Non (yet!) developer Q: can virtual devices be more than binary?

[JDRoberts]

There are many different kinds of virtual devices, you can take a look at what @taustin has done.

[ST Edge] vEdge Creator: a virtual device generator for end users

Here is an Edge driver that will enable end-users to create virtual devices that run locally on-hub. UPDATED JULY 2023… Features: Supports the following virtual device types: A/C, air quality, alarm, Alexa switch, battery, CO2 level, contact, door, energy, fan, garage door, illuminance, Level/dimmer-only, lock, light (including RGBW), momentary button/doorbell, motion, panic, presence, refrigerator, smoke detector, sound pressure, sound sensor, switch, switch level/dimmer, temp/humidity, TV, thermostat, video camera, water sensor, window shade Create any number of virtual devices Easy and fast to use: No coding or CLI required Enables you to create 100% local automations with virtual devices See how many devices you’ve created of a given type (inventory) Devices include additional …

Just as an example, both a thermostat and a dimmer switch are multilevel devices. Not binary.

Prior to voice assistants, The type of use case you are describing was most typically done with a virtual dimmer, which gives you 100 different potential values (0 to 99). So you set the dimmer to 20, that means one thing, you set the dimmer to 30, that means something else.

You could do that with standard voice commands in Alexa, and you wouldn’t need an Alexa routine, you would just catch the value on the smartthings side. . But if you want to make the commands easier to remember, then you would have to use Alexa routines to get custom voice commands.