Assuming that you are in the US or the UK, If you read the thread above from the top you will see that a number of other people had the same problem. All you have to do is disable the smartthings skill, sign out of the Alexa app, sign back into the Alexa app, reenable the SmartThings skill, and everything should work. Again, see the discussion above.
I appreciate @Bamarayne’s enthusiasm for his new project, but it’s not needed for the issue that you describe as long as you are in one of the regions where Amazon has enabled this feature .
If you are in a different country, then I don’t know whether @bamarayne
project will work or not, but you can take discussion of it to that thread and I’m sure he will be glad to go into details. That’s getting off topic for this FAQ.
bamarayne
(Jason "The Enabler" as deemed so by @Smart)
207
I just want to clarify that @Tonesto7 is the developer of this great product. I am simply his assistant.
I thought it was applicable because with it, you do not need the Amazon service. It is very limited in it’s capabilities. With this app you can use any trigger available in ST.
Mentioning it and providing the link to the thread about it is fine. But it’s way more complicated than the official feature and it requires setting up a heroku account and it requires being willing to look at long lists of technical options.
This FAQ is about the official feature. It does a lot less, but it’s easier to set up and use. For many people, that will be enough.
bamarayne
(Jason "The Enabler" as deemed so by @Smart)
209
Actually, the install process is almost fully automated. Registering for the Heroku account is simple and done during the process. 5 to 10 minutes even for a completely non-technical person.
The short answer is any Device that works with smartthings can trigger a voice announcement on echo now, but at the present time you have to do it by the method described above in this FAQ: create a virtual contact sensor that is also a switch, have your physical device turn that contact sensor on through a smartthings automation, have that contact sensor activating trigger the echo routine.
For a longer answer with more discussion of specific devices, please start your own thread under projects and people will be happy to brainstorm with you.
I shall read the method in the FAQ and see where it goes.
Not big on video doorbell, a simple Alexa announcement would be perfect. Since I have 3 Dots and 1 Spot, my wife - who’s hard of hearing - will appreciate it.
How did you do this? I cannot get Alexa Routines to recognize my virtual switch. The switch is recognized by the Alexa app but is not listed when I try to use the virtual switch in a Routine.
I would like Alexa to announce when a door sensor has been open for longer than X minutes. Any suggestions on how to do that. Then Alexa routines do not appear to have that option, they are pretty much instantaneous.
You need to put the delay logic on the SmartThings side, and once all your conditions are fulfilled, then turn on the virtual contact sensor that will be used in the Alexa routine.
As for how to build the delay logic, please start a new thread with your question in the “schedules and automations“ section of the forum and people will be able to help you design that. There are several different ways to do it and I don’t want to get too far off topic for this particular thread.
If so, you can use anything at all you like on the SmartThings side and wrap it up in any logic then you like, as long as your outcome is turning on a virtual switch.
Then you use the DTH mentioned above which is both a virtual contact sensor and a virtual switch. Turning on the switch makes the contact sensor look like it is Open. Turning off the switch makes the contact sensor look like it is closed.
Create your Amazon Alexa routine so that it is triggered by that virtual contact sensor, and you’re all set.
See the how to article in the community – created wiki.
But as long as you have a combination of logic and events on the SmartThings side which will result in a switch being turned on, you can use the virtual contact sensor method to make that switch turning on Look like a sensor opening, and have that sensor opening trigger an echo routine.
So it works for anything at all that smartthings can use to trigger a switch being turned on.
Thanks I was looking at it but I don’t know if it is possible for me. I used a altered DH for my smartthings multi sensor to read only acceleration and temp. I am using this as a doorbell sensor. Correct me if I am wrong, since I am using a altered DH, i can’t use urs?
No, that’s not how it’s going to work. Did you read the wiki article?
You’re going to keep your multisensor just the way it is. You’re going to use the same DTH for the multisensor that you already use. You are going to set up an automation in SmartThings which is triggered by your multi sensor and which turns on a switch. (You can probably even use the official smart lights feature.)
Separately, you are going to use the DTH above (it’s not mine, by the way) to create a virtual contact sensor. This will be a new device in your things list. In fact, it’s going to show up as two new devices: a virtual switch and a virtual contact sensor. When you turn on the switch, the contact sensor will show as open. When you turn off the switch, the contact sensor will show as closed.
And then you will create an Amazon routine which is triggered by that virtual contact sensor. Not by your motion sensor.
So your motion sensor will turn on the virtual switch. That virtual switch coming on will open the virtual contact sensor. Then the Amazon routine will start because the virtual contact sensor opened.
If you need more help with this, please start your own thread in the following section of the forum, because I feel at this point we have done as much as we can and still stay on topic for this thread.
