Home Assistant - Homebridge-Alexa (for Alexa)/Emulated Hue (for Harmony Hub) - Doubling up - please help!

Configuration
1

Hi guys,

I’m looking for some help. My setup is as follows:

I have HA running on my Pi:

  • Homebridge connected to HA for Homekit to work
  • Homebridge-alexa platform running in Homebridge to expose my devices to Alexa
  • Emulated-Hue specified in my configuration.yaml to expose my devices to Harmony Hub

This all works really well however the Emulated-Hue plugin then exposes my devices to Alexa, which means they are doubled up - I can of course disable the duplicate devices in the Alexa app but then when I ask her to turn a light on she’ll often say “this device is disabled”. I can of course delete them but everytime Alexa discovers devices then they will re-appear.

I realise I could just use the Emulated-Hue and do away with the Homebridge-alexa platform in Homebridge, however the reason that I want to use NorthernMan54’s awesome Homebridge-alexa platform is because with this Alexa can change the colours of lights whereas Emulated-Hue cannot.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can alleviate this problem.

To summarise I want to:

  • Expose devices to Homekit
  • Expose devices to Harmony Hub
  • Expose devices to Alexa (with colour control) only once

Any help would be greatly appreciated, great forum.

Regards,

Alex

2

Either stick with Homebridge and use emulated_roku instead of emulated_hue and forget about exposing Alexa devices to the Harmony.

Or, set up HA cloud or, for a little more effort but no upcoming costs, set up the latest version of Haaska and do everything through an HA smart home skill which will let Alexa see what the devices really are and give you your colour control, again use emulated_roku instead of _hue to control things directly through HA.

1 Like
3

@alex101087
hey, how did you configure and enabled homebridge-alexa? Do you know where to find instructions on it?
Got my echo dot today and i’m struggling to get it work with HA

4

Hi Bobby_Nobble,

Thanks for the info.

I have heard about Emulated_Roku but I’m a bit of an amateur and I have no idea how to install it; obviously Emulated_Hue was easy as it’s built in to HA. Please can you give me a run down of what the hell I need to get it installed and useable? Thanks. I’m guessing _Roku doesn’t expose devices to Alexa?

Also what would you say is the best and most reliable option?:

  • Emulated_Roku with Homebridge and Homebridge-Alexa
  • HA Cloud
  • or Haaska?

Thanks so much!

Alex

5

Hi Lokus,

Just follow the instructions here to a T:

Let me know if you hit any roadblocks.

Working very well here!!

Alex

6

hi alex,
thanks for your help! actually i got the alexa ha skill working via ha cloud now…
so i don’t need this alternative anymore. but maybe it helps someone else :slight_smile:

7

No probs.

Personally, I’d go Haaska, you can lose stages you don’t really need, you’ll be self sufficient and won’t face any charges going forward.

Emulated_roku is really simple, have a read of this which explains everything but obviously come back with specifics if you’re not sure…

8

Hi Bobby,

Thanks for all your help.

Finally revisiting this and have managed to get emulated_ruko installed and took off emulated_hue.

But I’m not sure it’ll do what I want… basically the 4 buttons and up down buttons at the very bottom of the Harmony Elite remote can only see smart home devices when you try and set them up…

Will emulated_roku do what I want or am I out of options?

Thanks,

Alex :slight_smile:

9

No, you can assign anything you want to the bottom buttons on the Elite, it’s the Companion that won’t allow it. I use three of mine and the up/down buttons with emulated_roku doing a variety of things dependent on activity, what you can’t do is mix Smart Control commands and normal ones on them.