#Trigger an Alexa Routine with HA and HA Cloud

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

sinful shard
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I'm working with HA VoicePE and Alexa using the HA cloud. One thing that is very easy to do in VoicePE is to make an announcement when, for example, the "mail has arrived". I would like to do this by with Alexa by triggering an Alexa routine from HA.

With a Hubitat Elevation I have done this by creating a virtual contact sensor. The Hubitat can open/close the contact sensor and an Alexa routine can be created that is triggered by the contact sensor opening and then makes an announcement.

I was wondering if anyone has a better way of doing this.

Thanks in advance for the help

glossy shard
sinful shard
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Thanks @glossy shard ! I'll give that a try. Can the Alexa Devices skill be used with the Home Assistant skill or are the mutually exclusive? Thanks again. - Sorry I just reread your message and I see that Alexa Devices is an integration, not an Alexa skill. I'll give it a try.

glossy shard
sinful shard
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Thanks so much @glossy shard . It works great

glossy shard
sinful shard
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This morning I had a chance to do some more detailed testing of running an HA script from Alexa as @glossy shard suggested and I'm having a problem. Last night I just validated that I could "see" the script in the Alexa app. This morning I tried to execute it. I've done the following: I created a script in HA, tested that the script properly operates by manually executing it, exposed the script to Alexa, went to the Alexa app, created a routine, added the "turning on" of the script as a step in the routine (the script shows up in Alexa as a scene), added an announcement as a step in the routine so I can be sure it is executing, and saved it. When I execute the routine I can hear the announcement but the script doesn't execute. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for the help.

glossy shard
sinful shard
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Hi @glossy shard Sorry for the slow reply. I'm not sure how but my HA/Alexa integration stopped functioning and I've been trying to recover for more hours than I care to count. I ended up going back to a backup from 2 days ago (before I linked Alexa) and have been slowly adding functionality. I have relinked HA and Alexa and added the Alexa Devices Integration. The Alexa Devices integration doesn't work at all for announcements. When I trigger an announcement through an automation it plays on my Voice Preview but not on my Alexa speakers. But this is the least of my worries. I can say Alexa, turn on the bedroom light and the light will come on. However, if I open up the Alexa app on my iPad, click on the light bulb at the bottom to display a device list, the list of devices just pulses and never populates. The bar of groups on the page initially populates and after a period of time it goes blank except for "new group" and "combine speakers" buttons. I've deleted the HA skill and re-added it but that hasn't helped. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for the help

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I just tried something else. If I edit a routine and add control of a smart home device to the routine then the, for example, list of switches to choose from will populate and I can add turning on a switch to the routine. Go figure.

sinful shard
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It turns out that the devices screen in the Alexa app will eventually populate. We're talking about 5 minutes for that to happen. So, it appears there is possibly some corruption on the Alexa side of its devices list that has occurred. Today I'm going to rebuild the Alexa routines I need for the system to function. At that point I'm going to return to my original topic of finding better integration pathways between Alexa and HA so, for example, HA can trigger a routine to execute and a routine can trigger an action on the HA system. Thanks

jovial abyss
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Trying to use Alexa with Home Assistant is kind of spooky hybrid of horse and rabbit in the first place. Amazon is strict about their ecosystem, so i would expect changes in SDK, lags and new restrictions any day, being in your situation. That's why i ditched proprietary ecosystems from my house eventually. Yes, that can be inconvenient to do first - but 1.5 years in i see nothing but benefits from my decision.

sinful shard
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I've recovered all my HA / Alexa integration functionality. I'm still having a problem with the Alexa app taking 5 minutes to display the list of devices. I believe this occurs when there are devices from HA that were previously set to be shared with Alexa, they are no longer shared, Alexa didn't get that information, and it is searching for their status and probably going through timeouts. At one point I had it all fixed but in working back and forth between HA and the Alexa app to get things working, this side effect started again. Once I get all this fixed. I'll return to looking for better integration paths than what I'm doing now

jovial abyss
sinful shard
halcyon magnet
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Haven't used Alexa devices before, so i only know that RespeakerLite and the VoicePE both are running just fine here. The W.A.T. you mentioned is an important thing though 😉

sinful shard
# halcyon magnet Haven't used Alexa devices before, so i only know that RespeakerLite and the Voi...

The VoicePE works perfectly when I'm close to it and when there is minimal background noise. Unfortunately, we always have TV or music in the background and then getting it to recognize commands becomes problematic. Alexa devices have 4, 6, or even 8 microphones and I've found them (with the exception of Echo Show devices) to do a very good job of listening when spoken to from across a room and understanding when there is background noise. There is definitely much more work involved in getting it to work properly with HA, as I'm discovering every day as I try new things. The tighter integration of VoicePE and HA is really nice. My VoicePE sits on my desk and is a great backup when I screw up the Amazon Integration😀

halcyon magnet
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i set it up when wakeword detected, mute all players in area, resume if answered played

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as said, dont have alexa devices.. 😉

sinful shard
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I thought about muting things. But I get a fair number of false wake word detections (hey mycroft) when watching TV and muting would be anoying. Last night I think I noticed 3 times that it thought it heard the wake word.

halcyon magnet
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what if wakeword sensitivity is set lower?

sinful shard
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I'll give that a try

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Just checked and it is already set to the lowest "slightly sensitive" setting 🙁

halcyon magnet
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pointing away from media playing sources could help here.

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a bit

sinful shard
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Thanks. It is about 20 feet from our media setup and sitting flat on my desk. Since our TV watching chairs are between the speakers and my desk if I point it totally away then it would never hear us speak the wake word or commands.

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In my efforts to control HA with Alexa I have an HA automation that is exposed to Alexa. The automation shows up as a scene in the Alexa app. I have an Alexa routine that is triggered by a voice command and then turns on the scene for the HA automation. When I speak the phrase to trigger the Alexa routine I hear the beep response that the command has been recognized. However, the actions for the HA automation don't take place and in the HA app "last triggered" for the automationn remains at "Never". Any ideas on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for the help

halcyon magnet
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did you resync your devices in the home assistant settings voiceassistants? What happens if you trigger the scene manually in Alexa app?\