FAQ: Amazon Echo: The Official SmartThings Integration is here! (Initial SetUp FAQ)

Thanks.
I just emailed them and will post back the answer.
Scott

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I am happy that they do have integration finally but I am going to keep adding to mine and building out new features :slight_smile:

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@JDRoberts,

This is what I got back from Amazon:

This is Melissa with Amazon Echo. Thanks for contacting us today.

At this time, I am not aware of any limitations on the number of
“Connected Home” devices (HUE,Wink,SmartThings devices) you can have on
the Echo. I am also not aware of any limit to the number of "Connected
Home" groups that you can have.

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how does one get echo to play music (not sure what sources would be supported) to a Sonos speaker?

it discovered my sonos as a device, i was just looking to see what can be done with it now that it’s discovered. was hoping to be able to use the echo as voice control for the sonos system…

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I just setup @DarcRanger’s thermostat control via dimmer switches : Thermostat SmartApps that uses Virtual Switches to control Mode/Fan/SetPoints
And it works great!
“Alexa, set the thermostat to 75” feels natural and works great!
Now we just need a way to check the status of sensors like “what is the current temperature in the living room” or “is the dinning room window closed”. Although I think we would need an ASK Skill for this since the native integration will probably only do On/Off/Dim, unless Amazon opened up some more options.
I know @zpriddy had that on his To-do list for his skill :smile:
So glad I bought the Echo!

Scott

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@JDRoberts, something I found out last night was the Echo does not like using “everything” as a group name. I created a group called Everything and put all my lights (that I wanted turned off) and my TV in so I could say “Alexa, turn off everything” before I went to bed…it just sounded natural to me. When I run that the echo says “sorry which device do you mean” so I say “everything” again and it works. Double checking what the Echo heard, it did hear me correctly so I would advise everyone not to use that as a group or even device name.
Just wanted to post it in case it helps someone else out :smile:

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That is the next item on my to-do list! :slight_smile:

However I seem to have found myself moving to the Bay Area so updates are going to be slow for the next few weeks as I try to pack things up… However coding is a way for me to distress and so there is a good chance the update will get pushed out sooner…

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Look me up when you get here! :grinning:

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SONOS

Good news!

@dfairbro1 has both Amazon echo and Sonos linked to smartthings, and reports that the voice command “Alexa, play kitchen Sonos” did start the previous playlist playing. So that’s very good. If anyone figures out exactly which commands work to operate Sonos via echo to smartthings to Sonos, let us know.

(Based on something @Tyler said in another topic, I’m thinking that if you just want the Sonos device to start playing where it left off, you can just use a simple Echo command.

But if you want a specific playlist to start playing that wasn’t the last thing the Sonos device did, then you may need to go back to the concept of virtual switches like my harmony control project.)

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@JDRoberts I just followed your instructions except I haven’t done step 10 add echo app.

PS I have no virtual switches. Not sure how to do that. :smile:

Step 10 is only for when you want to go and add new devices later. :blush:

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Scott I came across the same bug last night, making a group called “Everything” and adding everything to it. Said “Alexa, turn everything off” causes Alexa to ask something like “Which device?” And if you say “Everything” a second time, it does work. However I just re-named the group to “House” and now say “Alexa, turn house off” and everything is perfect the first time. On a side note, I have a MyQ garage door and as I was walking out, I asked Alexa to open the garage door half jokingly and she replied “That command does not work on garage door” but the garage door opened! I tried a bunch of “close garage door” type commands and seemed to go nowhere, then i thought I repeated “close THE garage door”. And it gave the same error “That command does not work on garage door” and it did close the garage door. But something is wrong, I was able to open again, hearing same error, but not able to close for the life of me, i give up, its buggy. Now I need to rename the door so a burglar cannot just yell “Alexa Open The Garage Door!” LOL

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Yup the Everthing was the same thing with mine.

Interesting about the garage door. I’m hoping Amazon adds more to the Echo like Close and Open. Based off the update frequency from Amazon I’m hoping that’s possible. At first I thought the Echo was a little pricy but now worth every penny!

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@chuckc81 - that’s great! Be sure to submit the bugs via the feedback option in the app. As I’m sure you have experienced, Amazon is VERY quick to respond.

I have 6 different Sonos speakers/amps/line-in items but haven’t been successful controlling them via Echo/Smartthings integration - any suggestions on what I am missing?

Sorry, I don’t have Sonos but hopefully someone who does can answer.

Meanwhile, were your Sonos devices discovered by echo so that they show up in the Echo connected home device list?

Just installed my Smart Things hub yesterday along with the Echo integration. Did some playing around and gave Alexa some commands to turn on switches and things like that. Is it possible yet to trigger an event so the Echo will play music (i.e. when I get home, have Alexa play music from my playlist)?

I think, right now, it’s pretty much a one-way street… Echo/Alexa telling SmartThings what to do.

Someone with more experience might correct me on that if I’m wrong, but outside of a lot of custom code and custom work I don’t think there is a way to trigger Alexa to do something from within SmartThings.

Surely someone has setup Sonos TTS to say “Alexa, play some music” just because they can ;).

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