I was looking to create a custom utterance for the amazon echo which would give a status update about my smartthings connected devices.
For example, before I go to bed, I could say, “Alexa, it’s bedtime” and it would read back the status of my door sensors, locks etc, perhaps lock doors if they are unlocked… whatever I would program.
I have AskAlexa working - in fact what I want is similar to the flash briefing functionality, but I want to create a new utterance to trigger the status feedback, and programmable control for what it would reply with and possible actions to take.
Any ideas on how to get started?
Thanks!
bamarayne
(Jason "The Enabler" as deemed so by @Smart)
2
Follow this thread and look for version 4.0 release. It should be out in a couple of weeks
The Ask Alexa will do this. I have over 30 macor’s in this program, one of which is very similar to what you are heading for. My “night summary” gives me the weather for that night and the next day, tells me if any / which windows were left open, if the front door lock or garage door were left open (inentionally set to only report if it something open/ unlocked - does not list if state is “secure” ) the Smart Home Monitor status, Smart Home Mode. Actually tells me "goodnight and sweet dreams at the end "
I’ve set up a voice macro, called it night time, and am only checking the status of one door right now. To invoke the macro from my Echo - is there a way to just say “Alexa, night time”, or do I have to say “Alexa, ask Smarthings about night time”? Is there anything I can add to my amazon developers account to shorten up the voice command?
I changed mine from “Smartthings” to “Home”. “Alexa, tell my home goodnight.” Then I get a response that the garage door is closed and the doors are locked. The house is secure. I hope you sleep well tonight. "
@samchopps You do have to use the invocation name of BOTH ALEXA nd the Ask Alexa APP - what you have indicated above: " Alexa, ask SmartThings XYZ" is correct. You can change the name “SmartThings” to anything you want it you find it “too long”. Like @salyebr I too have changed mine to what “seems” shorter and was more accurate (mine is called the brain) so my invocations are Alexa, ask the brain for XYZ (night time).
Think of it as a “nested” app - so you have to “open” both “Alexa” and “SmartThings”
I’ve set up a few voice macros, but am still not sure how to run them. I changed the name of my invocation from smartthings to home, then worried about home being a reserved word, changed it to poop…
To test the change, I typed “alexa, ask poop for garage door status”, which resulted in a correct response of “The garage door is currently closed. In addition, the temperature reading from this device is 65 degrees” Garage door is a device I have, awesome, invocation name changed successfully.
Also changing my voice macro name to cucumber because my original voice macro name was ‘night time’ and again ‘time’ could be a reserved word, then trying “Alexa, ask poop cucumber” resulted in: I didn’t understand what you wanted information about. Be sure you have populated the developer section with the device names.
Also “Alexa, tell poop cucumber” resulted in the response: “I didn’t understand what you wanted information about”, and the command, “Alexa, tell my poop cucumber” resulted in an ‘unable to generate request for your skill’ error
My guess is my voice macro is not registered, or being recognized. I read the Voice Macros section of the Ask Alexa wiki, everything looks correctly implemented… any ideas?
When you “changed” the macro name to “cucumber” did you change it in the Mobil App AND the Amazon Dev act set up in the “interaction model” tab >> “list_of_macros” ?
I assume you are including several devices in each of these macros?
Options are endless. The naming convention is a lot of the secret. ALL of my voice report macro’s end in the word “summary” so “night summary” " battery summary" “presence summary” " hazzards summary" etc etc … once you get in the language that makes sense to you (users) it is a lot easier. Avoid using numbers, and reserved words, also compound words" can be tricky. notice mine are ONE word vs. night time vs. nighttime