Combining Alexa and HA actions

Third party integrations
1

I have a Echo Dot and the emulate hue setup and working well to have alexa turn things on/off as needed. One of the most common items I have alexa do is turn on my amplifier and then play pandora.

Question is how can I make this a single command. I was hoping that alexa was exposed as a media player but no dice. Im guessing its possible but not sure how to approach it.

1 Like
2

Emulated hue expects light (Alexa,turn off light) or dimmer(Alexa, turn on light 50%)

Media player play/pause won’t work

What I did was create ON/OFF button(input_boolean for play,pause, input select) or slider (input_slider for volume).

I connected those buttons to automations.

So, for example, media_player.play become input_boolean.On

I then expose the input boolean to Alexa and “Alexa turn on dvd” can mean “turn ON TV, set volume 50% and play DVD”…" …whatever occurs based on automation. A secondary automation triggered by OFF can shut equipment OFF

3

I understand that side of it, however, to play pandora, spotify etc. from Alexa is what I cannot get going.

right now I say:

Alexa, turn on the amplifier

Then

Alexa, play my (name of station I want) station.

Part one of that is alexa interacting with HA, part two is alexa playing pandora natively. I have my amplifier hooked up to the 3.5 mm output of my Echo dot.

4

HA cannot direct Alexa Action (HA make Alexa do something, it is always Alexa make HA do something)

This may be 2 part:

  1. Have Alexa tell HA to set input
  2. Tell Alexa play Pandora(this is normal function of Alexa)

You can also make skill that would be funny:
1.Alexa, ask HA to do
Your Skill launch automation that does:
1.Turn on receiver
2.set input
3.play audio from some source that says, “Alexa, play Pandora”
–Alexa hear command and play Pandora

IFTTT

  • there may be IFTTT recipe for Pandora playback on Alexa.
    -Tie this to HA automation and trigger that on Alexa
    -OR Alexa trigger IFTTT and IFTTT play Pandora on Alexa and trigger HA automation
5

Yeah, I ended up making many harmony tasks as switches as well.

“Alexa turn on Watch Den TV”
“Alexa turn on Pause Den TV” and “Alexa turn off Pause TV”
“Alexa turn on CNN”

What’s funny, is that it’s faster than using my Harmony activities and the Harmony App.

6

Hi tmjpugh,

I am trying to get Alexa to translate dimmer commands to a slider. Would you be able to share the configuration / automation you used to make that happen?

Thanks very much in advance!

7

@ekim

Dimmer for zwave light?

8

Hi tmjpugh,

Yes, zwave. Did you use Emulated Hue or HABridge, by chance?