So I’m still setting this all up and added a eco dot to my bedroom last night as we got one free, it’s actusllg quite a good thing, I love how you can set the voice commands and then reactions in terms of what it does, it’s quite a simple layout.
I’m struggling a little with the smart things and getting it to do the automation I want, am I best just linking it to the eco and programming the voice commands that way?
On setting up Alexa I installed my skills for the Hue, SmartThings and sonos, however it’s shoeing up each room or bulb about 3 times along with my sonos speakers, why is this?
I only want to set a few simple rules, the goodnight one works well, but it would be nice if I could get it to lock my doors, turn off everything except one light, but then do the hue sleep setting where that light gradually fades out over 15 mins, is that possibly without using the app and only voice control?
I was hoping to set a command like put the kids to bed so it then dimmed there lights and faded them out over 20 mins and then turned there rooms off?
I’m just not sure how to get it all talking to each other right, but I think Alexa is so much better for voice control over Siri
If you think I should start a new thread just let me know, thanks for all your help
I like Alexa better than Siri also, that’s why I choose devices that can work with both.
I personally always use the native Alexa integration with a third-party device unless there’s some reason why have to go through SmartThings. So the hue bridge, harmony, WeMo, etc are use with their own echo integrations. Not through SmartThings. SmartThings gives you an option to individually authorize devices for use with echo. That just means for use with the smartthings/Echo integration. So what I do is just not authorize anything that has its own independent echo integration. It will still work fine with its own integration, but it gets rid of the duplicate listings.
Are the lights in the Kids rooms Hue bulbs on a Hue Bridge?
You can create a scene in the hue app and then you can discover devices from the echo and after that you can use voice to initiate that scene.
Even better, you can create An Alexa routine (Not a smartthings routine) that includes more than one hue scene, and then execute all of them at once with one voice command.
And then you can go one step further: for anything which echo cannot do by itself, you can create a virtual switch in SmartThings, And then when echo turns on that virtual switch (either directly or with an echo routine), you can have smartthings respond to that switch coming on. So that’s how you could add a whole bunch of activities to your good night routine.
So you can end up with one single voice statement to Alexa, like “Alexa, bedtime” and use an echo routine to have several hue scenes start and several other things happen in SmartThings.
So I’m slowly getting the house set up how I like now and it’s all working well with Alexa.
I’m just trying to get an automation to work…
What I would like to happen is when nobody is at home, I would like to get a light to turn on in one room for the dogs so they are not in total darkness. I know I could just set it to come on at a certain time, but it might get annoying if I’m at home.
