Amazon echo and Scout

[JDRoberts]

@sunadmn

Ok so here is what’s I want to do and what does not work.

I have automations built into smartthings that set the alarm state, turn lights on/off, and lock/unlock doors. When I ask Alexa to perform these it tells me it cannot due to security devices. Does that help calirify what I want to do?

Cheers,
-Stephen

It sounds like you are trying to use routines directly in echo. As you noted, there is an echo rule that these cannot include anything except switches and thermostats.

Fortunately, there is a way around this, which is what we used to do before echo added support for routines.

You can create a virtual switch which will start your routine. Any routine, because to the echo it just looks like a switch.

So that’s all you have to do.

The step-by-step instructions are in the following FAQ:

[DEPRECATED] 2015 Voice Assistant Run Routine FAQ--see 2017 FAQ instead

On October 1, 2016, Amazon added the ability to turn on a " routine" from Alexa. If you want to use that method, see the official support article. https://support.smartthings.com/hc/en-us/articles/210204906-Amazon-Alexa-SmartThings-Routines Note that the official method will not allow you to use echo to run any routine that includes a lock or a Smart Home Monitor armed state change or another device class that Alexa does not know. The method described below in this FAQ will, but it does require that you create a virtual switch. Although at present echo can only request that smartthings turn devices on, off or dim, by using a virtual switch, you can tell echo to turn that switch on or off, and then have all kinds of things happen in smartthings. For example, if you want to have echo tu…