Does anyone know of a way to trigger a routine in Alexa from a virtual switch or device in Hubitat ?
I found these links on the Amazon site:
https://developer.amazon.com/docs/smarthome/build-smart-home-skills-for-sensors.html
and
https://developer.amazon.com/docs/smarthome/steps-to-build-a-smart-home-skill.html
but did not proceed yet. Hopefully there is an easier way....
UPDATE: The Hubitat Skill for Alexa now supports contact sensors, motion sensors, and locks as triggers for Alexa Routines. It is very easy to use a Hubitat Virtual Contact sensor as a trigger for any Alexa Routine you can dream up, including ones that perform Text to Speech.
Currently, there is no simple way to do this. Numerous community members have asked the Hubitat team to add this ability to the Hubitat Alexa Skill (via contact and motion sensors.) The last response we received was that this was not high on their priority list.
So with all my investment in all this automation, I can't even have Alexa do anything but sit there if an event happens that I want to hear? This sucks. I only want to have it "talk' as a status of some of the actions that are not visible in the dashboard...
Where do we vote on enhancements?
If you want to fire off routines, I think you should be able to make a virtual switch in HE and a routine in Alexa to launch when that switch is triggered.
If you want it to say things based on events happening you have two options to make it speak. Echo speaks requires a lot more work to setup but has a lot more features. Alexa TTS is basically just used to make it talk.
And one more option...
And on this... You don't.
Hubitat made it quite clear that they already have a development plan, and aren't especially interested in a feature voting system/arrangement.
How do we vote for a voting system? Sorry.
What if you have a Wifi device connected in Alexa and you would like to communicate with it from Hubitat ? How would you integrate the devices in Alexa into the Hubitat ?
Sadly HE is no longer community driven much anymore.... It quickly turned into SmartThings and do what they want you to have not the other way around.
However this wouldn't stop anyone from creating a better version of the Alexa App that does work as intended for routines.
Damn. I was hoping to have the ability for a routine to kick off based off a virtual switch being on or off.
I'm thinking it's a matter of time before they add that. But I'm also sure there are other higher priorities on their list. Only a few systems actually have this today and others are adding it.
Another option is to trigger SmartThings since it is supported to trigger Alexa routines. You can trigger SmartThings from Hubitat one of two ways that I'm aware of.
Both work and take about the same amount of time, which is roughly 3 seconds to run the routine. This is how I do TTS on my Echos, but I use Google Assistant Relay. It's a really nice tool to have, since you can also trigger anything that Google Assistant supports, but HE doesn't.
No SmartThings hub required. Mine is long gone. You don't even need to have ever owned one. ST cloud accounts are free and you can trigger drivers you need in their cloud. For a service that's always going offline, this part is pretty solid. Not that it doesn't disappear sometimes. It does, but it's up a lot more that my hub ever was.
I want Alexa to announce whom is home when Lock pin code is used. I have installed Echo Speaks but it's too slow DIY Smarthome guy is saying to make a virtual lock for each pin then it will work and work fast. But I don't know what tools to use? Anyone?
I solved it. First creat a Virtual Look.
Then in Hubitat serc for echo Skill
In alexa app Discover divices
Then use the virtual lock as triger for a rutine
You could also use echo speaks and directly control it.
Most of us find it easy to use a Virtual Motion Sensor or a Virtual Contact Sensor as a trigger for an Alexa Routine.
Good to know that a Virtual Lock works as well.
this is the only thing that I've found so far, I am looking to do the same thing. I am using a Zooz power cable for a sump pump that monitors power output and input for my washing machine so that Alexa will notify me that the wash is done. So I have installed webCore through HE and now just going through the motions I will post the link that I found. If you come to a solution please share
use a virtual contact in Hubitat, Amazon echo can trigger routines off of contact sensors.
Just create a Virtual Contact Sensor in Hubitat, expose it to Alexa, and then use it as a trigger for an Alexa Routine that speaks any text you define in the Alexa Routine. Have Rule Machine set the status of the contact sensor to 'open' for a few seconds, and then back to 'closed' when a laundry cycle is done.
No need for webCoRE or IFTTT.
so I wasn't able to create a virtual contact sensor, however I was able to hunt down a virtual motion sensor that identifies to Alexa and works as an on/off switch and it works seamlessly, thanks for the help guys!!
Download the Hubitat app
