Alexa how to play selected phrases?

Devices & Integrations
1

I didn’t want to go off topic in the NST Manager v5.0 thread

@WB70 ok I gotta ask how did you get the echo dot to play a message?
I get a motion sensor with conditions but then how to select and play the phrase?

I want to play a welcome home message
as well as a message after I preform my good night routine with alexa once all doors are confirmed closed and locked which then has alexa say “house is secure” or if not secure then (if a door was still open) say "door is still open"
easy enough to set the conditions but not sure how to get alexa to play the selected phrases.

2

So I’m thinking that you are referring to my answer that I gave to another user for one of their questions as shown below:

So in this use case, nothing is being sent to the Echo Dot, the message is being sent directly to the Bose speaker. The reason these speakers are directly connected to the Echos is for other purposes outside of this. That’s another topic.

So for the use case I was explaining in the thread this is how I have things setup.

  1. I have recently transitioned most of my stuff from executing in Routines over to webCoRE and using Pistons.

  2. Anyway, the way I am setup right now, I have a Routine that disarms my system based on my presence (mobile).

    • It Fires only when Mode is Away
    • and when mobile presence device is set to Present
    • It opens the Garage door
    • It unlocks the inside garage door
    • It sets a virtual switch (called Announcement) to On

That’s direct in the Routine:

Then I have several Pistons that do all sorts of additional evaluations based on SHM Status and Mode:
* Is it after Sunset and SHM is Disarmed and Mode is Home, then change Mode to Night
* If it’s Night, specific lights come on
* If it’s after midnight, but before sunrise, wait 5 minutes and then arm the house Armed (Home)
* There’s a lot more going on, but that’s a couple

So now with all of that (just giving you a broad overview of all the things going on side by side), to answer your question, when I arrive home and when:
* My system is Disarmed
* The virtual switch (Announcement) is On

When I enter the house and activate a specific motion sensor, a Piston runs that sends one of 3 messages based on time and Mode:
* Hey …, Welcome home.
* Hey …, Happy that your home. Hope you had a great day
* Hey …, Looks like someone was out late. Hope you had a great night.

(I’m currently restructuring all of this which is going to include days of the week work night versus weekends)

I’m doing something similar as well for a Nest camera in the backyard. To pick up motion in ST with Nest cameras, you either need to run the REST streaming version with NST Manager or do something via IFTTT (which is what I’m doing). If a Person event from Nest is sent as a push notification, then IFTTT on receiving notification from Nest with Person in the text, then turn on virtual switch (simulated alarm). When this simulated alarm is set to siren, a Piston fires that sends a message to the speaker for the would be intruder to hear.

Screenshot_20171206-032522
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I know that goes way beyond the simple answer you were looking for, but I just wanted to share a little bit about everything that you could do if you wanted with external speakers. :grinning:

3

thanks that makes sense
don’t think there is a way to activate the echo without the command phrase yet.
I will take a look at webCoRE maybe i can just feed it to my Denon home stereo.

4

There is no way for you to wake up the Echo / Alexa on her own without physically touching the button or asking Alexa to play your messages.

5

If you have an android device that can always be left on you could use Lannouncer to send messages to an Echo that is connected to the android device (via bluetooth or aux.)