In ST I was using a sensor to ask the G-assistant if the garage door was open. The way I approach after seeing Mike's comment was:
Create a Virtual Switch
Create an IFTTT applet that turns the Switch on when a G-assistant phrase is said
Create a Triggered rule triggered by the Virtual Switch going to the On status.
Test the garage door sensor
Send one Pushover notification if it is open
Send a different Pushover notification if it is closed
Turn the Virtual Switch back Off so it is ready for the next time the phrase is said to G-assistant.
Thoughts? Any better way to do this?
I use Pushover but I could have used SMS
What I would like to figure out is how to broadcast to a voice to my phone to tell me if it is garage door is open or close. Not sure if that can be done.
I'm very confused by your question. Your question has nothing to do with HE reporting back sensors to google home. There's a much easier solution to your problem. Create a virtual switch and tie it to your garage door through a rule so when its open it's on and when it's closed it's off. That way, you can ask google home "Is the Garage Door on?" And it will know whether the switch is on or not.
Okay...yeah, definitely a lot easier than you were trying to make it. Google does know the status of switches, so just use that. I know it can be clunky to know to ask if it is on.
As an alternative, if you want to get really crazy...you can use IFTTT. IFTTT has a channel that allows you to use a custom phrase to trigger an IFTTT applet. So, the first thing you would do is go in and create a triggered rule that has a cloud end-point as the trigger and then the condition of garage door open. In the If True part you'd have google home speaking "The garage door is open" and in the If False part speaking "The garage door is closed." You would then take that cloud end-point to IFTTT and create an applet with the custom GA phrase "Is the garage door open" and the then part you'd use the cloud endpoint. Then, when you ask google home "is the garage door open" you would get your answer. It would take a second or two to answer but it would work.
You'd have to set up one of the google home integrations either the native Beta one or Google Assistant Relay or Cast-WebAPI.
You can do that. I have my ecobee thermostat directly connected to GH and i can ask it what's the temp inside and it answers me just fine. Probably the only advantage to a wifi thermostat over a z-wave one.
It should be noted how long it took Google to approve the HE integration the first time around. Google doesn't do anything fast. I'm sure the HE team isn't looking forward to going through all that again.
Not all brands have Google Home integration specially generic Zwave or Zigbee. Also the more integrations you have in parallel the more duplicates you risk having. This is the reason why I didn't turn on Philips hue integration on GH and use HE integration.
The way I see it work for its one of this scenarios:
Gateways/Sensors ---> Central Home Automation HUB ---> Google
Or
Gateways/Sensors with GH support --> Google.
I believe the key advantage of the first is the support/Integration of devices that don't have a native GH integration.
On the second point l, yes Google is really slow approving things, There is a current request to Google for an integration for a major chain of hotels in Europe that would allow with continued conversations to reserve and book a room and almost 2 years in since the initial request and has not yet been approved, some theories say if it was an US company would be done already... But no it's just Google being Google.
You just have to choose which devices you integrate with GH, which because of the number of virtual devices I have, I have to do that anyway. I just don't integrate my ecobee from HE, just direct to GH.
No ecobee for me so no direct integration.
All my temperature sensors, different brands like Xiaomi, Netatmo,etc don't have integration with Google home.
@Ryan780 Which is the native Beta driver for Google Assistant you talked about? Would you happen to have a link to a post. I've been looking but I'm not sure which one I should be looking at.
Another thing that would be nice to have is the ability to set the status of a Virtual Sensor in the RM. That way for your solution @Ryan780 I could use a Virtual Sensor instead of a Virtual Switch. So when I ask G-assistant, instead of asking "Is the Garage Door On", I would ask "Is the Garage Door Open". That would be more natural.
Of course, with my limited knowledge I might have missed how to change the status of a V-Sensor in the RM.
If I remember correctly I might be able to use a routine in G-Home to be able to ask a different question to do the same. I have to check that out.
You can. You just have to create the custom command for the virtual sensor. But you wouldn't be able to use that with the first GH solution because it wouldn't report back to GH. Only switches do.
And with the second, you don't need a virtual sensor, you can use your real one.
