Alexa skill available in uk

[deanturner39]

Well not all systems go after all here. I'm having issues with Uk Skill it's not discovering all my devices and most of the time they show as offline. anyone else getting the same?

[Cobra]

I just installed a virtual thermostat to test this.
It does not appear in the alexa app so no, I don’t believe HE supports this yet.
Routines in alexa work with any device it knows about and seems to work fine for controlling HE devices.

Andy

[Jim_UK]

Hi Andy, you saying routines work with devices connected through HE? I don't see the HE devices in the routine section.

Jim

[Cobra]

Open alexa app and go to...
Routines
Click the + to add a new routine.
Then: ‘Add action’
Then: ‘Smart Home”
Then: ‘Control Device’

You should now be able to select you devices (including HE devices)

Works for me!

Andy

[Jim_UK]

Thanks Andy, you are right they are there - I never got that far as I want them on the trigger side. I do not really have anything that's useful to trigger off at the moment and this was how I was thinking I would get Alexa to talk to me. I keep looking at your 'Message Central' as know that would give me what I want, but think I would need a secondary device to run additional components - I am trying to avoid this.

[Cobra]

@Jim_UK
Jim, what are you actually trying to achieve?

I use alexa for controlling pretty much everything that is not 100% automated
Like at night I say “goodnight’” to alexa and the tv and almost of the lights go out (except the hall and landing which come on at 25%, for two minutes, so I can walk to bed without tripping over )

[Cobra]

Message Central is only any good if you have speakers and want the house to say something
Here are the things I use it for at the moment...

[Jim_UK]

Maybe I need to think differently. Currently I use alexa and attach devices to the groups. So I say 'Alexa downstairs off' and she turns everything off in that group. What I want is Alexa to say 'There is motion outside' when one of my virtual switches (connected to arlo via IFTT) in HE gets triggered. I do hear what you are saying though in theory I can do more sophisticated things by using keywords as actions - I will give it a try with a goodnight routine.

I think I probably need to either invest in Sonos or leave another machine running somewhere else to control these additional components. I just think it should be possible (amazon accepting) for me to do this with the devices I have already.

[Cobra]

Unfortunately, at the moment, it is not possible to 'speak' natively through Alexa
(Although I believe that someone is working on this using google home assistant)

This is because Amazon do not currently allow you to send messages etc directly to Alexa

There are cheaper ways to get your home to speak without Sonos.
Search the forums for 'Media Renderer'
This allows you to use very cheap speakers to do the same as Sonos (and Message Central supports Media Renderer as an output)

EDIT: There is also VLCThing which uses VLC on a PC

Andy

[cwwilson08]

So there is no official way to trigger Alexa to speak unsolicited. There is an unofficial way. I've been using it for several months without issue. Currently I have MC speaking all my announcements over my echo's.

Alexa - -Unsolicited TTS

So a little googling brought me across this github repository. After a small amount of fuss I can confirm that I can trigger TTS directly on my alexa device with my pi. Seems this is what everyone is looking for. Device driver for Alexa TTS via Telnet Device driver for sending tts text via http to the tts script. /** * Alexa HTTP speach device * * * * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except * in compliance with the Lice…

[Jim_UK]

Thanks Andy I will check it out media renderer and maybe invest in a cheap speaker (just resent having to put another speaker in the room - wife already thinks I am bonkers about speakers).

Still think if I had the HE devices exposed on the actions side this would all be a lot easier as then I could use virtual switches to make Alexa say what I wanted. Is this ever likely to happen?

cwwilson08 - thanks been tracking that thread, but think I would need a raspberry pi running some additional software for that. I decided a long time back that that was bridge too far for me - it all has to run on the HE box.

[Jim_UK]

I think I read somewhere that someone had used a dimmer as a proxy for passing messages to Alexa, so a bulb connected directly to the alexa could be set at different levels of light to pass instructions. So 10% could be 'motion outside', 20% could be 'heating turned on' etc. I suppose if both my Alexa and HE could see this bulb that could work, but seems a little crazy - the virtual switches would be much cleaner.

[keithcroshaw]

Yea like @Jim_UK I was hoping maybe a new skill version enabled virtual switches to show up in the triggers section of the Routines section.

Someone on reddit suggested that might be reserved for officially supported motion sensors, doorbells, and locks.

[keithcroshaw]

Let me know if you find that dimmer trick.
Sounds like a better way to go about it than running a Raspberry Pi and doing the unsolicited TTS dance.

I found this post by @JDRoberts over on the ST community.
Will investigate.

FAQ: Can I trigger an Echo Action without Speaking to It?

[keithcroshaw]

UPDATE! It's a success!

I create a Simulated Motion Sensor in the SmartThings IDE. (No Hub).

Then I linked Alexa back to ST.

Then I created a Routine triggered by the Simulated Motion Sensor.

I toggled it true in the ST app and BOOM she said what I typed into the Alexa Says section of the Routine! This is my TTS answer as much as I need!

Now I've got to figure out how to link ST... Maybe I have to put the hub back online after all...

[ogiewon]

@keithcroshaw

Now I've got to figure out how to link ST... Maybe I have to put the hub back online after all...

Keith,

Here is the most popular solution for creating virtual devices in ST that are reflections of Hubitat devices. This will get you what you want in the short term, until Hubitat's Alexa Skill is enhanced to support the new Alexa capabilties, or native Alexa TTS come out (or both, hopefully!)

[RELEASE] Other Hub SmartThings Integration 2.0

Other Hub SmartThings Integration 2.0.1 (Hubitat Virtual Devices, Web Dashboard, & Notifications) [image] Device Integration Features: Creates Virtual Devices in SmartThings for all the devices you've selected. The attributes and last event times of all the devices gets updated on a configurable schedule. You can choose which attributes get sent to SmartThings in real-time. SmartThings Web Dashboard and Notification Features: View Hubitat Devices using the SmartThings mobile…

[keithcroshaw]

Yea I was going to make a post in that TTS chain once I got it working for people like myself who don't want anything running on their Pi to support Alexa TTS. I'm going through the process of doing exactly what you recommended but have two questions before I get too much further.

1. Do I need the ST hub online? I know this will go away whenever one of those two things gets working you mentioned above but with no way to turn off the z-wave I don't like to have it on.
Edit2: looks like you need the ST hub on!

2. Can Rule Machine turn on a virtual device and have that action mirrored to ST with the Other Hub integration?
   Edit: This might be where I get stuck for a little while. Rule Machine can't write to the Virtual Motion Sensor. I'll have to see if I can find one that has a switch that gets mirrored to the motion state. Or make one.

Thanks!

[ogiewon]

@keithcroshaw

Do I need the ST hub online? I know this will go away whenever one of those two things gets working you mentioned above but with no way to turn off the z-wave I don't like to have it on.

I think so. Most of these integrations are hub to hub, over the LAN.
As for the Z-Wave radio, I have 2 Hubitat Hubs and my old ST v2 Hub running concurrently with no ill-effects noticed to Z-wave or Zigbee.

@keithcroshaw

Can Rule Machine turn on a virtual device and have that action mirrored to ST with the Other Hub integration?
Edit: This might be where I get stuck for a little while. Rule Machine can't write to the Virtual Motion Sensor. I'll have to see if I can find one that has a switch that gets mirrored to the motion state. Or make one.

Yep, that's exactly what I would do as well. I have created a virtual presence sensor with the added Switch capability to allow IFTTT to turn it on and off, which then maps into the Presence capability as Present and Not Present. It's just a few lines of added code.

[cwwilson08]

metadata {
	definition (name: "Virtual motion with Switch", namespace: "cw", author: "cwwilson08") {
		capability "Sensor"
		capability "Motion Sensor"
        capability "Switch"
	}   
}

def on() {
    sendEvent(name: "motion", value: "active")
    sendEvent(name: "switch", value: "on")
    runIn(12, off)
}

def off() {
    sendEvent(name: "motion", value: "inactive")
    sendEvent(name: "switch", value: "off")
}

def installed() {
}