Alexa Room Dependent Switches - Automation

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Hi

Since i have used these forums to get me out of pickles i thought that i would share an automation i developed using snippets of others to achieve one goal - Room Dependent Alexa switches! i.e. If you say "Alexa Turn on the Television - it turns that rooms Television on!

First of, none of this is possible without the Alexa Media Player customer component, so big thanks to that team:

The only other component this uses is Harmony Hub:

However as long as you have a switch that turns a TV (or any other devices) and this will work.

Here are the steps:

  1. Create a sensor in configuration.yaml which connects to alexa_media.update_last_called. This tells HASS which Alexa was used for voice command:
 - platform: template
    sensors:
      last_alexa:
        entity_id:
        - media_player.bedroom
        - media_player.dining_room
        - media_player.living_room
        value_template: >
          {{ states.media_player | selectattr('attributes.last_called','eq',True) | map(attribute='entity_id') | first }}

Under entity_id list the alexa’s that you want to include in the automations.

  1. Create an input boolean in configuration.yaml:
input_boolean:
  television:
    name: Television
    initial: off
  1. Create a switch that controls that input boolean in configuration.yaml:
- platform: template
    switches:
      television:
        friendly_name: "Television"
        value_template: "{{ is_state('input_boolean.television', 'on') }}"
        turn_on:
        - service: input_boolean.turn_on
          entity_id: input_boolean.television
        turn_off:
        - service: input_boolean.turn_off
          entity_id: input_boolean.television
  1. Next create a script in script.yaml:
livingroomteleon:
    alias: Living Room Television On
    sequence:
      - alias: TV on
        service: switch.turn_on
        data:
          entity_id: switch.livingroomtv
      - delay:
          seconds: 5
      - alias: Switch Off
        service: switch.turn_off
        data:
          entity_id: switch.television

This step ensures that when it is used after a few seconds the input boolean turns off so that you can technically do this in every room at pretty much the same time bar a few seconds!

  1. Now for the automation. Create this automation in automation.yaml:
- id: livingroomtvalexa
  alias: Living Room TV Alexa
  initial_state: 'true'
  trigger:
  - entity_id: switch.television
    platform: state
    to: 'on'
  condition:
  - condition: state
    entity_id: sensor.last_alexa
    state: media_player.living_room
  action:
  - service: script.turn_on
    entity_id:
    - script.livingroomteleon
  1. Ensure the switch created at step 3 is linked with Alexa and create a routine like this:

When: Alexa, Television On Alexa, Television power on.

Thats it! Obviously you need to repeat steps to add the other room TV’s, dining room, bedroom etc.

You also need to tweak it slightly for Television off. Steps 2 - 6 and call it all Television off.

I have also used this for Television volume up, down and mute. You can also use this method for any devices repeated in each room such as (time of year of writing this) Christmas lights which are on smart plugs.

Feedback on this is welcome and let me know if you have successes as this is my first share of an automation.

Cheers

Ash!

UPDATE

Since posting this i was attempting to add pause and play options, however even though in some rooms this was easy as it is only one device that controlled pausing or playing, in my living room it depended on more than the TV to pause such as an Apple TV or BluRay Player. As I use Harmony Hub i realised i had to add another condition which was which Harmony Activity was Active so i created a sensor:

  - platform: template
    sensors:
      harmonyactivity:
        friendly_name: Living Room Harmony Hub Activity
        value_template: '{{ states.remote.living_room.attributes.current_activity }}'

This is now another condition to add to the automation, here is an example:

- id: appletvpausealexa
  alias: Apple TV Pause Alexa
  initial_state: 'true'
  trigger:
  - entity_id: switch.pausealexa
    platform: state
    to: 'on'
  condition:
  - condition: state
    entity_id: sensor.last_alexa
    state: media_player.living_room
  - condition: state
    entity_id: sensor.harmonyactivity
    state: Apple
  action:
  - service: script.turn_on
    entity_id:
    - script.appletvpause

This works a treat!

5 Likes
2

Cool,
Its been a frustration of mine that the only room dependant device Alexa wants to knows about is the lights
I have ceiling fans and no matter what I say to her unless I say the device name out in full she just tells me I found more than one device with the name fan. Yes i know t here is but Alexa in this room there is only the one fan.

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3

Yeah is annoying with all the “there are sveral devices with that name…” reply.
Best way is to set routines like above on the devices it struggles with!

4

Yeah I know but you then have to give them different names. And you have to remember what you called them, I just want say turn on the bloody fan just like i do with the light.

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5

Thank you for the example of the last_alexa sensor! That is going to help with my automations no end!

1 Like