Iām trying to figure out how to switch inputs on my living room receiver when someone tells Alexa to play music on one of our echo devices.
Can anyone think of a way to use music playing on an echo speaker as a trigger for a rule?
So far all I can come up with is power monitoring with an outlet that the echo is plugged into.
That isn't going to work. They are too low power for that.
You are going to have to tell alexa another command first. Something like turning on a virtual switch is the only way you're going to be able to do that. Alexa isn't going to be able to do both commands from one voice command. It's just not smart enough for that yet.
@marktheknife - @Ryan780 is correct; you're command needs to flip a virtual switch AND play music. This can be done through an Alexa Routine. Routines can definitely act on Hubitat switches, and I'm 90% certain you can play music from a Routine.
But if I'm not mistaken, I'd need a separate routine for every possible artist/album/playlist etc. that I'd want to play, right?
If it matters, it's actually a Denos HEOS 3 speaker, so it's got more oomph to it than a standard echo. Despite that, I'm not getting power monitoring to change much, but it's possible I have an outlet that's not reporting correctly, plus it's late and I can't turn up the music to see whether that makes a difference too.
I'll try it again in the morning. Thanks for the responses.
You are correct.
That's not a practical solution. The separate virtual switch is the only viable way to do it.
It is when all you listen to is Tangerine Dream 
So if I really crank up the volume on the WiFi speaker, the Iris outlet does see the wattage jump up. But thatās only gonna work when no one else is home. For some reason, the wife gets annoyed when I crank this up to 11:
Flipping a virtual switch would work, my receiver already has a switch capability in hubitat since it works with the Denon driver. But that requires an extra step when telling Alexa to play music, also not conducive to WAF...
Does "Echo Speaks" expose any data about a specific Echo device that could be used to indicate whether or not it is currently playing music? I don't use Echo Speaks (tested it once or twice, but I prefer a lighter weight solution for simple TTS.)
Yeah I was thinking about that, since I really donāt know much about echo speaks (at the moment, I use a minimal amount of TTS, and have one Sonos speaker thatās easier to send TTS with HE anyway). Probably worth looking into.
I noticed in this thread the other day that echo speaks can be used to send album art of a currently playing track to a dashboard. That could be something to try to leverage.
Can you just have the input go back to the amazon by default to be ready for music?
Ok, total newbie here, but I'll throw my two cents in (though its worth maybe a half a cent).
Are there any listening devices that can be set as a trigger out there? Hear noise > trigger rule that sets receiver. Noise stops > trigger rule that sets receiver back to original state.
I have never even used a listening device before so I am not 100% sure their abilities. I was kind of thinking the way I use motion sensors for turning on lights and turning them off after not sensing motion for a given amount of time.
I guess the other concern is other noises setting of the rule, but pending what all you're using the receiver for that may or may not be a problem.
Forgive my lack of knowledge if not possible!
Are you talking about through a microphone? So, whenever there is noise in the room you want to set the receiver to a certain input? Wouldn't that always be the case since the receiver is a device that makes noise ultimately. I mean, it would pretty useless if I set the receiver to TV, turn on the TV and as soon as it comes on it switches to Alexa. Are you also not allowed to talk in your living room if you want something else as the input. I don't think you've thought this one through all the way.
While your sarcasm and overall condescending tone of your reply is noted, kindly refer the first sentence of my post. Merely trying to think of possible triggers that could make this happen without having to give multiple commands to Echo.
I don't know exactly where OP's receiver is located in the home related to the echo he would be speaking to, if there is TV set in the same room, the location of the speakers connected to the receiver, or what other functions the receiver serves.
Im also, as stated, not entirely familiar with listening devices on the market. I know they have them for situations like fire detectors and glass breakage. I am not sure how sensitive they are or if said sensitivity could be adjusted so a normal voice in the room wouldn't set it off but a fairly loud echo right next to it would? Maybe you could plug the listening device into a smart plug that turned on, thus turning on power to the listening device and allowing it to trigger, through the command for music, some unique conditional limitations, or some other consistent action that occurred before asking the echo for music.
Spit balling here man. Trying to generate some thoughts and be a part of this amazingly active community. Or is that reserved for individuals more adept than I?
The tone was meant to be comical as having a sound trigger for a device that's whole existence is 100% dedicated to making sound is utterly ridiculous.
If you can conditionally set when its to listen and when its not, I don't see why its so ridiculous. But hey, there are lots of different people with wild ideas out there, hopefully you have the time to get to all of them so you can personally approve them or slap em' down.
Good luck OP, sounds like a fun project.
How would the presence of sound indicate that you wanted to listen to music with Alexa? What if you were just talking in the room? What if you were watching TV? What if you just sneezed? I don't understand how you imagine a sound detector working in this situation. If you could explain your idea in more detail or give me an example of how you would set it up, maybe I could understand better. But from what you have said so far, that wouldn't work.
@DaDrumBum59 welcome to the community. Iām not sure thereās a solution that would rely on acoustic detection that discriminates music streaming from a HEOS or echo speaker from all other noises.
Letās move on, shall we?
Iām considering keeping the receiver on as long as thereās movement detected in my living room and/or kitchen. Then I just have to figure out how to keep the receiver input set to HEOS unless Iām watching tv with the fire tv cube attached.
OP did not request a trigger to start playing music on the echo. The request was for music playing on the echo to trigger something. Music plays, devices listens, which calls for the trigger.
Thanks knife. Do you have a smart TV by chance? I can turn my TV on and off with Alexa voice control, maybe there's a way to create a routine that would trigger the receiver switch. Certainly a smart plug for the TV would read a power surge more so than the power surge of an Echo, that power surge could be used as a trigger as well, as was discussed earlier. The powering off the TV could then be used as a trigger to switch back to HEOS.
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