Problems adding Smarthing Button device handler. Gotta be simple, except for me!

Devices & Integrations Connected Things
1

Greetings!

This is my first post. I hope I picked the proper area.

I’m a senior member of another forum (security camera systems) and help many folks. Now I’m asking for help here. Humbling.

I have an Alex Echo, Smartthings hub, and various devices. (eg: Zwave moisture sensors, Zwave door sensors, WiFi & Zwave plugs, zigbee switch actuator, zwave switch relay, etc.)

I bought two Smartthings buttons. They’ll control Alexa audio volume and Alexa routines. I’ve literally spent hours trying to get Alexa to recognize the Smartthings button.

Status:

The problem: The fields for Location and Hub are blank. Their pulldown menus are blank. The fields won’t let me enter anything in those fields. My Smartthings system (hub + devices) already has Location & Hub defined. Along with rooms, groups, automations, etc.

I don’t need anything tricky or fancy. I simply want the Smartthings Button to be used in Alexa Routines.

What am I doing wrong?

I’ve been lurking here for days - you guys are great!

Fastb

2

are you logging into IDE at https://account.smartthings.com

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3

jkp,
Yes, although that address is converted to https://graph-na04-useast2.api.smartthings.com/

4

jkp,

Did I read somewhere that the address is geographic-specific? I’m in Seattle, Wa.

5
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6

In IDE, click on My Locations… is only one location with your hub listed?

7

jkp,
Wow! Thanks a lot!
Let me digest this a bit. I hope to reply tonight…

8

Yes, under My Locations, the table only has one entry. The headings are:
Name Events Notifications Devices Installed SmartApps

And the single row of entries is:
[Home ][ events ] [ notifications ] [ devices ] smartapps

9

I am not helping it seems :frowning: So you click on My Devices and then click on “+ New Device” and those two fields when you select them don’t have your hub or location?

10

Almost correct.
I click on My SmartApps

Wait a minute.

  • Now I see the new device handler in a single row under “My Device Handler”
  • and I see 11 devices under “My Devices”
    Strange…

Earlier, under “My Devices”, I saw " You don’t have any devices yet. Add one now."

If I was perplexed before, now I’m outright confused…

11

I have two “My Devices” tabs open, with different results showing.
With different urls:
xxxx
xxxx
Refreshing the tabs doesn’t change the results…
image

12

In other words, see bullet #4 in my original post, above.
My problem occurs when trying to “Create Device”. I’m prevented from publishing.

13

you would have logged into the wrong shard. Using https://account.smartthings.com would automatically redirect you to your appropriate SHARD that contains your devices/smart apps/device handlers. in your case, that is NA04. When you are on the wrong SHARD, you will have all the issues you described. Start with the correct SHARD and try everything again.

or since you now know your SHARD, you can login directly to it at https://graph-na04-useast2.api.smartthings.com/

avoid using https://graph.api.smartthings.com/ ← avoid. Bad things happen :slight_smile: only those users on that particular SHARD should be logging into it :slight_smile:

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14

jkp,
I think you fournd the root cause.
I was using various web sites to get instructions on how to add the Smartthings button. They provided links to the Smartthings ide. They may have used addresses for different shards.
Thank You! I would have never figured this out on my own.
You introduced the “shard” topic - which I never saw in all my hours of trying to figger this out.

Thanks again.
Now hopefully Alexa will recognize the Smarthings button, since the button is listed under “My Devices” (when using the right shard)
And the ST Device Handler is listed under “Device Handler” (when using the right shard)

Thanks!
Brian

1 Like