Hi folks,
Call me crazy, but I’m experimenting kind of successfully with this integration idea now.
I have some home devices (Sonoff iFan03 and Mitsubishi Electric Air conditioner) that can be controlled by either Alexa or Google Home - but not Vera.
I want to dynamically control these devices based on monitoring the temperature (inside and outside). I couldn’t find any way to integrate Vera with these smart devices via IFTTT etc so am using Sonos TTS RV to ‘speak’ to an echo/google mini to adjust the temperature/fans via scenes and lua.
Anyone else tried this? It sounds absurd but works.
PS - I need to create a slightly longer pause after ‘TTS saying’ the wake word. Any ideas?
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Barking! I love it!
C
Haha, Yes, it is absolutely absurd, but I love it 
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For kicks, I had actually tested a scene to trigger a tts from my sonos to trigger alexa to then trigger that same scene. So it ends up in a race condition… infinite loop…
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You’ll be first up against the wall when the robots take over, you know!
C
Touche! Skynet will be self-aware soon enough you know…
To the OP: Alexa is opening up an API I think so you should be able to send an http call to activate alexa devices without making anything talk.
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AFAIK it’s not there yet, but I use a variation of my plugin for Alexa tts to control a hue light strip I bought on Black Friday (I still have no hue hub, so my echo plus is doing its zigbee magic). It works ok, I just had to create two routines in Alexa.
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A quick search got me to this:
https://developer.amazon.com/docs/smarthome/smart-home-skill-api-message-reference.html
It looks like it is already available and is a skill. Unfortunately it is a cloud API so you have to send your command to the cloud server which then sends it back to one of your echos to execute the command.
Technically one could write a plugin to interact with the echo.
I use something similar to the below for tts to arm burglar deterrent (Alexa skill to simulate different room noises based on different times of the day, also thanks to rigpapas reactor) and also Alexa guard (Which sends an alert if broken glass noise is heard by Sonos/Alexa device)
luup.call_action(“urn:micasaverde-com:serviceId:Sonos1”, “Say”,
{Text=“Alexa”, Language=“en”, Volume=95},
601)
luup.sleep (500)
luup.call_action(“urn:micasaverde-com:serviceId:Sonos1”, “Say”,
{Text=“Open burglar deterrent and protect Kitchen”, Language=“en”, Volume=85},
601)
return true
Has been working fine for months,
P.s
Upon house disarm I have a scene to return Alexa volume to a more respectable 55% so it doesn’t screme at you if you say “Alexa “ late at night