Sound notification (Alexa)

Yes but that seems backwards. I would be telling Alexa to turn on my AVR waiting for it to go to the correct input then then waiting for it to brief me. Is that what you mean?

Well, no, you use this bad boyā€¦

With Echosistant (mentioned above)ā€¦

And when notification is due, Echosistant turns your AVR on, plays the tts message then turns off your AVR and queues the message in Echosistant so that if you missed a notification, when you walk in a room, a motion sensor checks if you have any missed messages and either flashes your light to alert you, or just plays the message againā€¦

Unfortunately, the Echosistant is not quite there yet. But you can still achieve some of this with Echosistant and CoREā€¦Iā€™ll think about it moreā€¦This is something that Echosistant v4 will be able to handle. Thatā€™s a promise, because I want it tooā€¦lol

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YES! Version 3 released todayā€¦ and we are already planning version 4!!!

Iā€™m taking notes this time Bobby!

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@SBDOBRESCU, I was going to attach an energy monitor plug to the washer, but since I donā€™t really expect to ever actually need to control the plug, Iā€™ve recently decided to get a ā€œlearningā€ HEM since I was planning to buy an HEM anyway. So the ā€œissuesā€ has really been just researching and finding something with real usage data and not BS marketing speak.

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Do you have access to a tablet or always on laptop/pc? You could simply run VLC or Kodi as DLNA receivers/client. You could then output from that device to Alexa or other Bluetooth receiver.

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Ah, yeah I have my washer hooked into the cheap Iris outlet. Been working super well for ever and a day. What is a learning HEM. Was thinking to get another Aeon HEM and hook it to my dryer.

So basically, there are new types of HEMs being released now that actually monitor energy fluctuations and tell you what kind of appliance itā€™s likely to be. So basically, itā€™d attach to your main power line and monitor every device in the house based on an energy signature.

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Does the AVR have to be a Denon?

I think there are several handlers out there, what do you have?

There is a caveat to using your AVR as tts relay, which is the reason I am not using it now. That is, if you are watching something is switching to your media server input and disrupts your other audio. Been too busy with Echosistant to find a solution for that, yetā€¦

Pioneers AVR

When I log into https://graph.api.smartthings.com
I get this screen instead of the one that has a setting option. I am trying to do the GitHub intergration.

Click enable github, top right, assuming you have a github accountā€¦

Okay, thanks!!!

Thanks for your help. I was able to complete the integration process. When I try to install the app on my mobile device, and when tapping marketplace, I do not have a tab called My Apps and EchoSistant is no where to be found. Any suggestions?

Make sure that in the ide you click on save and then click on publish. A drop down shows up that says for me. Click on that. A green bar will show across the top of the screen saying it was successful.

Then go to the smartapp, click on marketplace.
Make sure you tap on smartapps at the top of the screen. Scroll to the bottom and tap on my apps.
Thatā€™s where you find the app the first time.

I think, I need to start over.

Just follow the directions carefullyā€¦ It is a bit of setup process, but well worth it.

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Hi everyone,

@MEarly made a great post of options but I am looking for a way for SmartThings (ST) to talk directly to Echo/Alexa for auditory announcements/notifications. Was something like that there? I couldnā€™t see it.

Is there no way to do it without third party software or hardware?

I tire of learning and forever caring for Yet Another App, or phone/PC/IFTTT/whatever as middle man. All my smart home and smart phone junk is such a leaning tower of cards at this point. Once a month one thing or another mysteriously stops working for god knows what reason. When it breaks, Android points to Liftmaster who points to Tasker who points to STā€¦ pfft. I really want to cut out every middle man that I can.

All I want is ST to talk to Alexa.

So

Can ST talk directly to Alexa somehow?

Perhaps with a smartapp added to one or the other.

Anyone know a way?

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So, for whatever short-sighted reason, Amazon didnā€™t foresee the need to design Alexa around being a notification/status device in the first two iterations. I think it was designed without the smart home (as we know it) in mind. We want Alexa to be the voice of our homes, when the truth is Alexa is just a glorified remote control, screen reader, Amazon media delivery device and Bluetooth (quasi) transceiver. Sheā€™s not ā€œsmartā€.

Smartthings, despite the push and sms notifications, doesnā€™t function well on its own as a notification service either. Thereā€™s a huge gap that has to be filled by 3rd-party apps and services. Why? The hell if I know.

We are currently forced to add layers (which is frequently the cast with any highly customizable technological application) because no one device/service does it all. We are indeed building a smart home of cards, but, if you think about the typical computer, it is built the same way. No one component does everything that you want. Therefore, by design, thereā€™s a system of delegation that hands off work to components based on their functionality.

This is the main reason I have the tablets (cheaper than a Sonos implementation, though I would love to have whole-house audio) that receive the notifications and broadcast them via speaker or simply back to my Echo which is attached to a speaker.

Because the Bluetooth connection usually drops when just using LANnouncer, Iā€™ve also installed Shouter as a notification reader, sense all tablets in my home also receive push notifications from ST. This sometimes leads to redundant messages (ā€œGarage door openā€ from LANnouncer, followed by ā€œSmartthings Garage door openā€ from Shouter) due to my lazy text, sometimes the additional layer actually improves the messaging: ā€œEden mode has changed from Day to Nightā€ from BigTalker->LANnouncer, followed by ā€œSmartthings Performing set Night mode as requestedā€ from Shouter reading the push notification.

I think many teams are simply trying to get the basics down. They are merely trying to control things correctly. Despite that we see a comprehensive and reliable notification system as being something ā€œbasicā€, they technology simply hasnā€™t caught up to our needs and real-world application. And, despite the misnomer, most arenā€™t ā€œsmartā€.

This has actually caused me to start looking into other assistant AI (Aido, Kuri, Zenbo, Buddy, LG Hub Robot, etc) that can do things like identify users by voice, monitor multiple communication channels, monitor device status changes and proactively notify. The biggest problem is that they probably wonā€™t play well with my existing system, and some want to replace ST as my hub.

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