Alexa Routines - Live at last (two years in the making)

Anyone yet figured out how to refresh the device list in a routine?

Mine is missing one device, wrong name for another and one that I have no idea what it is, never used “Toby” as a device name, it appears to be a lock of some sort which I have none

Rick

Sonos speakers are well supported. I am able to play things on my Sonos by saying “Alexa, play some music on dining room”, dining room being my sonos.
The only drawbacks I found so far are:
-if you have multiple echo devices, if someone use ones to do something while you are playing on your sonos, it mutes the sonos, even though they are not in the same room
-Sonos app “next” song is not reactive when playing from Echo amazon music so you end up pressing 2 or 3 times the sonos app button.
-Sometimes sonos loses the streaming queue so you can no longer interact with it. You have to ask again alexa to play something
-Last week I had a bug where Alexa was saying something was already playing on the sonos while this was not the case. I had to uninstall skills and other things and reinstall.

Despite the above, it really works fine.

For those that want to create virtual switches without having to use the IDE or my Alexa Helper app, I have fast-tracked this release:

[RELEASE] Alexa Virtual Switch Creator

I don’t have any documentation for it yet, just what is in the post. I will be unavailable most of today by the program is rather straight forward. YOU WILL need the DTHs I include for this to work.

Anyway, PM me if you have issues and I will respond probably tomorrow (going to a Seahawks game today).

Ask Alexa within the next couple weeks will support the activation of macros and extensions using switches; until then, Alexa Helper (by itself), or this app and WebCoRE might give you what you need for complex events to occur with the simple flip of a switch.

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Where’s that liability disclaimer? :sunglasses:

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Not really delved into virtual switches yet, but I’ve tried giving what you say a go.

e.g. Alexa -> Momentary Tile -> Webcore

Let’s see what happens!

Wondered why this isn’t just a stock app. I’ve been using this app since like forever. It’s pretty much the same thing but allows 4 different kinds of virtual switches.

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whhhhaaaat??? you mean the capability to create virtual switches has been here all along? lol

Yeah, I’ve been using this app for quite a while too…

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@rontalley

Great post for the users of Alexa that have no idea that app exist.

Here’s how you do it folks…

  • Use the app to easily create your virtual switches.
  • Use your ST routines, WebCore Piston, or other automation, create your rule and have it triggered by the new virtual switch turning on/off/momentary button.
  • In the native Alexa app, create a routine that turns on that virtual switch.

This is an example of what I’ve done.

  • Created a virtual momentary button name “Good Night Button”
  • Alexa routine named “Good Night” that turns on the “Good Night Button”
  • I have a ST routine that sets the ST mode to Sleep when the “Good Night Button” turns on.
  • I have a WebCore piston that performs all of my “go to sleep” actions that is triggered by the mode changing to sleep.

Now, I just say, “Alexa, good night” and the house goes to sleep.
No invocation!

I’m sure there are simpler ways to do it, but that’s just how I did it.

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Doesn’t get any simpler than that. So far, the only benefit I see, of the new group feature, is not having to say the name of the “light”. Everything else, I still have to say the name…

Fan, TV, FireStick, Outlet, Iron, Temp, etc…

Seems like they would have made this so if it already had the name of the group in front of it, i.e. Bedroom TV, then once Bedroom TV went into the Bedroom Group along with the Bedroom Alexa then you would just have to say, “TV” and not “Bedroom TV” but…All of my testing this morning let me to this only working with Lights.

Haven’t got to the Routines because just like you, I’ve been doing this with Virtual Switches for a while now…

So, conclusion is, we still need you all because Amazon gives us 2 cookies and you guys give us the whole bag!

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Just wait a little bit more. And I promise, your dreams are about to come true sooner than Amazon figures it out! #here Guaranteed…

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I agree, they took one small step forward, but it is definitely in the right direction. Let’s hope they do not take 2 more years to bring this to fruition.

I completely agree with @SBDOBRESCU… very soon you will be able to walk into a room and say, Alexa, turn on the lights in here, or Alexa, turn on the fans in here, or, Alexa, turn on the lights and the fans in here.

No more remembering the name of a room… those days are history!

#here #ESv5 #echosistant

Almost here!

Does anyone get this issue? Whenever I create a new routine it just says please try another name. Alexa also does not respond to the command.

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Alexa Routines - Live at last (two years in the making)

I don’t have a routine in smartthings called good night though. And it doesn’t work if I put any other name in either. Strange!

You must have some kind of device or scene named good night…I just created one and worked for me…

Ok thanks i will have another look

If you have a routine, 2 questions.

  1. What does the square with the two dashes mean when choosing a device (switch)?
  2. How do you turn off a device, it only shows on commands?

It’s a smart plug (Wemo) on my system.

All you have to do is press the big white circle for it to say Turn Off.

Thanks, that makes sense. I missed the obvious.