Up until recently we were a Google household, but after failing to get a decent integration between my Roborock vacuum, Google and Hubitat, I succumbed and bought an Echo Dot. Within minutes I had a physical button launching the vacuum to go and clean a specific room. Yay!
Now I am thinking, what have I missed by not having an Alexa based device. So what cool things can I do with an Alexa/Hubitat setup?
We're an Alexa household and I have no experience with Google but Echo Speaks is your friend. It does require an rPi or something similar to keep authentication tokens up to date but it's pretty cool.
A couple of things I've done with Echo Speaks:
When one of my cameras detects a person in the yard, Alexa alerts us.
When the litter box needs emptying, Alexa announces it every 2 hours until it gets addressed.
When one of my water leak sensors detects a leak, Alexa lets us know
If we're not home and the front door motion sensor detects something, our Alexa starts barking like a dog
Google and alexa have similar capabilities. I think that Alexa does rules and switch monitoring better for bringing alexa only integrations to hubitat via virtual devices. Though I think at this point Homepod's are better overall. Just waiting for TTS which hopefully will be soon.
I have my todo list as a lot of switches and use alexa to prompt me on what tasks need doing when i go into a room, or at a certain time.
Echo speaks is fine, but I would keep all of your Google devices just for TTS using the Chromecast Integration. Super simple. Also great for playing chimes, sirens, etc. using small mp3 or wav files stored right on the HE. Larger files need to be hosted on a separate network share.
As others have mentioned, using HE to trigger alexa routines (and using alexa voice commands to run HE automation) is pretty straightforward using virtual switches.
Most of our house is hands-off automation, so Alexa gets limited applications:
Our singular device is a Fire tablet in the kitchen. For announcements, I am more inclined to use TTS over Sonos (really Ikea Symphonisk) sprinkled around the house.
Not very familiar with Google, but I use Alexa mostly to run routines: Good Morning, Goodnight, Naptime, Movietime, etc. Also, via a remote inductive sensor, she tells me when "There is a vehicle in the driveway" (200 foot driveway out in the "sticks") and when "The shop door is still open after sunset"
(Edit....I should mention that my routines are setup in Hubitat and controlled by virtual switches. Commands to Alexa then trip the virtual switch in Hubitat. You CAN set up routines directly in Alexa, however.)
We have been an Alexa house for many years. I started with a Vera and moved to the Hubitat about 2 years ago. All of my devices are set up in Alexa. At the age of 2 my grandson could annunciate Alexa and was turning off and on all of the lights....
In addition to turning off and on lights using Alexa we do the following:
Routine that monitors the Washer and Dryer (energy usage) and announces on our Echos when the "Washer is done cleaning the clothes" or "Dryer is done drying the clothes". Our washer and dryer are in the basement so we cannot hear the chimes when completed.
Use Alexa to announce "motion detected" when one of our cameras detects motion which is integrated in Hubitat with Blue Iris. In addition, can turn off these announcements using Alexa (changes profile in Blue Iris) when we are working outside.
Have several routines for different setups as well. My wife has a routine for the evening so when she tells Alexa to turn on 'her' time, it sets the living room and kitchen lights and turns on the TV/Dish/Sound via Harmony.
In the evening we turn on 'sleep' which turns off all the lights and locks all of the doors.
Again these routines are just using the Hubitat virtual and real devices that are in Alexa for control.
Tell us it’s not so! Surely you disable that during the night.
I have the vanity under counter lights change color depending on the poop level in the Litter Robot drawer, and they flash when it needs emptying. My wife made me disable that during the night. I can’t imagine Alexa demanding that the litter drawer be cleaned every two hours while we are sleeping.
I completely agree.
The exact verbiage is "Kitty pooper needs attention." It is quite effective though we do get some strange looks when the announcement happens to coincide with house guests. But yes it only runs during the day and it can be silenced if needed.
It's not nearly as exciting as when you get woken up by Alexa at midnight telling you a person has been detected in the side yard, only to discover you forgot to block the window out of the alert zone and the blinds raised automatically when the TV was turned off. Meanwhile the yard is lit up like a Christmas tree and your heart is about to burst through your chest.
I use Alexa mostly as a front end to HE. The one that I use the most surprised me with how useful it is: "Alexa, mute." This simply toggles the mute on the stereo providing whole home audio. It is awesome when I get a call or have a Teams meeting. I can mute the radio while reaching for the phone. I've also added a timeout so that if it is on mute for too long it will turn off the receiver.
Some others...
Alexa increase/decrease - this raises or lowers the receiver volume a set amount. I made this mostly for fun but I use it way more than I would have thought. If I'm in the kitchen I can just say "Alexa increase" if I decide I want a little more sound. No need to stop and wash my hands.
Alexa switch to radio/movie - sets the input and adjusts the volume. It also turns on the receiver if it is off.
Alexa open/close shades.
Alexa switch to theater - this is a new one I'm still working on. I've been rewriting my lighting code. Currently it is about 500 lines of Groovy code. It controls the whole house light color and levels. The new theater mode is my first scene setup in the custom app. The living room goes to a cyan lighting scheme and room further away go from color lighting to white lighting depending on how far they are from the living room. I haven't added the blinds or projector control yet but that's the easy part.
Alexa switch to normal - Switches back to normal lighting. This will override bedtime and theater modes.
In general the lighting is fully automated. I only interact with it to change the mode (bedroom, theater). This can be done with Alexa, buttons (toggle bedtime mode), or switches (double tap the living room wall switch to set theater mode).
So I have a few Alexa triggers but nothing that requires Alexa. It is just one more control device. Which one I use depends on the situation.
My next big project is to find the C7 hub I bought a while back. I want to use it as my master hub and I'll move things like the lighting controller to it. I'll also setup Home Kit integration on it and move away from Alexa to Sira. I'll probably end up with both but right now I'm liking the way the HomePod has been working.
Alexa talks directly to my Logitech Harmony remote hub, I can turn the TV on/off, change the channel, mute, fast forward, change from cable to Apple TV, etc.
"Alexa, add apples to my shopping list." An IFTTT applet copies whatever I've added to my Alexa shopping list over to my iOS shopping list. This is one of my favorite uses for Alexa.
Kitchen timers.
"Good morning" and "good night" trigger mode changes. I can do the same manually with switches, but I'm lazy.
If you think that is great, check out Anylist: https://www.anylist.com/
Has an iOS app and integrates right with Alexa, no IFTTT needed.
You can setup all the isles of your fav grocery store and it will put everything into the right groups.
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