@jgm1937 [quote=“bamarayne, post:24, topic:27710”]
When I say to Alexa, turn on kitchen lights. She turns on the virtual switch, which triggers the rule, which turns on my five kitchen lights and sets the level to 99%.
[/quote] I was curious why you didn’t use the Amazon Alexa app built in group control for your kitchen lights? I have 4 sets of kitchen switches that I just grouped into a single KITCHEN group that I voice control for on,off, or dim. Does the Rule Machine and virtual switch do something more that I should be considering?
[quote=“jgm1937, post:27, topic:27710”]
However, in my first floor area, I’ve got over 40 lights/switches for my kitchen, living room, and entry area. It’d be nice to be able to create a virtual switch and then have Alexa just turn that “switch” on/ off and at a certain level (i.e. 99%), rather than using the groups that are defaulted. I’m thinking this would be awesome for a movies scenario (“Alexa, turn on movies”).
[/quote] I do something like that now but not through Rule Machine. Are you using Alexa Helper by @MichaelS? This is a must have with your Amazon Echo. I have a virtual switch called Movie Lighting VSS that Alexa Helper monitors that when switched ON initiates a simple custom SmartThings routine called Movie Lighting. This routine turns off all the lights I want off, and for the lights that stay on they are dimmed to 20%. All I say is “Alexa, turn on Movie Lighting”