I hate to hijack others topic, but how you can disable/block ST devices from Alexa? I tried removing, but they always seem to automatically pop up again as new devices?
you can’t. You can only disable them IN Alexa once they’ve been discovered. Filtering the list has been a feature request for MORE THAN two years - ST dev originally agreed it was a bad design and a change was ‘coming’ but they never agreed to ta timeframe and most of us assume the effort has been abandoned.
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All edge drivers require a SmartThings/Aeotec hub. (Edge Drivers run on the hub.)
Right now the only way to get access to hue scenes from SmartThings is with the community edge driver from @blueyetisoftware , so, if you want to access Hue scenes within the smartthings app, you’ll need a SmartThings/Aeotec hub.
Of course you can still use Hue scenes with other third-party integrations, including Alexa, so that might be all that’s needed. It just depends on the details. 
I myself do not have a smartthings/Aeotec hub and do use a hue bridge, but while I could connect the hue bridge to my smartthings account, I don’t because I get all the functionality I need for Hue through either Apple home or Alexa. But I don’t mind using multiple apps, and I know some people do.
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All true until they decided to go back into the hardware business with the SmartThings Station, their newest hub that supports Zigbee and Thread, but not zwave. 
So the current hub choices are the one from Aeotec (which also supports zwave)
https://www.amazon.com/Aeotec-SmartThings-Gateway-Compatible-Assistant/dp/B08TWDNQ5Q
Or the Station
https://www.amazon.com/SAMSUNG-SmartThings-Station-Wireless-EP-P9500TBEGUS/dp/B0BRNST1JB/
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As far as custom dashboards, both ActionTiles and Sharptools are popular in the community. They have different features and business models, but both work with the 2023 smartthings architecture. SharpTools includes a nice rules engine, but you might not need that. Which one you get, if either, is just a matter of personal preference. 
Both have a free trial so you can check them out.
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You know how I feel about that device JD, won’t recommend it to anyone. Especially with the new vendor picking up ZWave Chip supply licensing and the ID problems with Matter. I til that shakes out im not giving up ZWave. And that device design is just poor.
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I understand. I think it’s a nice device for someone who has a galaxy phone and no Z wave devices. It may also end up being a good budget choice for people who are using the smartthings app and want to add matter devices, since it will run the matter edge Drivers and it’s also a Thread Border router. Choice is good.
I have people like that in my family - we’re a Galaxy household. You dont put a magnetic induction charger on top of 2.5Ghz Antennae. - I wont buy one.
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LOL! Ok, fair enough: I had exactly the same reaction when I first saw the specs. 
I am concerned about a recent forum report from one community member that every time they had a power outage, the zigbee radio inside the station failed to reboot when power was restored. But I don’t know if that’s an individual defective device or a model design issue. I guess we’ll hear more eventually.
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I’ve had to help two people locally with zigbee interface issues with that thing. It’s not as bad as a Zigbee stick in a Pi but it’s worse than a v3 hub. (relative ease to kill the signal) incidentally while helping these people I did drop my phone (S23+) on top and when I did we lost some bulbs.
To add insult to injury I can’t (couldn’t when I looked) change the zigbee channels now so we had to re-engineer the 2.5 Ghz WiFi around it. Thankfully it was not an Orbii - as I understand it making it consumer friendly means you can’t change the wifi channels there either.
Did I mention I do not like that device? It shall remain unnamed like the 4th Indiana Jones movie and the 9th star wars flick that also don’t exist.
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Thanks so much everyone!
Do you need a hub for Action Tiles or will it work from the ST remote connection to Hue and Alexa?
The above Amazon link to the Aeotec hub currently points to a “Used” product. New ones should appear at some point.
If anyone needs or wants a new hub, as well as Used or Open box → SmartMatters.co
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orbi routers have a web interface 192.168.1.1… or an android /ios app. Yes, the app doesn’t let you control much, but the web interface does.
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Mine is working perfectly, the station is my only (and first) hub and it has been amazing for me, no complaints at all.
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Thanks for the help everyone - I have been been fiddling with a bunch of different tools in a ST hub-less setup and seem to be making progress. For instance:
- Using the premium IFTTT to setup triggers from virtual switches (created here: https://api-browser-plus.pinsky.us//) which when activated, triggers one or multiple scenes on the Hue hub using the IFTTT integration.
- Setup Action Tiles to replace the Yonomi interface with switches and routine buttons from SmartThings.
I’m getting there - but have a few more questions:
-
I have a number of scenes stored on my Hue hub. My home is open plan, so when I want to watch TV, the action of pressing the TV lighting mode changes scenes across multiple rooms. I could set this up as a routine in ST, but with so many lights to program, it will take ages. I would far rather create a virtual button that then connects to Alexa or IFTTT to set the Hue scenes. I cannot see how to make a button in Actiontiles, only a switch. The issue is the switch has an ‘on’ and ‘off’ state, but calling on the scene will set the state to ‘on’ and it will never turn off. This is a problem, for which the only way round I see is to make a ST routine and program every bulb. Any way round this?
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Is there any way for ST to read the scenes stored in the Hue hub and copy them as a scene/routine setting in ST? For instance, could I set the scene using Hue, then open ST and tell it to save the current settings as a scene/routine in ST? i.e. a roundabout way to get what I want.
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I can’t see how to get a virtual button in ST to work on Actiontiles - it only seems to understand switches.
-
Is there no way (without a ST hub/premium subscription to another service) to have a button on ST trigger a routine on Alexa?
If I get some help to the above, I think I should be able to muddle my way though to the perfect setup.
Thanks!
I can’t answer the detailed questions about ActionTiles, so hopefully someone else will be able to. Otherwise you might need to ask those in the ActionTiles community forum.
For some of your other questions…
The issue you were running into is that at the time of this writing, Alexa routines cannot be triggered by most switches. As you noted, those who have a smartthings/Aeotec hub do have the ability to create a number of different kinds of virtual devices which can trigger an Alexa routine. But the choices for those without a hub are much smaller.
The workaround is to use a community created tool, the API browser plus, which can create a virtual lock. And you can trigger an Alexa routine from a lock. So that’s the way to deal with that issue. (API browser plus is just a webpage, you don’t need to have a smartthings/Aeotec hub and you don’t need to have a laptop. You can just access it from a mobile device.)
SmartThings API Browser+ ... Now Available to All
If you want it to be a switch, just because it’s easier for the humans, create a couple of smartthings routines (not Alexa routines) so that turning the virtual switch on unlocks the virtual lock, and turning the switch off locks it again.
And when you use a smartthings routine to turn on a switch, you can have that same routine turn it off again, after a delay of, say, one minute. That way it’s ready to use again the next time. It’s not quite as smooth as a button, but it should serve the same purpose.
You can’t get to hue scenes within the official smartthings features, though, not even just to copy their settings. So you will have to activate them using an Alexa routine or Ifttt. (those who have a Smartthings/Aeotec hub do have one additional option using a communitycreated edge Driver, but that’s not available to those without a hub.)
Lots of people use either Ifttt or an Alexa routine to activate a hue scene from smartthings, it’s a very popular use case. So the main issue you still have is that you’re going to have to use a virtual lock to activate the Alexa routine if you want to use that method. But again, you could also create a virtual switch and use a smartthings routine to have it lock/unlock the virtual lock, so humans wouldn’t ever have to say “unlock lock b”. It’s a little more work to set up, but you can end up with the same functional outcome as you would get from a virtual button.
Thanks all - have solved with IFTTT pro calling on multiple scenes to a trigger and then setting up multiple virtual switches in ST linked to Action Tiles. A routine in ST then ‘switches off’ the switch when its state is ‘on’ after 5 seconds, so it then resets on Action Tiles and thus acts as a button. All sorted!
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Just an fyi….the Aeotec Smartthing hub still shows on Amazon, but there are none for sale. Does anyone know if they’re just out of stock, or since Samsung has gone back into the hardware side, (and cheaper), is Aeotec maybe pulling out?
Or, maybe I missed something somewhere.
Thanks
As far as we know, just out of stock, which is common with Home Automation Devices these days.
@jkp gave you a link in post 17 above to a company which does usually have it in stock.
I’ve never bought anything from that particular company, but I have purchased several times from zwaveproducts.com and they also show it as being in stock at the time of this posting.
But you never know these days, smartthings doesn’t generally make announcements in advance about hardware decisions.
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This was interesting. As of today, Aeotec (the manufacturer of the hub) is now offering it through an Amazon storefront. It is in stock at Amazon warehouses and will ship from them, but does not count as a prime purchase and returns are based on Aeotec’s return policy.