific datetime)
  • stop_alarm (when it's alarming right now)
  • cancel_alarm (to cancel/disable an alarm that was set before)
  • expose current alarm as sensor (or something to HA), read-only
• Persist alarm(s) ( restore_value: yes) during a power outage/restart/update/... (assuming we have enough space in the persistent storage?) to not lose the alarm in case of a restart of the device.
• Once that works on the ESP, add the voice commands to the list of intents (https://github.com/OHF-Voice/intents) and integrate in Home Assistant Core.

In future iterations we could extend the functionality with:

• add a snooze functionality (reset the alarm to x minutes in the future)
• support multiple alarms (allow having more than one alarm, allow to cancel a specific one)

I'm happy to propose some implementation, but I wanted to hear you thoughts first.
Does that make sense?
Any better ideas?

Related discussions/requests:

• https://github.com/orgs/home-assistant/discussions/559
• https://community.home-assistant.io/t/alarm-clock-with-voice/853987/5

[omaramin-2000]

All of this could be done but with HA intervention so it could handle all scheduled alarms easily and implement TTS announcement (reading alarm name and time over ringtone). As well the snooze functionality and rescheduling past alarms could be handled easily in HA core rather than the complexity inside ESPHome device itself, actually it was implemented with ReSpeaker Lite but using indirect process and I am sure it has limitations on the features required for multiple alarms and snooze functionality and so on. https://community.home-assistant.io/t/respeaker-lite-new-seeed-studio-voice-assistant-development-kit-hardware-combine-esp32-with-xmos-xu316-dsp-chip-for-advanced-audio-processing-as-a-esphome-based-home-assistant-assist-satellite-voice-devkit/756944/684?u=formatbce
All of these problems were discussed there in details https://community.home-assistant.io/t/alarms-and-reminders-with-intents/862776 so, that's why I considered implementing these functions in better way using my integration that I am working on which will include in plan the option to mutually play alarms on media players other than voice satellites also and to snooze/stop alarms using actionable notifications on mobiles when the alarm rings, but that needs tremendous effort. https://github.com/omaramin-2000/HA-Alarms-and-Reminders

[ChristianKuehnel]

So here's my first proof-of-concept on top of the existing voice config. This adds 2 entities to Home Assistant: A deadline for the alarm and a switch to turn the alarm on/off.

This still lacks the integration into the main flow of the device (sounds, "stop" command, LEDs, ...).

substitutions:
  name: XXX
  friendly_name: XXX
packages:
  Nabu Casa.Home Assistant Voice PE: github://esphome/home-assistant-voice-pe/home-assistant-voice.yaml
esphome:
  name: ${name}
  name_add_mac_suffix: false
  friendly_name: ${friendly_name}
api:
  encryption:
    key: XXX

wifi:
  ssid: !secret wifi_ssid
  password: !secret wifi_password

time:
  # get the current time from HomeAssistant
  - platform: homeassistant
    id: homeassistant_time
    on_time: 
      # check alarm every minute
      - seconds: 0
        then:
          - script.execute: check_alarm

datetime:
  # schedule the alarm deadline from Home Assistant
  - platform: template
    name: "Alarm deadline"
    id: alarm_deadline
    type: datetime
    initial_value: "2025-01-01 00:00:00"
    set_action:
      then:
        - switch.turn_on: alarm_enabled

globals:
  # store the current state of the switch   
  - id: is_alarm_enabled
    type: bool    
    initial_value: "false"

switch:
  # integration for HA to enable/disable the alarm 
  - platform: template
    name: "Alarm enabled"
    id: alarm_enabled
    lambda: |-
      return id(is_alarm_enabled);
    turn_on_action: 
      then:
        - lambda: "id(is_alarm_enabled) = true;"
    turn_off_action: 
      then:
        - lambda: "id(is_alarm_enabled) = false;"
        
script:
  # check if alarm needs to be triggered
  - id: check_alarm
    then:
      - lambda: |-
          if ( 
            id(is_alarm_enabled) && 
            id(homeassistant_time).now().is_valid() &&
            id(homeassistant_time).now() >= id(alarm_deadline).state_as_esptime()
            ) {
              id(trigger_alarm).execute();
          }
  # dummy implementation of alarm for testing doesn't make any noise 
  - id: trigger_alarm
    then:
      - switch.turn_off: "alarm_enabled"
      - light.turn_on:
          brightness: 100%
          red: 0
          green: 1
          blue: 0
          id: voice_assistant_leds
          effect: "Twinkle"
      - delay: 3s
      - light.turn_off:
          id: voice_assistant_leds
          

[ChristianKuehnel]

All of this could be done but with HA intervention so it could handle all scheduled alarms easily and implement TTS announcement (reading alarm name and time over ringtone).

I fully agree! IMHO it's a design tradeoff:

I was aiming for something much simpler that what you had in mind, just to get closer to Alexa. Something similar to the exiting timer functionality, but rather using absolute time ("set alarm to 11:00") than relative time ("set timer for 27 minutes"). Also something that is simple and reliable.

It would certainly be really cool to get all the features you had in mind, but I would be a bit worried to miss some important appointment just because my wifi/server/HA has some hickups exactly when the alarm is supposed to fire. So even a more elaborate solution should have a local device fallback, e.g. fallback to playing a simple alarm sound if the sophisticated version misses to perform the fancy alarm.

Also a HA-based solution could support devices that don't have a local alarm implemented.

[Hedda]

Related discussions/requests:

• https://github.com/orgs/home-assistant/discussions/559
• https://community.home-assistant.io/t/alarm-clock-with-voice/853987/5

Update: Another related discussion under the ESPHome forum:

• https://github.com/orgs/esphome/discussions/3351