Hacking Routines to run with a virtual devices

[JDRoberts]

@steveg95

Does anyone have a newbie guide for how to setup Alexa Helper to tie a virtual switch to my z-wave deadbolt?

The first step would probably be to look someplace other than the developers category. Around here the “hackers” are mostly very serious coders.

Anyway, it depends whether you want to just put the unlock in a routine, which is what I do, or something trickier where you can actually tie that specific lock to a switch so you can use it in other smartapps as well.

If you put it in a routine, it’s super easy. Just use the FAQ for having Alexa run a routine. But then you’re going to need one virtual switch to lock, and a different virtual switch to unlock. That works fine for me because my door is on autolock anyway, I only need to unlock (from inside)

[DEPRECATED] 2015 Voice Assistant Run Routine FAQ--see 2017 FAQ instead

On October 1, 2016, Amazon added the ability to turn on a " routine" from Alexa. If you want to use that method, see the official support article. https://support.smartthings.com/hc/en-us/articles/210204906-Amazon-Alexa-SmartThings-Routines Note that the official method will not allow you to use echo to run any routine that includes a lock or a Smart Home Monitor armed state change or another device class that Alexa does not know. The method described below in this FAQ will, but it does require that you create a virtual switch. Although at present echo can only request that smartthings turn devices on, off or dim, by using a virtual switch, you can tell echo to turn that switch on or off, and then have all kinds of things happen in smartthings. For example, if you want to have echo tu…

If you want to assign the lock to a virtual switch so you can do both lock and unlock on the same switch , you’ll need an additional smart app. To find the instructions for that, start with the Alexa FAQ and just read about using it with locks:

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

NEW: Alexa IFTTT Triggers As of November 12, 2015, there are now two official ways to integrate Alexa and SmartThings. The first way is fast and simple, and can do any one thing that you can do in the official SmartThings IFTTT channel. You pick any phrase you want to use, and use that as the “if” in the Alexa channel at IFTTT for a new recipe. Then you just pick from the dropdown options in the SmartThings IFTTT channel as the “that.” To use a recipe, you say “Alexa, trigger {my phrase}.” So you could say “Alexa, trigger open the pod bay doors” to open your garage door, “Alexa, trigger autodestruct” to turn on your siren, “Alexa, trigger kitchen lights” to turn on your kitchen light. Whatever you want. This is the power of IFTTT, and why SmartThings having a channel there is so u…