Ways to call a scene?

[sebby]

so, i can get alexa to run a scene by saying “turn on” and the name of the scene. Are there any other key words to get Alexa to execute a scene? it just sounds really weird to say “Alexa, turn on lock all doors”

[MarcusB]

yep, that’s how you do it. When you are importing the scenes and devices, you get the option to add a friendly name for Alexa to use. You can be a little creative by doing something like renaming the “Lock all doors” to “Secure Mode” so then the voice command becomes “Alexa, turn on secure mode”. Not perfect, but I doubt there’ll be a better way any time soon.

[Roveer]

This was good information. I want to pose something a little different.

I’ve integrated vera with my sonos system to play a radio station on the bathroom speaker when I shower in the morning. Based on your information if I name my scene “bathroom” I should be able to say “turn on bathroom” and it should execute that scene (which is luup code).

I’d like to use similar language to turn off the music which is a different luup code. I’d like to say “turn off bathroom”.

How can I achieve on/off, turn on/turn off commands which are different luup code? I read somewhere that you make the device a swtich but would need additional information on how to do this.

Thanks,

Roveer

[BOFH]

I use a generic ‘Sonos Stop’ scene which stops all my other music scenes if they are running. It’s a bit weird telling alexa ‘turn on Sonos off’ but it works. Unfortunately the Multiswitch plugin’s created Multiswitch devices does not seem to be detected as a device. I was hoping that alexa could address each of the 8 buttons and switch them on or off seperately. If so, those could be used to trigger scenes. No such luck unfortunately.

[sebby]

Not trying to promote other products, but i really wish the folks at Vera would take a page out of the Homeseer book on this one. They have a way to specify how you call actions with their Alexa integration. take a look at Option 2 for power users in this link:

[url=http://homeseer.com/amazon-echo-integration.html]Amazon Alexa Smart Speaker Integration | HomeSeer

That would be awesome if rolled into Vera, but I am not holding my breath for that (or IFTTT integration) any time soon…

[Roveer]

@BOFH

I use a generic ‘Sonos Stop’ scene which stops all my other music scenes if they are running. It’s a bit weird telling alexa ‘turn on Sonos off’ but it works. Unfortunately the Multiswitch plugin’s created Multiswitch devices does not seem to be detected as a device. I was hoping that alexa could address each of the 8 buttons and switch them on or off seperately. If so, those could be used to trigger scenes. No such luck unfortunately.

Concerning the ‘Sonos Stop’ scene. Do you have to say “Sonos Stop On” in order to get it to run? If not, is there anything special about this scene? I’d be very happy if I could say Sonos Stop and have it turn off the music.

I set up a ‘sonos stop’ scene. I found the only way to execute it was to say “turn on sonos stop” Very unintuitive. How can I fix this? thanks.

[BOFH]

At this time the only way seems to be the unintuitive ‘turn on sonos stop’. If GetVera builds in support for the MultiSwitch plugin/device that could be corrected. You could then turn a multiswitch button on or off via Alexa. That button would then run a scene depending on off or on status.

[Roveer]

@BOFH

At this time the only way seems to be the unintuitive ‘turn on sonos stop’. If GetVera builds in support for the MultiSwitch plugin/device that could be corrected. You could then turn a multiswitch button on or off via Alexa. That button would then run a scene depending on off or on status.

So we are really no-where when trying to talk to Alexa in any sort of sensible language to control turning things on and off. I guess I’ll keep watching to see if this multswitch plugin gets support from Vera.

[BOFH]

I wouldn’t say nowhere. I can turns lights on and off by simply saying turn on ‘lightname’ or turn off ‘lightname’ and I can set the percentage on dimmers. I don’t have a tstat hooked up yet as that is still on my UI5 Vera which is not supported by the skill so I can’t comment on that. It’s just running the scenes that’s unintuitive for me. Mostly switching something off by having to use ‘turn on’

[Roveer]

@BOFH

I wouldn’t say nowhere. I can turns lights on and off by simply saying turn on ‘lightname’ or turn off ‘lightname’ and I can set the percentage on dimmers. I don’t have a tstat hooked up yet as that is still on my UI5 Vera which is not supported by the skill so I can’t comment on that. It’s just running the scenes that’s unintuitive for me. Mostly switching something off by having to use ‘turn on’

I was referring to controlling sonos using commands that make sense. I think the key is to get that multiswitch thing working. Either that or shelve the entire thing until we see the real sonos integration.

[BOFH]

If the Sonos skill for Alexa comes out I am sure it will give a broader access than the Vera skill. Which is depending on a plugin device. Although that has a lot of capabilities, it doesn’t have as much as the Sonos app itself.

[tesmithp]

Now that Alexa has “routines” you can make your commands much more fluid. For instance: I have toggle scenes for each light/fan/dimmer that simply toggle SwitchPower1 using generic lua code:

local d = 33
local s = luup.variable_get("urn:upnp-org:serviceId:SwitchPower1", "Status", d)

luup.call_action("urn:upnp-org:serviceId:SwitchPower1", "SetTarget",
                { newTargetValue = s=="1" or "0" and "1" }, d)

Assuming this is a lamp and the scene is called toggleLamp, I just make a routine in Alexa that runs scene toggleLamp whenever I say “Alexa, lamp.” You can have a bunch of these routines to accommodate any situation. When I say “Alexa, colder” it runs a scene called colder which drops the heating and cooling setpoints by 1 degree.