I installed Ask Alexa last night following the Wiki. All seemed to go smoothly. Created a Macro that would supposedly run a “Lights On” routine when I ask Alexa “to tell SmartThings that it is getting dark in here”.
However, Alexa just responds with the usual “hmm, I’m not sure about that” response. Any ideas on why it isn’t working or how to get it working?
The macro is the command name, so “it is getting dark in here” and I left the device as “SmartThings” as default.
You will get the fastest response if you ask your question in the author thread for that smartapp. That way the author is automatically notified of your post and other people who are using the smart app will also see it and may be able to help.
I am here! Sorry for the issues you have, but I think I know what is going on…
First, once you installed did you test it to ensure it is operational? The reason I ask is the response “hmm, I’m not sure about that” is not from Ask Alexa, but the native Alexa itself. In other words, it didn’t hear “tell SmartThings”. To test your implementation, see if you get a good response from “Alexa, Ask SmartThings for Help”…if you hear a LONG explanation about Ask Alexa, that means the integration is working.
Second, I assume you called your macro “It is Getting Dark In Here” or something similar to that. If so, did you add that macro name to the developer slots on Amazon?
Finally, no worries about starting the thread here…there is a LOT to go through in the Ask Alexa official thread as the app is over a year and a half old almost…with 3000 conversations since then, even I have trouble going through it. Either way, I am here to help. Let me know what you find out.
Hi, I finally got it working!!
I completely missed the Lambda/Developer setup near the bottom of the article. Once I’d worked through that, it all works fine!
Just got to master the commands now! Thank you for your response though, the help here is awesome!
Thanks! Remember, think outside of the box here…you CAN name the macros almost anything, giving you a ‘natural speech’ experience. In your case I REALLY like the macro called “It is getting dark in here” and having the “reaction” be to turn the lights on.
In addition, there are some hidden commands…I used this last night as I walked upstairs “Alexa, Ask SmartThings if the front door is locked”…Because of an utterance that is in the large list you import in the developer site things like this and “is the door opened/closed” etc is already covered. However, I challenge you to find a command you feel SHOULD work and doesn’t. My bet is we can figure it out without me to re-code something and it is just an updated utterance. This is the power of Ask Alexa’s architecture!
Will give the invocation name chnage a go.