I couldve swore I had my garage opener showing in Alexa via the Alexa skill but was I wrong or did I lose it somehow?
I’ve never seen mine appear. I have a keypad and a rule to auto-close the door if nobody is in the garage, though, so I guess this slipped my mind.
If anyone else has a garage door in Alexa from HE, I’d love to learn more.
Maybe I had it via harmony. Thanks. Wish I could though.
I was able to open and close my Go-Control Garage Doors via Alexa when they were connected to mt ST hub. Now that they are connected to HE hub using the Generic Z-Wave Garage Door Opening Alexa does not see them.
I believe this is because HE only exposes lights, switches, and sensors to Alexa. Everything else will appear as one of these three, or not at all. In the case of the garage door opener, it appears as though it reports as a sensor so we cannot open/close it from Alexa.
It appears you are correct. I use an Alexa routine to send an announcement when either garage door opens but no ability to open or close from Alexa. I wonder if we can use a virtual switch to control the garage door then add that to Alexa.
Yes. You sure can.
Make two Alexa routines:
When you say “open the garage door”
Or “close the garage door”
Turn on/off your virtual switch
When the switch changes to on, or off, open/close the garage door.
Edit: to make this work with a rule you may need to make two virtual momentary switches. One for open, one for close. Alexa would just trigger those when it needs to open or close the door. There are obvious security reasons to not do this. But it can be done.
Is there such a thing as a Virtual Momentary Switch in HE?
A virtual button would be great but Alexa doesn't see those.
A virtual switch would work but would need a second rule to update the virtual switch so the switch state always matches the garage door state ON = OPEN, OFF -= CLOSED.
Other than the obvious concerns about having my door locks and garage doors automated, what additional security risk am I exposing by adding voice control to the garage doors.
Thanks!
Yes. It’s a regular virtual switch with the momentary “shut off after ...” setting enabled 
1 Like
Oh, Now I get. So it kind of works like a single button.
Exactly.
As I see it, the security risk is that your garage can be opened by yelling “Alexa, open the garage door”. When a garage door is exposed to Alexa as a door lock, you have to grant Alexa rights to unlock, but no such safety mechanism exists for turn on or turn off. I suspect Alexa is open/close aware, and can provide those same protections if the garage door were exposed as doors — but this is really just hopeful postulation.
The other risk is that if Alexa is hacked, there is no real protection to keep a remote attack from opening the garage door, intentionally or accidentally.
I will be going the Virtual momentary switch route for close, so I can close the door with Alexa but not open it.
I chose obscurity as my security for my Garage Door Opener... my Virtual device that Alexa has access to uses a different phrase..
"Alexa, Open The Pod Bay Doors."
"The Pod Bay Doors" is the name of the virtual.
[ that's not my current phrase any more because no one in this house got the joke! ]
5 Likes
Oh, that's a great and fun idea. Think I'll do that.
Quick question though...
What virtual device are you using that allows you to say "Open"?
I'm using a Virtual Switch and configured Alexa Routine that turns the switch on (which opens the garage door) when it hears, "Alexa, open the garage door".
Just a guess - but maybe a virtual shade or a virtual valve?
I was thinking about using a virtual shade but wasn't sure if those were supported by HE Alexa Skill.
Since you cannot open/close any HE device, via Alexa, I would recommend an Alexa routine that turns on a virtual switch that has “Enable auto off” set to 500ms. Then a rule manager rule to perform the action when the switch turns on. In fact, I am doing it.m now to close my garage door.
1 Like
In the end I went with a device driver that has switch capability (On = Open/Off = Close) which was recognized by Alexa and eliminated the need for any virtual devices or rules.
Now have 8 Alexa Routines (4 for each garage door):
- Tell Alexa to Raise the Garage Door
- Alexa to Announce when the Garage Door is Open
- Tell Alexa to Lower the Garage Door
- Alexa to Announce when the Garage Door is Closed
Does anyone now if Alexa has the ability to use device name or state variables in announcements?
