Just found the way to integrate ICH Broadlink into Smartthings. That’s because I was not able to turn things On/Off or run automation using Smarthings side to ICH.
Here is how to do it:
A) In IHC Broadlink.
Created an scene to turn On my Air conditioner name it “Turn ON AC”.
B) In Alexa:
2. Discover Devices. It will find the scene “Turn ON AC”.
3. Create a Routine with “When you say: Damm is hot” / Smart home / Control Scene / “Turn ON AC”.
4. Test everything at this point.
C) In Smarthings:
5. In device handlers register the switch type from here: [Release] Virtual Alexa Switch/Button
Remember you have to do it from code, save and publish .
6. Then create a virtual Switch using the device handler just created and put 4 o 5 digit ramdon letters in Zigbee ID and name the Switch to “My Air Conditioner”
D) In Alexa:
7. Discover Devices. It will find the device “My Air Conditioner”
8. Create a Routine that:
When this happens/Device/“My Air Conditioner” turns On
Add action / Smarthome / Control Scene / “Turn ON AC”
***** IMPORTANT STEP***** Read at the END of the instructions.
E) In Smartthings:
9. Go Ahead and turn that switch ON
To turn Off just do A, B, D and E.
Here is the Important step*
Because from Alexa side you can create a separate routine to Turn Off or Turn On the AC, Smartthings will not be notified of the state of the Air Conditioner. To avoid that, instead of telling Alexa in another routine to turn on the AC, tell Alexa to turn on the switch and Smartthings will be updated of the state of your AC all the time.
Now on the Smartthings side you can do whatever you want as for example turn off the air conditioner if the door left open. Or you can press a Button in the Smarthings side and put Netflix, AC on and lights out and Alexa will remember to order pizza.
Congratulations! That’s the same method that we use in the wiki FAQ.
Note that the present time you must use A virtual device which is both a virtual switch and a virtual contact sensor, because echo will only let you create routines that trigger off of sensors or the echo button, not other switches. So your step eight doesn’t describe what people actually see in the app. Instead at that point they will be selecting a sensor to open, not a switch to turn on.
Hi There: are there tricks to discovering the device in Alexa? I have an RF device that i have been trying to connect (it works in the IHC app and I have enabled the broadlink skill in alexa). All the articles I read seem to imply only IR devices can be discovered by alexa, but the information out there seems so old and I am not sure what is current. thanks LaraS
I don’t use the Broadlink Skill in Alexa as it is fairly limited, I have found that there are two Broadlink Apps “IHC” & “IHC for EU” I can set up both to work with my RM Pro but only the configuration in one of them works with other Systems.
I currently have “IHC” app set up with my devices, (Devices controlled via “IHC” app)
Then I have “Broadlink smart home” linked to “IFTTT”.
I Also have “Smartthings” linked to “IFTTT”.
For each device I have a Simulated switch within “Smartthings”
I then create an “IFTTT” recipe that says:
IF Device1 (Smartthings) switched onTHENturn on Device1 (Broadlink smart home).
and then the same again for off:
IF Device1 (Smartthings) switched offTHENturn off Device1 (Broadlink smart home).
it’s a bit of a fudge but having had it set up with RM Bridge before I would say a little easier and does not require the extra device to run the bridge.
The IHC for EU came about as a result of GDPR. Broadlink felt the need to have separate EU and rest of the world apps and systems which are not kept in sync, something I haven’t encountered with any other companies. Many EU based users were forced to migrate to the EU app and servers, neither of which were quite ready, but I was one of those who wasn’t. Things have greatly improved though it remains puzzling that the apps have some significant differences. With Google I get a choice of whether to use the EU servers or not, but with Alexa I can only see the EU servers so if I want to use Alexa I have to work with the EU app. The word is that they do tend return to a single platform in the future.
The IFTTT stuff launched quite quietly. I’ve never really liked IFTTT but I had a play with it and quickly ran into the usual problems with Broadlink where, just as it isn’t clear which devices are meant to work with Google or Alexa, it isn’t clear which devices are actually supposed to be working for ‘this’ and ‘that’. When you don’t know if something is not supported, is meant to be working but is broken, or is going to be supported but you have no idea when, it isn’t very encouraging.
I am rather hoping that Broadlink might go for a direct integration with SmartThings, and I recall seeing their name mentioned somewhere that made me think that perhaps this was already happening, though it was probably wishful thinking.