please, I beg your forgiveness for this....but I'm just getting started with Hubitat and have not done any other home automation. we have Alexa, Ring, Arlo, Hue (just got), lots of Kasa (TP-Link), Wyze, and a few others. Don't ask. But here we are.
So I get my Hubitat and get it set according to the directions.
Then, I want to get started so I figured I'd start with an easy one - Alexa. I read the documentation a few times, watch the video (or 3)...and off we go.
I add Alexa App.
I do the amazon echo skill (never installed app).
devices list only shows mobile phone (!?). I search the forum to see who else had this and one person had the same issue - it only shows the mobile phone. We have probably a dozen Alexa devices. That thread the OP was told Alexa wasn't supported or something similar.
I then proceed to activate Hubitat skill in Alexa
It found & I selected hub.
again no devices listed (no surprise since we didn't see them earlier).
clicked authorize
clicked discover. nada.
repeat several times. Zilch.
what can't Hubitat "see" my alexa devices?
For the record, today I took out my Hue light strip (new out of box so never before paired) and Hubitat found it quickly. Not sure what to do with it yet but that's for another day.
HE doesn't see your Alexa devices. The Echo skill lets Amazon see your HE devices.
For example, you open the Echo skill in HE and add one of your lights to the Echo skill, When you click done you should then see that device now listed in your devices on the Alexa APP. You can now tell Alexa to turn that light on or off.
thank you for the replies. I'm definitely turned around about what I thought HE was, and could do.
I watch the videos about adding Alexa to HE and all these devices appear. I'm still not able to resolve that in my mind.
I understood that HE, and similar devices, functioned as "multi-protocol" bridges, if you will, to allow devices that "speak" different "languages" to talk to each other. I understand that there are limits to this. My big challenge now is understanding what those limits are. The getting started videos don't really answer that question. I started out my professional career as a programmer so I get that protocols and languages must be able to handshake but I've done zilch zip zero with home automation so am way behind.
thanks.
Steve
but your right hubitat does not see alexa devices.. other than the alexas themselves for purposes of voice notifications.
you add the devices to hubitat then use the "amazon echo app" or the newer version (i prefer the older) nad authorize which devices in hubitgat you want alexa to see and then tell alexa to discover devices and then you can use the via voice in alexa or setup routines.
ok so you'Re saying that I add them in HE using either Alexa Echo App or the newer version (assume you mean Skill?)....how do you add them if HE doesn't list them? The only device to show up in my list is my mobile phone.
IMO it's better to think of adding HE to Alexa not the other way around.
With the Echo Skill and Echo speaks or the TTS manger mentioned you can ask Alexa to turn things on or off, set thermostats, open and close blinds,
With Echo speaks you can also have Alexa notify you of things that have happened in HE, Like a door opening for example. Some things I do for example:
I have Alexa remind us to clean the litter box
Alexa announces when someone walks up on the front porch.
Lets us know we left a garage door open.
These are just a few things you can do.
So, under "Devices" (in the Hubitat admin UI/webpage--not the mobile app itself, though you can use the mobile app to get here), I'm guessing this is the only device you have added to Hubitat itself. As others have mentioned, Hubitat's Alexa integration is Hubitat to Alexa, not vice versa. (Someone here once said that Amazon wants to be the center of your automation universe and probably can't imagine why you'd want to take devices in the other direction. Technically possible or not, and I'm not sure it even is, that's one way to remember. ) Once you add more devices to Hubitat, you should be able to authorize them here for use with Alexa.
It sounds like the biggest issue is what these "more devices" could be. This list is a good place to start, though it should be noted that most Z-Wave and probably most (or at least many) Zigbee devices that aren't listed will still pair/work, and there are a variety of community LAN and cloud integrations beyond the stock ones included here: List of Compatible Devices - Hubitat Documentation
This is true, but there are limits. Hubitat supports Zigbee (ZHA 1.2, technically) and Z-Wave, and it also can support LAN- or cloud-connected devices via its LAN (and your Internet) connection. Z-Wave and Zigbee are fairly standardized, so most are able to work with Hubitat. Many LAN or cloud devices have documented APIs that Hubitat can work with, as well--for example, the Philips Hue Bridge (LAN), Sonos (LAN), and Racio (cloud, I think?) integrations. Alexa does not have a documented API for Hubitat to integrate Alexa-only devices into Hubitat, so this isn't possible. Same with many other cloud-connected devices, like Wyze. Basically, not everything can work with Hubitat just because it says it's "smart"; in many cases, the vendor intended for it to work only within their closed ecosystem and did not provide any documented interface out.
But: some community efforts have reverse-engineered some of these. Being reverse-engineered and community code, all are "unofficial" and subject to whatever breaks, blocks, etc. may happen from the vendor by intention or accident--but many people are happy with them. Echo Speaks is one, mentioned above. I still don't think that gets you anything besides the Echo devices themselves (which many people use for TTS since built-in Alexa options are limited)--not devices "paired" to Alexa itself.
this is very helpful - thank you!
Bertabcd1234, you have hit on the primary issue - that HE seems to be suited primarily towards Z* devices. So, the real problem here is that my expectations and understanding are off. Most of my devices are not Z* devices so there doesn't sound to be a ton of use for HE, for me.
Our list of devices includes mostly those that work with Alexa or Google (we have quite a few of both), then we're all set.
We have:
several A* Echo devices
several GHome devices
Several Kasa switches, plugs, etc.
Wyze cameras
Arlo cameras
Ring++
GoSund light switches....
Sonos
LGTv
Hisense TV....
all of these work with either A* or GH* without any trouble. So tying it all really just requires some good use of IFTTT or something rather than HE which is where I think I went wrong.
@whodunit68, you are looking for a centralized controller for everything. It depends on your technical knowledge but a lot of those could be integrated into a system.. Things like Node-RED, HomeAssistant, MQTT etc.
One thing you might want to be careful of is your reliance on cloud devices. HE by design runs as locally as possible so your automations for non cloud devices will continue to work even if the internet goes down. Other issues include companies that change or drop their services and obsoleting your devices after a few years, cloud outages (see Amazon AWS recently) or suddenly charging you a subscription fee to run devices in your own home and also collecting data on all your personal "life patterns". I do use Alexa but keep that on the edge of my system. If it goes away it will not affect my automation at all except for losing some voice control.
Do you use Apple devices? If so, Apple Home and Homebridge.io might be something to look at. They can integrate a lot of your things you listed together but it requires some setup.
) Once you add more devices to Hubitat, you should be able to authorize them here for use with Alexa.
