Hello Everyone - after some extensive searching I’m still having trouble getting Alexa to “Arm” my house when I leave. I would like her to basically initiate the Goodbye sequence, which would set the house to Armed, turn off lights, etc. The issue being is Alexa cannot control the home security aspect and says it contains an unsupported device, how do we work around this?
Thanks
Erik
Alexa cannot do Routines that have security devices on it’s own. In the askAlexa app create a voice macro. I have one called “gone” that runs my goodbye routine including motion sensor. I just say “Alexa, tell smarthings gone in 2 minutes.” She replies, “Ok, I will run the gone control macro in 2 minutes.”
You can also create a virtual switch (in api its a simulated switch) then assign whatever it is you have set up to trigger arming (geolocation, lock, etc) to that switch. Armed would be switch on disarm switch off. Alexa can do that.
Thanks for the input! Where do I pickup the ask Alex app?
http://thingsthataresmart.wiki/index.php?title=Ask_Alexa
Complete walk through
Thanks everyone, I followed the walkthrough to a T and it works great! I really wasn’t sure if I would be able to pull it off as I am far from a computer programmer but it worked out well!
follow up to this, how exactly can get Alexa to do a time delay when setting a routine? Such as when I’m leaving I would like Alexa to set the Good Bye routine, but I need about a 2 minute delay so I can get out the door. Any thoughts on this?
Create a voice macro. Then when you say Alexa, tell smartthings (xxxx) in two minutes, she will run it in two minutes. It’s how I run my goodbye routine with a time delay.
Great appreciate it, worked perfectly. Do you find it more effective to create voice macro’s over switches?
Not sure. Using it for goodbye routine is my most common usage. Good morning and good night both work by just saying tell smartthings (XXXXX), with no time delay.
OK sounds good, this basically seems the same as Alexa Helper, any differences between Alexa Helper and Ask Alexa?
Haven’t used helper. Is it from Amazon or another community developer?
Alexa Helper was Ask Alexa’s predecessor
Ok so it’s not the Amazon Alexa app that doesn’t do much as for as controlling goes then.
Question when adding new voice macros in the AskAlexa app - do you need to go back into the developer app at amazon and add these over as a new custom slot types? I’m assuming you can go to the smart app site and just copy this over from the apps html setup page? But to clarify I have to do this everytime I add a macro or change in the askalexa app?
Yes you will need the developer slot to have the voice macro also.
Here is the thread about askAlexa and the developer is there answering questions and helping out.