I have a Smartthings water sensor that I would like to link to Alexa, so that when it is wet Alexa provides a notification. I thought I could do this by creating a virtual device that would trigger an Alexa routine. However, none of the virtual machines in Hubitat that I can control with the water sensor can trigger a routine in Alexa.
Two ways I can think of...
The best way is to install Echo Speaks, which allows you to send notifications directly to an Alexa device of your choice. It's really a pretty flexible system. Then you can use the notifications app to trigger Alexa (or something like twilio):
Another way would be to have a rule that turns a virtual switch on and off in response to the water sensor, and then use the virtual switch with an Alexa routine.
Correction - see @aaiyar's comment below. Would have to be a virtual contact or motion sensor.
Not sure that’ll work, because it used to be that routines were only triggered by a subset of sensors (motion, contact). Has that changed?
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Damn. You're right. But you could do the same thing with a virtual contact sensor.
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Yes I can confirm that this would work - I have some routines that are setup to speak based on virtual sensors.
There are a some drivers that combine switch and sensor - I tend to use those for that type of use case. Here is one I modified and use a lot:
All my Samsung leak sensors are in HSM. You can customize the text notification and the audio alerts to contain the leak sensor name depending on which one is triggered without having to write something for all of them individually. Then I just send the notifications through echo speaks.
These sensors never link correctly to Amazon. They always come over as a temperature device. I have put in enhancement requests for this but leak sensors are low runners for them.
This virtual switch doesn't work because you cannot trigger an Alexa routine with a switch. Thanks for the Echo Speaks suggestion. I think that should work. I am coming over from Smartthings where Echo Speaks has been removed. Consequently, I did not think of looking for it in Hubitat.
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I’m not sure that is correct.
I use virtual switches to trigger Alexa announcements. They work perfectly for me.
I originally tried Echo Speaks, but it wasn’t reliable for me.
EDIT: CORRECTION , I share virtual contact sensors, not switches, with Alexa.
Are they virtual switch/contact devices? That are controlled as switches by Hubitat, but seen as contact sensors by Alexa?
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A virtual device that is both a switch and a sensor will be seen by Alexa as both. So it can trigger an Alexa routine, and Alexa can also set its state. Very useful!
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@aaiyar Thanks for the correction.
I have edited my post to state I share virtual contact sensors with Alexa, not switches.
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