I have several of the GE Smart fan control switches installed. Alexa is great for on/off control, but as the switch appears to be defined as a dimmer, you can’t voice control low, medium, high.
I’ve been looking at post stuff on this and it seems that I only have 2 options at this point. First is to ask for a dim level 32%, 67%, or 100%. The other is to setup scenes in the Alexa app called xx low, etc. - xx is the fan name.
Is there a better way to do this or a device handler? It’s kind of clunky and not guest friendly.
Using Alexa Routines (configured within the Alexa Mobile app) is the simplest solution. You tell Alexa what spoken phrase to listen for, and then set the dimmer level accordingly. It will only take about 5 minutes to set up these three Alexa Routines (“Fan High”, “Fan Medium”, “Fan Low”) one time, and then everyone can use them.
Thanks - I’ve set a couple of these up. I’d prefer a native ST solution, but thanks for confirming.
One limitation I found is that the Alexa commands don’t allow special characters; this includes numbers. So I can’t call the fans by their ST names fan 1, fan 2, etc.
Good luck waiting for Samsung/SmartThings to innovate in this space! Part of the limitation may actually be on Amazon’s side…I am not sure whether or not Amazon really supports Fan Controllers as unique devices versus just Dimmers.
Note: I have been waiting for ST to implement more local processing (other than just Smart Lighting) for 5+ years! I added a Hubitat Elevation Hub to my home automation solution about 18 months ago and am very pleased with direction and innovation of the Hubitat team.
This is interesting… Have you tried using “Fan One Medium” as your Routine trigger phrase instead of “Fan 1 Medium” ? Just a guess.
All systems have limitations… As a hobbyist/enthusiast/maker, I am just having much more ‘fun’ using Hubitat as my main hub these days. Frequent firmware releases (user chooses if and when to upgrade) with new/improved functionality, a built-in rules engine, Maker API, dashboards, local Lutron and Phillips Hue integrations, webSockets, backup and restore capability, etc…
Note: Hubitat users have the exact same Alexa / GE Fan controller issue that you’ve mentioned in this thread. Using Alexa Routines solves the problem on that platform as well!
I have several GE fan Switches and Alexa controls them pretty well. I can say high and low, but you can’t say medium you have to say 50%. I use the Z-Wave Smart Fan Control device handler.
Part of the limitation may actually be on Amazon’s side…I am not sure whether or not Amazon really supports Fan Controllers as unique devices versus just Dimmers.