I have just started using HomeAssistant. I have been using Alexa Echo system for a while in my home now. I have several smart devices (Ring Camera, Ring Door/Motion Sensors, Ring Alarm, Ecobee thermostate, Schlage Encode locks, MYQ Garage Door Opener, Tuya Wi-Fi smart bulbs, FireTV and Echo devices)… All my current devices are compitable with Alexa and I have been using Alexa Routines for all my smart home automation till now… I wanted to have some advance automations that were not possible using Alexa so I setup HA and so far I am liking it very much…
Going forward, I am planning to use HA as my main Automation platform… I also use Echo devices for voice commands (“alexa lock front door”, “alexa show driveway” etc)… and I would like to continue using Alexa voice control…
Now my question is, I see that there are several projects/integrations like “Amazon Alexa Smart Home Skill”, “Haaska” etc out there that can be used to integrate HA devices with Alexa. Since my smart devices are already integrated with Alexa (as well as HA now), is there any advantage or reason to remove all my devices that are directly linked to Alexa and go through Haaska (or similar integration) to integrate those devices with Alexa?
Caveat: I can only speak to using Haaska and Alexa Media Player (both are required), people using other methods may have different experiences. Haaska is a bit bare-bones, so I don’t know that I would recommend it for someone starting out… but it’s what I started with, I’m used to the workflow, and it has only required about 30 minutes of upkeep over the past 3 years.
In my experience you should move every device possible to direct integration with Home Assistant. Creating flexible and powerful automations is so much easier when devices are directly integrated.
There will be devices (especially those that are Amazon brands) that will not directly integrate with Home Assistant. Often Alexa will not pass data from these devices to HA or allow direct control by a 3rd part like HA. To “integrate” those entities it may be necessary to create somewhat convoluted collections of proxy entities, automations, and routines.
Thank you very much for your response… Ideally I would like to have all the integrations, automations etc on the Home Assistant… and that’s the reason why I have removed all the Alexa Routines and I am using HA for all the integrations… so far I am able to integrate all my Devices with HA… Although most of my devices are Wi-Fi based and it has integrated with HA using cloud services (e.g mqtt-ring for Ring, Schlage for my locks, Ecobee etc)…I have also integrate Alexa Media Player and I am currently using HA to send notifications to Alexa using that integration (e.g door has been automatically locked after a while… someone is at the front door etc)…
I have looked at some videos on Youtube regarding setting up Haaska, although it does require some work but I think setting it up isn’t a big problem (I have a Software Engineering background and I am able to understand all the integration steps)… My only concern is, since I am going to be using Alexa for Voice Commands (for showing outdoor ring cameras, or asking alexa to lock the doors etc)… so my devices like Camera, Lock etc needs to be exposed to Alexa… Currently they are directly linked to Alexa… You suggesting I remove that direct integration and instead Expose those devices to Alexa using Haaska?
Also like you mentioned, I do have certain devices (some Eaton brand wi-fi switches and plugs, some outdoor permanent holiday lights etc) that only work with Alexa app, they don’t even have their own app… not sure I would be able to integrate them with HA or not… but I bought all my Smart devices at the time when I wasn’t even aware of HA Now I am thinking to slowly replace my smart devices to the ones that are fully compatible with HA…
The purpose of the skills is to allow just that. At this point I only have one device, an Amazon branded smartplug, that has to go through Alexa, but I use can control most things through voice commands.
I have no experience with the devices you mentioned, but there are integrations for Ecobee, Schlage, and Ring. You will need to do some research or experiments to find out if there are trade-offs you can’t live with.
Actually I have integrated Ecobee, Schlage and Ring with HA and have created Automations in HA… and so far I am very happy with that… I am able to do things with HA automation that were not possible with Alexa routines… also using Alexa Media Player integration, I am able to send notifications on my Echo devices which is really cool…
I think I am going to go ahead and try to integrate Haaska over the weekend… and remove all my devices from Alexa that are currently directly integrated with Alexa… and expose those devices to Alexa using Haaska integration in HA… that way everything will be Centralized in one platform i.e HA…
Btw, I was going through Haaska documentation and it mentions about port forwarding… I currently have VPN setup that I use to connect to my home network from Outside… my HA instance/url is also using https and have a valid ssl cert… (https://homeasstant.MYDOMAIN.ca")… Do I need to port forward even after that for some reason?
Now I am thinking to slowly replace my smart devices to the ones that are fully compatible with HA…