Virtual Garage Door Controller and Echo

bill · August 25, 2019, 6:04pm

Hi-

I've recently added a virtual garage door controller in hubitat and have added it to the echo skill. The device works properly when I click the open or closed button from hubitat, but when I tell alexa, "alexa, open the garage door" she replies, "garage door doesn't support that".

This seems like fairly basic functionality. Am I doing something wrong? Hmm.. I also have a water valve that's (not)working the same way. If I ask alexa to open or close it she says "doesn't support that".

jeubanks · August 25, 2019, 6:58pm

Your "virtual" garage door opener is a just a "switch" that supports On/Off. This is why Alexa says it doesn't support that.

Two solutions:

Get a real garage door opener that supports the barrier class Z-Wave property that is a real device that Alexa knows has open/close properties
Use an Alexa Routine that is configured when you say "Alexa, Open the garage door" it then will "turn on" a switch (your virtual switch). You will then need another routine to do the reverse.

The same applies for the water valve as they are reported to Alexa as a "switch" which supports On/Off.

bill · August 25, 2019, 7:07pm

It seems like the virtual garage door device doesn't support on/off either. It offers me open/close in the hubitat app but in alexa it doesn't have any controls. It seems like it could behave like a switch. I don't quite see the point of this device type otherwise.

aaiyar · August 25, 2019, 7:20pm

Alexa supports garage doors directly paired to Hubitat? Didn't know that.

Edit - ~~doesn't support my MyQ garage door that is integrated with Alexa. Doesn't support the garage door device that I made using a Mimolite either. What am I doing wrong?~~ Took the Alexa app a minute longer to update ....

bill · August 25, 2019, 7:40pm

Yeah I just ended up bailing on the virtual garage door type and using a virtual switch instead.

The problem I'm trying to solve is that I'm using a relay wired into my garage door opener setup as a momentary switch. The opener is fairly dumb and only sees a button push. I also have a contact sensor on the door itself, but there was no single device that kept track of state in hubitat. That's what I ended up using my new virtual switch for, plus a few rule machine rules to make sure door contact state matches switch state so I can trigger it either virtually or with the garage door buttons.

EDIT: OK actually I have some use for the virtual garage door controller after all. It can't actually control anything, but it does allow you to get a response from asking, "alexa, is the garage door closed?"

The whole setup is rather complicated but is working

kewashi · August 26, 2019, 2:15am

A gajillion years ago I wrote a SmartApp for SmartThings (modified from ST's version) to link a contact sensor with a switch (or momentary button) and to a Relay to cobble together a garage door. To use the App you tie it to a virtual door which opens and closes. The only down side is Alexa commands only work to turn on and turn off the switch, not open and close the door. I never migrated this to Hubitat but it would be trivial to do so if you are interested, here is the link to it:

github.com

kewashi/SmartThingsPublic/blob/master/smartapps/kewashi/status-my-garage-door.src/status-my-garage-door.groovy

/**
 *     Smarter garage door button with integrated sensor
 *     modified from Lights Off, When Closed
 *     implements a virtual switch that ties momentary to sensor
 *     based on the opening or closing of the contact sensor
 *     the door status is kept up to date and does the right thing
 *     so that when you say close it closes and open it opens
 *     if the door is already closed, and you pick close nothing happens
 *     likewise if it is already opened and you pick open nothing happens
 *     the only thing that doesn't work is to stop the garage in mid stream
 * 
 * Modified by Ken Washington to work with any switch and to ensure it goes off
 *
 *  Author: SmartThings
 *
 *  Date: 2013-05-01
 */

definition(
    name: "Status My Garage Door",

This file has been truncated. show original

bill · August 26, 2019, 5:26am

Thanks for the app! I may give this a shot eventually, but I think I have the functionality I want using virtual devices and 4 RE rules. 2 for open/close on activation of my "virtual switch" if the door sensor state doesn't match the switch state, and 2 to for open/close from the legacy buttons and keypads, which keep the virtual switch in sync with the door sensor state.

I ended up ditching the virtual garage door DH again and just making an alexa alias named "garage door" to the 3 axis sensor. I can then query, "alex is garage door closed?" to get the state of the door directly, rather than having to update the dumb virtual device with my RE rules.

system · September 22, 2022, 6:47pm

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