how do i know if Alexa is controlling devices through the smart things hub. If i delete the devices in Alexa she will not control them. If i add them back to Alexa she controls them even when the smartthings hub is powered down?
If you are adding devices from Smartthings Hub to Alexa then Alexa won’t be able to control your devices from Smartthings when the hub is off since Alexa is just a messenger to Smartthings. Your devices need the hub to talk to the outside world.
Maybe I don’t understand, but when I add them through the gun Alexa still will not communicate. She will not communicate until I discover the devices through the Alexa app.
Rodney McDowell
That’s how you add devices from ST to Alexa. It’s a two steps procedure. You will do the same everytime you add a device from ST to Alexa.
If that is the case, why do i need the ST Hub? At that point the Alexa app controls the device even when the Hub is powered down.
You need the ST hub ON for Alexa.
A Dot or Echo can connect to some devices directly so you can control them with Alexa; but they need a wifi (or Ethernet) connection.
The z-wave or zigbee devices connected to your ST hub can be controlled via Alexa only with the ST skill. If your hub isn’t on, this won’t work.
Ok, maybe I should give the details. Today my Smartthings app showed my hub offline, but was still controlling my devices. A reboot of the hub fixed this issue. It made me wonder how it was working so i unplugged the Hub. The Ecobee thermostat and the Wemo outlet switch still functioned through Alexa. Next I powered the hub back up, deleted the devices from the Alexa app and verified they were still in the ST app. Alexa could not control the devices anymore. I expected to see exactly what you described, but that isn’t the case. Maybe I am setting it up wrong, but I have been on you tube most of the day and all the videos pretty much show only one way to set it up.
The reason for this is because Amazon Alexa officially support Ecobee and Wemo devices so most likely you link them directly to Alexa and not using ST as a middleman.
You can test them by leaving the ST hub off and run a device discovery with the Alexa app. Most likely you will see them get discovered.
To test the ST hub with Alexa. Try controlling a z-wave or zigbee device with Alexa while keeping the ST hub off. You shouldn’t be able to.
1 Like
Thanks for the information and the quick responses. I have not had much success with the Z wave devices up to this point. Any suggestions about which ones work as advertised?