Can Alexa Routine Trigger Motion Detector?

dman2306 · May 7, 2019, 1:41am

I already have a Device for my Ring Spotlights that has on() and off() methods to turn the lights on/off (I'm calling the Ring API directly). At the same time, I'd like to use an Alexa Routine to trigger this device when motion is detected. So I setup a device with two capabilities, switch (used for on/off) and motion sensor (for active/inactive). The problem is it seems like Alexa can only trigger the switch, not motion. Is there any way to get Alexa to trigger the motion sensor? I'd really like to have both capabilities in 1 device but this is seeming impossible. Is there a way to do it?

ogiewon · May 7, 2019, 2:46am

Here is my Driver that I use for a virtual device in Hubitat for my Ring Doorbell. I use an Alexa Routine, triggered by Ring, to turn on this combined Switch/Motion device in Hubitat. It automatically turns itself back off to be ready for the next Ring motion event. It has worked flawlessly for many months.

github.com

ogiewon/Hubitat/blob/master/Drivers/virtual-motion-switch.src/virtual-motion-switch.groovy

/**
 *  Virtual Motion with Switch
 *
 *  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ogiewon/Hubitat/master/Drivers/virtual-motion-switch.src/virtual-motion-switch.groovy
 *
 *  Copyright 2018 Daniel Ogorchock
 *
 *  Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except
 *  in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at:
 *
 *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 *
 *  Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed
 *  on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License
 *  for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.
 *
 *  Change History:
 *
 *    Date        Who            What
 *    ----        ---            ----

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dman2306 · May 7, 2019, 2:50am

Thanks but this won't do what I asked. As I said I already have on/off set to turn on the light. I don't want motion to turn on the light, I just want it to trigger motion. Hence it can't call on and off. I need it to trigger something other than a switch capability.

Ryan780 · May 7, 2019, 3:00am

That is what this driver does. it has both the switch and motion capabilities. So, when it is switched on, motion is active and when it is switched off motion goes inactive. This is exactly what you want. This won't turn on a light.

dman2306 · May 7, 2019, 3:09am

That's NOT what I want. I want on/off to trigger a light and something else to fire for motion. I do not want to lose the capability to turn the light on/off just so I can detect motion. I want to do both with separate commands.

Ryan780 · May 7, 2019, 3:13am

You're not listening. This is just a motion sensor with the extra capability. It is a virtual device and CANNOT turn anything on or off. But don't take our word for it. Why don't you just try it instead of assuming that everyone else is wrong?

You cannot issue custom command for Alexa. The only thing Alexa can do is turn on or off switches. So, this gets around that by adding the switch capability at the same time it shows up in HE as a motion sensor.

dman2306 · May 7, 2019, 3:30am

I apologize but you are not listening. I already have my own driver I wrote which does turn on the light in response to on/off commands. I want to keep this functionality. If I use your driver I lose this functionality. I'm really not sure why this is tricky to understand - I want to be able to control both the lights (via direct API call as I already have working) and detect motion via a virtual motion detector linked to Alexa. Since this driver does not control the light via a separate command it does not meet my needs.

Based on what you said here what I want is not possible. I will need two devices, one for the light and one for motion. That's less than ideal but I guess that's the result of HE not having an actual Ring integration...

Ryan780 · May 7, 2019, 6:33am

Then you have to write your own custom driver to do that because there isn't one out there that does that. Keep that attitude and no one's ever going to help you with anything.

ogiewon · May 7, 2019, 12:18pm

@dman2306 - my suggestion is that simply look at my driver that I posted. It is actually very trivial and will show you how to easily modify your existing driver to add the Motion Capability and have the motion attribute updated correctly. You will still need a way to set the motion attribute to inactive, unless you want another Alexa Routine to both turn off your light and set the motion to inactive at the same time.

Alternatively, you could use my driver as is. Then, use a normal motion lighting type of automation to activate your custom Switch device.

So, the flow would be - Ring to Alexa Routine to Hubitat virtual device (mine) to Rule Machine (using motion as the event) to your custom Switch device.

This has the advantage of creating a Ring Motion device in Hubitat that you can use for anything you want. It keeps the motion logic and your custom switch logic separate, allowing for the most flexibility.

Does that make sense? Hope this helps.