Group of Smart Plugs shows as Bulbs

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1

I never know where to report bugs I find. I'm posting this here in case someone has the lightbulb that says 'heres what he doesn't know/what he's doing wrong'.

I discovered inadvertently that what I believe is a flaw that exists in the Group setup. When I group 2 plugs, with simple on/off the type is set to become 'Group Bulb Dimmer (group 2.1) in the Device list under 'Type'.
This is a problem with Alexa. Alexa uses this device type to categorize the device being 'discovered'. Pre-built automations with Alexa - such as 'Alexa, Goodnight' automatically turn off all Bulb/dimmer devices.
I tried modifying the Type of the group to other choices, and was unsuccessful. Only Group Bulb Dimmer works. While I agree the norm of groups is a Bulb set, there needs to be a type for 'Group Plug' (and logically it follows there should be a 'Group Switch') so that external sources integrate better.
As a workaround to this, I'm not sharing these broken groups with Alexa, but handling the grouping manually at the Alexa side which is a royal PITA.
Of course, my gut tells me I've just missed something obvious and I'm about to take a beat down :slight_smile:
Shu

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Interestingly, in Alexa there is a way to convert a plug into a light. However, as fas as I can see, there is no way to convert a light device to a plug. Quite unfortunate!

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You didn't miss anything obvious. Group devices in Hubitat get created as a device with maximum capabilities regardless of the individual device capabilities. There are workarounds you could use, like a virtual switch for the "group" and a rule or few that control the switches based on the virtual switch and vice versa, or I think there's a community app that can "group" some types of devices beyond what the Groups app supports. The disadvantage with either of these approaches--and the Alexa-only approach too--is that you won't be able to utilize Zigbee group messaging if you have Zigbee plugs. Either way should theoretically work, but the former usually works better for me if there are lots of devices.

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I did a search for the community app to replace/enhance the groups and didn't find it easily - do you recall any names???!