Amazon Echo

Not a single problem at all. I have three of them in my system.

1 Like

Excellent - #2 arrives Thursday. :smile:

Thanks for the info.

2 Likes

Because it is very much the SmartThings way to implement the minimal product for initial release. I have this same gripe about almost all of their supported devices. I have 100% of my devices on custom device code because the default code from ST never supports all of the features of the device. And that’s years after the devices were released. They push out the minimal device code and then leave it there. Of course community folks immediately release better versions and we all switch to the custom versions. Smart Things wins is two ways with this. 1) they don’t need to write the code 2) when you contact them for support they say we don’t support custom code. It’s a Win Win for them.

3 Likes

I wouldn’t disagree that ST generally does the minimal integration (looking at IFTTT), but I don’t know if that’s the whole story here.

It may not have been an option for “official integration”. Notice that none of the “official integrations” have this feature about asking for status. It’s only “turn on”, “turn off”, “set to”, etc
 I suspect that Amazon provided a limited keyword set for their direct Home Automation integration and asking for status wasn’t part of it yet.

I think I read that they expanding it to incorporate direct thermostat control soon, so hopefully ST will continually update their direct integration as new options are enabled. I don’t really expect it though.

i agree almost all mine are custom
 i modified or wrote a bunch. the problem with this is most likely they will never run locally in the hub, and when the cloud is slow
 they are slow
 Even when you publish them and submit them to smartthings they dont bother to look at them in most cases.

This is also ridiculous. It’s backwards, if anything custom code should only run on hub. If I screw up my hub it only affects me, if I screw up the servers it affects everyone. I was shocked when I got my V2 hub that I couldn’t remove into it somehow and see stuff at the OS level. Since they sold this as the device that would have local processing I really expected a linux system that I could hack. But then again SmartThings has never met my expectations so why did I expect them to for the V2 hub ? :disappointed:

1 Like

Correct, the APIs SmartThings is using is the Alexa Lightning API found here for those who are curious:

https://developer.amazon.com/public/binaries/content/assets/html/alexa-lighting-api.html

It does provide some benefits over using a skill, it is for example more reliable in understanding custom names of devices.

1 Like

Anyone noticing that Alexa to SmartThings commands are running slow? For the last few weeks it seems that when I ask Alexa to do something it sometimes takes 30 seconds or more before the action is done.

Echo hears fine and Alexa responds with “Ok.” right away then



sometimes the action happens pretty quickly.

sometimes the actions takes 30 seconds or more before it happens.

mine are running fine
 the ifft ones are very slow going to the net like you say, but the alexa direct to smartthings lights are turning off even before alexa starts saying ok. What device types and devices? (Are they local)

Question on the Echo (I apologize if this was asked/answered - didn’t feel like going thru the whole thread)

Can ST tell the Echo (Alexa) to announce when a device triggers? For example, when a motion sensor is triggered, can I have Alexa say “someone is in the garage”?

Thanks,

Dave

No.

A temporary “hack” is to run a VLC server or similar to send TTS output via Bluetooth, since the Echo can act as a Bluetooth speaker.

You would need another app to do this.

Something like the LANnouncer app running on an Android that is Bluetooth connected to the Echo.

Currently ST can’t tell Echo to speak.

1 Like

I take Alexa along for a ride in my car now. I don’t use the Echo in the car, but the new Fire TV that now has Alexa. The Fire TV is unique in that it has Bluetooth audio out (no speakers, so that makes sense). That pairs fine with my car’s built in Bluetooth audio. I get internet access to a wifi hotspot in the car. My cell phone and media pair separately, so the cell still works and overrides the audio from the media like it should. Since it’s connected to the same amazon account as home, I can control the same automation by voice from the car. Has anyone else tried this?

7 Likes

Not sure if this has already been brought to light and I am not sure if everyone noticed, but Echo’s latest “What’s New?” email mentioned integration with Ecobee. And, upon further research it was found that there is a Echo “Skill” called “Reflect” (https://www.reflectconnectapp.com/), which allows direct influence over your Nest from the Echo.

Thought you all should know if you haven’t seen it already.

My question is if they can control an Ecobee when will they allow temperature set commands to be sent to hubs like SmartThings to control any smart thermostat you may have???

I realize you can probably do this through IFTTT or something but it would be nice if it was part of the SmartThings/Echo integration.

@Motley luckily a community member - @DarcRanger - has already made a smartapp for controlling the temperature via Alexa. I have confirmed it works with the Nest custom device type.

Essentially what you have to do is create two virtual dimmer switches (one for heat, one for cool), then select the switches in the smartapp along with the thermostat you would like to control. Then you expose the two virtual switches to Alexa. Name the switches heat and cool (or whatever makes sense to you) and then you can say “Alexa, set heat to XX” or “set cool to XX”.

Thanks, I will check that out once I add my CT100 back to my network, for now since the reliability of firing timed events is mediocre at best I have removed my thermostat in favor of my old one which I have a schedule set on. I really hope they get that issue resolved so I can add my thermostat back.

@slagle confirmed in another thread that they’ve submitted this update to Amazon.

Amazon Echo soon will control thermostats natively

Nice, I figured I wasn’t the only one thinking this should be done.

Does this work in Auto mode?