I just bought an Amazon Dot and installed the ST skill. I like it but it’s very limited as to what it can do.
I’ve already created some IFTTT applets to call my phone if water is detected at any of my ST moisture sensors. I also installed the “Alexa, Ask Google” assistant using Amazon AWS and Lambda. Having a blast so far but what I really want to do is ask Alexa if a door is open/closed or to give me the temperature at a sensor that supports temperature monitoring.
Can anyone suggest a way that I can use Alexa to query and report on sensor status? IFTTT? An existing SmartApp? Create a new Skill? I have a little (very little) programming experience.
To recap, does anyone know how I might ask Alexa if a door is open and have her audibly respond with something like “Yes, the garage door is open.” The existing Skill doesn’t support anything other than “turn on” and “set brightness.”
Two different groups of community members have already created two different smart apps which vastly expand the capabilities of what you can do with echo devices. It’s really pretty amazing stuff.
One is called askAlexa and the other is called EchoSistant. They have slightly different features, so at least read about both. Both are listed on the quickbrowse lists in the community created wiki in the project report section on the “voice” list. Once you find the thread there, each have extensive documentation and support features available. Again, very cool stuff. So I would start by just looking at those.
Although I haven’t tried it (yet!), this looks like a much better integration. When I tried the “official” Alexa skill I found it disappointing and uninstalled it…
John and JD Roberts, thank you both for your responses. It took a few hours but I was able to install Ask Alexa and get it (sort of) working. From what I’ve seen so far, it’s exactly what I’m looking for and I’m amazed it exists (HUGE props to Michael S. for this one!).
I am having a strange problem, though. I can “Ask ST to set the patio light to 20 percent” and it will. But if I “Ask ST to turn the patio light on (of off),” I just get a status instead. This happens for every light. I can use Alexa to successfully ask ST to set a lamp module to x percent, and the light will come on and dim to the specified percent, but on or off commands just return a status. Any idea where I can go to find more info on this issue? Is there a forum outside of the ST web site where Ask Alexa is discussed? I have other questions and also some suggestions for the installation and user documentation, but don’t won’t to monopolize the ST forum if there is a more appropriate place to ask questions specific to Ask Alexa.
