“Alexa, what is the...” intent with HA cloud

apt · July 31, 2018, 6:28pm

I’m starting to look into the HA cloud component and Alexa and I’d like to get some information out of HA using scripts via Alexa and the cloud component.

Is it possible to create a “What is the…” intent, for example “What is the plant temperature” for Alexa to then trigger a script or can these only be done with “Turn on plant temperature”?. I’ve done a bit if searching on the forums and most intent based posts are pre HA cloud. Can someone point me in the right direction. The output would be a TTS or the excellent Alexa TTS script.

eifinger · July 31, 2018, 6:35pm

If you have a sensor which holds the temperature you can expose it to Alexa and set display_categories to TEMPERATURE_SENSOR

See https://www.home-assistant.io/cloud/Alexa

You can then ask “Alexa, what is the x temperature”

apt · July 31, 2018, 7:34pm

Thanks, that’s great for the example I gave but what about things that would require a script to be run? Or something that doesn’t fit into an Alexa category? Can these only triggered with ‘Alexa, turn on…’?

Mikkaat · September 24, 2018, 10:07am

Hi @eifinger and @apt, hoping you can guide me a little more through the display_categories and TEMPERATURE_SENSOR comments… I clicked the link but it just navigates to a standard page on cloud…

As background, i have a fibaro door and window sensor with a temp probe attached which floats in my pool and displays the pool temp on my dashboard as a tile (circle at top of display)… i would like to ask for the temp through my echo…

thanks in advance

eifinger · September 24, 2018, 10:15am

You can have a look how I did it in my configuration:
include the entity:

github.com

eifinger/homeassistant-config/blob/master/alexa.yaml#L5


---
filter:
  include_entities:
    - sensor.large_lamp_temperature
    - sensor.small_lamp_temperature
    - sensor.ventilator_temperature
    - sensor.large_ventilator_temperature
    - switch.ventilator
    - switch.large_ventilator
    - switch.bedroom_receiver
    - switch.snowboard
    - switch.small_lamp
    - switch.large_lamp
    - switch.lobby
    - script.receiver_set_source_bluetooth

configure the entity:

github.com

eifinger/homeassistant-config/blob/master/alexa.yaml#L43-L46


  name: Große Lampe Thermostat
  description: Die Temperatur von Große Lampe
  display_categories: TEMPERATURE_SENSOR
sensor.small_lamp_temperature:

Mikkaat · September 24, 2018, 10:32pm

Thank you, i will try this and let you know how i go.

@eifinger can i also ask, are you running this through HA Cloud: or have you set up your own Amazon Skill (Amazon developer account) or is this related to Haaska?

thanks in advance.

eifinger · September 25, 2018, 5:39am

I’m running this with haaska. But it should be the exact same config for HA cloud

federicodieleke · November 14, 2018, 11:51pm

I know this is a bit late, but I’ve set up input booleans that trigger an automation when they turn on. The first thing they do it’s to turn themselves off and then the rest of the task. Then I set a routine with the alexa app, so I say: “Alexa, good night” or “Alexa, I’m going to work” and Alexa turns on the boolean. Hope it helps you a little, your thread helped me.

apt · November 15, 2018, 10:52pm

KThanks for the reply. I gave this a try with mixed results.

I setup a number of scripts and exposed them via cloud.yaml to Alexa. They appear fine in the Alexa app but it seems to be hit and miss it if Alexa triggers them based on voice trigger.

Also I have one script that seems to be as a light switch (turn on and off) and a near identical script thay just appears as on (very strange)

lonebaggie · November 15, 2018, 11:01pm

try this