Using Contact and Motion Sensors to Trigger Alexa Routines (DTH in post 97) (Official Amazon Feature)

I’m having a weird issue, where Alexa will announce ‘Garage Door Open’ twice, every time the garage door opens. But, at the same time, she will not announce ‘Back Door Open’ when the back door opens. I checked ST and the notice for the garage is only once, and there is a notice for the back door.

Has anyone had this issue?

This is just an FAQ for how the feature works. To troubleshoot individual problems, start your own thread, and people will be glad to help. That way the FAQ doesn’t get flooded with individual discussions. Thanks. :sunglasses:

I can’t get routines to work with any device when my trigger is a simulated contact sensor or the Alexa sensor DTH from this thread. Simulated sensors show that they change state in Alexa, but are just not triggering devices as they should from the routine. The weird part is that when I “play” the routine in the Alexa app, everything works as it should.

This is what you need. You can trigger an Alexa to play and much more, from any trigger available in ST.

https://community.smartthings.com/t/release-echo-speaks/142252?u=bamarayne

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I was just typing this same message, you beat me to it.

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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 . :sunglasses:

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.

https://community.smartthings.com/t/release-echo-speaks/142252

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. :sunglasses:

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.

Not even 3 minutes if you use the Community Installer to deploy the SmartApp and Device

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Still offtopic for this FAQ. Please take any follow on comments to the thread about your project. Thanks! :sunglasses:

I had already disabled and reenabled Smartthings and it wasn’t working, but doing it for a second time worked for whatever reason. Thanks.

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I’d suggest keep trying, there doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason

Looking for a simple, cute button to use as a Doorbell button and trigger Alexa to say: Someone’s at the door.

SmartThings does have a button, a little big, but I could live with that. Would that work?

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. :sunglasses:

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.

https://community.smartthings.com/c/projects-stories

Very kind of you to answer so quickly… Thank 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.

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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.

switches can’t be used as triggers for an Alexa 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. :sunglasses:

https://community.smartthings.com/c/smartapps/smartapp-ideas