Alexa not recognizing Shlage locks (or garage door)

Devices & Integrations
1

I have Alexa installed into SmartThings, when I go into SmartApps I see it there and it’s found all our lights but not our locks or garage door. I’ve asked Alexa to discover new devices and she does that, but still nothing is added.

2

Digging more looks like Alexa only supports light…hope this gets fixed, seems like a major fail. Alexa + SmartThings would be huge!

3

It is huge…give this a try:

4

Thanks I’ll check it out. A bit above my level right now, I haven’t installed any new apps outside of what’s built into the app.

Any good tutorials to getting started? I’d like to take full advantage of SmartThings and think it has a ton of possibilities, but looks like we have to build apps to make it happen.

5

On top of that, you can also create a virtual switch tied to those devices. Then add the virtual switch to alexa and tell her to turn on/off the garage door, it’s not as elegant as the Ask Alexa solution, probably a quicker setup.

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6

How do I setup a virtual switch, and what does that actually mean? I’ve read a bit on the ITTT use, is that what you mean? I’m definitely going for elegant so the whole family can use it intuitively but worth exploring.

7

Everything you need to get going with AskAlexa is in the excellent wiki. http://thingsthataresmart.wiki/index.php?title=Ask_Alexa

8

This would be the same premise:

The biggest differences between the two approaches are the syntax you use with alexa. With the Ask alexa it would be “Alexa ask smartthings to unlock door”

Whereas with a virtual switch it would be “alexa turn on door” Or you could use an IFTTT’s syntax ‘trigger’ with a virtual switch I.E. “alexa trigger door unlock”

9

Signing up to AWS but according to the wiki I also need a developer account which is $50 a month?!

10

Set that up, works fine, certainly not mind blowing or sophisticated, but it works.

I was surprised I couldn’t do the same to close my garage door.

11

You should be able to use the same thing with a garage door. set up a smart lighting rule to open garage when switch turned on, and close when turned off. add the virtual switch to alexa.

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12

FYI:

The Lambda free tier includes 1M free requests per month and 400,000 GB-seconds of compute time per month.

Signing up does require a credit card, but unless you go over those limits (which is unlikely) I believe you won’t get charged

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13

It has my garage door opener as a contact sensor, not a switch.

14

Ah, you mean a momentary contact?

Set up a routine to fire the momentary contact called Garage door. Then use a virtual switch to trigger the routine.

Or use IFTTT to trigger the routine

15

when it’s really simple and elegant then it also works for somebody outside, shouting “Alexa, open garage door” .

16

I have mine set up to only close my garage doors / locks for this reason.

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17

But I can’t find my “garage door opener”. I’m guessing since it’s designated, for whatever reason, as a contact sensor. It comes with a sensor to determine if it’s open or closed, but SmartThings is connected to the module that sends the open command to the opener. It’s the GoControl/Linear GD00Z-4 Z-Wave Garage Door Opener

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19

This isn’t a “bug”. We are using the Smart Home Skill of the Alexa api and are limited to what we are allowed to control. This is being expanded all the time and we add the new options when Amazon expands the feature set.

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20

Yeah, I meant a fail on Amazon’s part. Hope the two companies can work together.

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