Text to speech

[Vettester]

You can also do this outside of HE with Alexa routines.

[ogiewon]

@Vettester

You can also do this outside of HE with Alexa routines

This is an excellent idea as well! In order to do this, you create an Alexa Routine for each TTS phrase you want uttered. On Hubitat, you create a Virtual Contact Sensor that corresponds to each Alexa Routine. You then expose these Virtual Contact Sensors to Alexa via Hubitat's Amazon Echo Skill. This allows these 'sensors' to be used as the triggers for each Alexa Routine. Finally, use an App like Rule Machine to set the virtual contact sensors to 'open' (then 'closed' to reset the device for next time) to cause the Alexa Routine to be triggered and "Speak" your phrase.

[Emict326]

So using the echo app i can only make 1 dot speak at a time and only once. I can go the route of an alarm but it does not speak and go off at what ever volume it was at before the alarm went off. I would like to have something tell them what they need to do, i.e. log into class, reading time, lunch time. Have the announcement repeat every few min until they acknowledge it with a push button or switch flip.

[ogiewon]

@Emict326

I would like to have something tell them what they need to do, i.e. log into class, reading time, lunch time. Have the announcement repeat every few min until they acknowledge it with a push button or switch flip.

Do the children each have a SmartPhone? If so, you could accomplish much of what you're after by using Pushover Notifications. It won't be TTS, but you can use the [E] emergency prefix to send recurring notifications to their phones until they acknowledge them. You can even configure the phones to have these notifications break through silent modes on the phones to force an audible notification. This may be the easiest solution to what your trying to achieve.

Other options that come to mind, but I am sure you've already ruled out...

1. babysitter / nanny
2. call them throughout their day to ensure they are on schedule
3. grandparents
4. work from home
5. ???

[aaiyar]

@Emict326

Have the announcement repeat every few min until they acknowledge it with a push button or switch flip.

You can do this if you install @tonesto7's Echo Speaks or @ogiewon's Alexa TTS manager.

[HAL9000]

@Emict326

So using the echo app i can only make 1 dot speak at a time

This wasn’t the main part of your comment, but just letting you know that you can use Messaging/Announcement instead of Say, and there configure one of more Alexa devices.

[aaiyar]

@Emict326

1 dot speak at a time and only once

In the spirit of @HAL9000's post, I want to also point out that using the Alexa app and RM, it is possible to make a Dot repeat an announcement until one or more specified switches/buttons are pushed.

[Emict326]

Thanks i am going to try the smart phone route. As for the others. I am a flight medic so calling them is not a real option, no grandparents close, cant really be a flight medic from home. But there school is requiring them to log into online classes at certain times a day.

[Emict326]

Thanks will look into this

[Emict326]

I did add the echo speak and my kids advised that it worked great today. Thanks for all of the help

[james_m_potter]

I had TTS working just fine to report alarm events that were triggered by Konnected zones over sonos speakers. A few weeks ago, the TTS just stopped working. I'm still getting the Hubitat notifications for the alarms but noting over sonos. Any ideas?

[aaiyar]

Do your Sonos speakers have fixed IP addresses? Can you control them from the device page for each speaker?

[james_m_potter]

They don't but I guess I'll be locking them down too. Thanks!

[aaiyar]

I would recommend giving anything that is accessed by your Hubitat hub over the LAN a fixed IP address. On my network this includes: both HE C-5 hubs, Lutron Caseta Smartbridge Pro, Sonos speakers, Harmony hub, and the computer I use for Node-Red.

[mark.cockcroft]

@ogiewon

[E] emergency prefix

How do you use this ive never seen anyone else mention it

[ogiewon]

@mark.cockcroft

How do you use this

See details of the prefix options here. NOTE: Please use the built-in Hubitat Pushover driver, not my old one.

@ogiewon

Documentation of available prefix options thanks to @stephack :

1. You can now set the default priority of your Pushover Notification in the preferences of the driver. With the Pushover app you can set up different notification sounds and visuals based on the priority of the message. You can create a separate virtual device for each priority level and route notifications accordingly...
   OR
2. If you are like me and don't want to dig through a stack of virtual devices...you can now also add a prefix to the message you send that would override the default priority to one of your choosing.

Prefixes
[L] - Low
[N] - Normal
[H] - High

E.g.. Message "[H]This is a test" will send "This is a test" with High Priority to your mobile app.

[E] prefix is now used for emergency notifications and requires the following parameters
retry - how often to resend notification until it is acknowledged (in seconds with a minimum of 30 seconds)
expire - timeout for resending notifications if they are never achknowledged (in seconds with a maximum of 10800)

[mark.cockcroft]

Thanks thought it was for HE phone app notifications. I haven't tried pushover

[greg.veres]

I know this thread is a bit old, but I was looking for TTS today for alerting the house that there is a water leak. The only audio cable smart device I have in the house is an Ecobee smart thermostat that has Alexa integration. I was able to use @ogiewon's Alexa TTS manager to send it a message.

It works great.

Once I get homebridge setup and get an integration with Nest Protect, I am going to see if there is a way to get them to announce a message since there is one on every floor of the house.

[djh_wolf]

I use kiosk browser controller, android tv boxes, fully kiosk browser and webcore. Works ace.