Alexa to arm or disarm smart home monitor?

(Dan Carter) #1

Is it possible to tell Alexa to arm or disarm smart home monitor

(Robin) #2

Not natively no, locks and alarms are restricted, and it would be a bad idea anyway.

Thief could shout turn off command through letterbox, especially if you get overheard doing it yourself.

If you install EchoSistant though, you can do it with the added security of a voice password.

You could in theory sync a simulated switch to SHM using a routine / CoRE and then tell Alexa to toggle the switch instead, but the pin code support in EchoSistant is far more secure and viable.

#3

You can also use virtual switches to do this. It’s very simple to do. Search virtual switches and Echo. The honorable JDRoberts has posted to several topics on this.

(Mark) #4

This is what I do. It works fine.

(Tim Raynor) #5

(As Robin said earlier ) You can do this with EchoSistant and for security you can use a PIN.

#6

I use a voice macro in askAlexa to trigger the goodbye routine. The goodbye routine for me turns off all lights, sets Nest to 85, and sets SHM to armed away. I use a similar method to set the sleep routine that does the same things except it sets SHM to armed stay.

#7

I use 3 momentary virtual switches, with three SmartThings routines…Goodbye, I’m Back, and Goodnight. Each routine is triggered by its corresponding virtual switch. You can name the switches to match the routine. Since in native mode there is no delay, I have an Echo Dot in the garage and simply say Alexa turn on “Goodbye” when I leave and “I’m Back” when I return. You can call the switches whatever you want, so if you’re concerned about security you can name them Dog and Cat…turn on Dog when you leave and Cat when you return…or whatever.

(Dan Carter) #8

The virtual switch works like a charm, thanks everyone for the advice

(Ram) #9

I use the virtual switch and it works great. For safety reasons, I only use it for arming, not disarming.

#10

Hi, can someone shed some light on how a virtual switch can be used to set SHM to arm or disarm? I like that approach as then I could just use Alexa to turn off and on that virtual switch, but I do not see how to tie in the switch with the SHM.

(Robin) #11

You could use two routines:

One to arm alarm when switch turns on
One to disarm the alarm when switche turns off.

Here is a screenshot of an example routine that arms when switch turns on.

IMG_2199.PNG640x1136 56.2 KB

A more efficient way of doing this, avoiding clutter in your routines list, would be to use webCoRE.

You could then write a single piston (rule) as follows:

If switch is on
Arm SHM
else
Disarm SHM

#12

What I do is have a goodbye routine set to turn off all lights, adjust Nest to my away temp, set SHM to armed (away). I can trigger the routine on a schedule or by clicking the routine on SHM or with askAlexa. askAlexa is a community developer created app that works great with Alexa.

To use askAlexa to trigger it, I created a voice macro called gone that engages the routine. Can even set a delay in how long it will activate after giving the command.

me - Alexa, tell house gone
alexa - Ok (goodbye routine is activated)

(Ram) #13

@bickyb: Did you get answer to your question?

#14

Yes,
Robin’s web based approach using core pistons will work.