# New to Smartthings - So far so good! **URL:** \ **Category:** General Discussion\ **Tags:** amazon'alexa'echo, harmony, motionsensor, uk\_ie\_specific\ **Created:** [November 26, 2016, 5:48pm UTC](https://community.smartthings.com/t/new-to-smartthings-so-far-so-good/64719 "2016-11-26T17:48:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Doz007](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a698b9/32.png) [@Doz007](https://community.smartthings.com/u/Doz007)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2016, 5:48pm UTC](https://community.smartthings.com/t/new-to-smartthings-so-far-so-good/64719/1 "2016-11-26T17:48:46Z")
After keeping my eye on Smartthings since the Kickstarter campaign and lurking this forum for a while, I finally jumped in to the Smartthings world yesterday thanks to the Black Friday deals. First impressions are extremely positive (apart from one motion sensor being DOA). Really easy to set up & great, user friendly app. I do have one question at the moment though… I added my Harmony hub in the smartthings app but I don’t appear to be able to control it in anyway. Is this correct? I’ve also got a new party trick! 😀 ---
**Author:** ![JDRoberts](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/smartthings/user_avatar/community.smartthings.com/jdroberts/32/56577_2.png) [@JDRoberts](https://community.smartthings.com/u/JDRoberts)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2016, 6:16pm UTC](https://community.smartthings.com/t/new-to-smartthings-so-far-so-good/64719/2 "2016-11-26T18:16:19Z")
Very nice! I’m not feeling very well today, so I can’t give you a detailed answer on the harmony, but the short answer is that each harmony activity that you already have set up should have been added as a virtual switch when you added the harmony to your smartthings account. After that, you can turn those switches on and off with any of the existing smartthings features. [https://support.smartthings.com/hc/en-us/articles/205653834-Logitech-Harmony-Home-Hub](https://support.smartthings.com/hc/en-us/articles/205653834-Logitech-Harmony-Home-Hub) If you need more help getting that to work with Alexa, ask in the following thread (this is a clickable link) > [@Smartthings+Echo+Harmony Hub = Voice Controlled TV! (2016 version)](https://community.smartthings.com/t/smartthings-echo-harmony-hub-voice-controlled-tv-2016-version/33883): > > I haven’t seen this posted anywhere, so I thought I’d write up my experience. I wanted to control my TV, set top box, receiver, etc with my Echo and I’m a bit paranoid about IFTTT. I saw that the new Samsung Smartthings hub is compatible with both Echo and with the Logitech Harmony Hub. Long story short, Alexa can now turn on my TV, receiver, set to the right input, and change channels! I also have two Philips Hue Bloom lights behind my TV and they can be set to different colors depending on the channel. (Syfy and HGTV simply MUST have different colors… obviously :P) To do this, you set up “Activities” in the logitech harmony hub software. For example, if I want Alexa to be able to tune to HGTV, I create an HGTV activity in the harmony hub software. The activity will turn on the TV… ---
**Author:** ![Doz007](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a698b9/32.png) [@Doz007](https://community.smartthings.com/u/Doz007)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2016, 12:11pm UTC](https://community.smartthings.com/t/new-to-smartthings-so-far-so-good/64719/3 "2016-11-27T12:11:32Z")
Thanks JD, Hope you’re feeling better today? After a bit of troubleshooting, it appears that the problem is with the Harmony hub losing Wifi signal (even though it’s located right next to the router). With no option to connect via ethernet, todays mission is to try get it to reliably hold a wifi signal to all the Smartthings integration. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Doz007](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a698b9/32.png) [@Doz007](https://community.smartthings.com/u/Doz007)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2017, 12:00pm UTC](https://community.smartthings.com/t/new-to-smartthings-so-far-so-good/64719/4 "2017-02-19T12:00:27Z")
Just an update chaps. After a few months I’m really impressed with the Smartthings platform! It’s performed flawlessly. The thing I’m trying to do now is get some voice feedback based on doors opening, me arriving home etc. Is this possible using either the Amazon Echo or a Chromecast Audio at all? Any help with my little Sunday project would be greatly appreciated. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![JDRoberts](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/smartthings/user_avatar/community.smartthings.com/jdroberts/32/56577_2.png) [@JDRoberts](https://community.smartthings.com/u/JDRoberts)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2017, 4:17pm UTC](https://community.smartthings.com/t/new-to-smartthings-so-far-so-good/64719/5 "2017-02-19T16:17:46Z")
> [@Doz007](#): > > Just an update chaps. After a few months I’m really impressed with the Smartthings platform! It’s performed flawlessly. > > The thing I’m trying to do now is get some voice feedback based on doors opening, me arriving home etc. Is this possible using either the Amazon Echo or a Chromecast Audio at all? > > Any help with my little Sunday project would be greatly appreciated. 🙂 This is a popular request. There’s no way to do it using the official echo features, but there are two different groups of community members who have built code that can do it using SmartThings plus echo. It’s technically quite complex, and you are going to have to sign up for an Amazon developers account, but there are lots of people who will help you if you were interested. The two different projects are AskAlexa and EchoSistant. You can find both listed on the quick browse list for “voice” in the community – created wiki. There is also a third project that can do just voice notifications called LANnouncer. It’s just using the echo as a Bluetooth speaker, so you don’t need the developers account and set up is somewhat easier. But that one doesn’t let you ask if the door is open, it just announces if it is. That might be enough for your needs, I’m not sure. Again, all three are on the “voice” quick browse list. [http://thingsthataresmart.wiki/index.php?title=How\_to\_Quick\_Browse\_the\_Community-Created\_SmartApps\_Forum\_Section](http://thingsthataresmart.wiki/index.php?title=How_to_Quick_Browse_the_Community-Created_SmartApps_Forum_Section)