Hey all! Please accept my apology before you read through. I’ve never coded, never got into smart home assistant and have always used the alexa app. So I’m a NOOB!
I’ve installed HA on an old intel box. I’ve managed to gain access to the dashboard.
I have used voicemonkey and have created varrious triggers and I’ve managed to contol my switches at home using a URL that I get from voicemonkey
So this is basically where Iam so far.
Now here is what I want to do. I want to have a page/app where I have simple buttons that I can press which would maybe run the URL in the back ground and turn on the light, fan etc.
Is there a step by step guide like a really basic one?
Please if any one can help
Thank you.
let me see if i understand…
you have some devices (lights and stuff) that are exposed to alexa. you’ve connected voice monkey so to alexa so that you get a url interface to it.
and you want to put home assistant to trigger voice monkey to trigger alexa to trigger the device?
if that’s what you have in mind… you might not like the answer, but the real answer is… don’t do that. you will lead yourself into a world of hurt.
connect home assistant to your devices. create the buttons you want in home assistant. you’ll be happier in the long and short run.
- latency - it’ll just be faster.
- reliability - lots of things can go wrong in the above. you’re vulnerable to any weak link.
- keep things local - this helps the above two, but also better for security
- easier - in the end (maybe in the beginning too), it’ll actually be easier. home whenever you try to do things with tools that it wasn’t meant to do, you’re gonna be hacking it.
- better ui - if you don’t connect home assistant to the devices directly, it won’t reflect the on/off state of the lights/fan/etc. it won’t recognize when you’ve turned them on/off from alexa and other switches.
you probably won’t find a good step by step guide on how to use homeassistant to control voice monkey to control alexa to control your devices for a reason… prob that reason being, it’s not really a common/recommended flow.
however you’ll find lots of info about how to connect home assistant to your devices and how to create nice dashboards to turn on your lights/fans etc.
if you need to have a url to trigger those, home assistant can do that.
if you find there are things in home assistant you want to expose to alexa, you can do that…
if you really want home assistant to just call those url’s, it can do that… it’s not necessarily the best tool for that, but it can.
if i’ve misunderstood the request, my apologies… definitely correct me if my understanding is off!
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Hey thanks for getting back to me!
Actually you’ve got it spot on!
The problem is that all of my smart home stuff is tied into Alexa and works perfectly fine. None of that however is recognized by home assistant or so I guess?
I use switches made by a company called TATA here in India. They work with Alexa.
I have a Fire Tv again works with Alexa
I have a smart switch board that works with Alexa.
Hence I created the links to manage them via virtual buttons/ios shortcuts on my iPhone and that’s how I got the idea of home assistant as I didn’t want to open multiple apps to manage them or use voice where it wasn’t possible.
I wanted a single app with an array of buttons to just press and manage. I was thinking of like a tablet that could be picked up by anyone in the house and turn on what they wanted without needing to install an app for each thing.
Just wish I knew where to start or how to do this 
What switches do you use ? Zwave, Zigbee, Wifi?
They’re called TATA Ez switches. I recall seeing somewhere that they don’t work with home assistant as someone already asked that.
i have a bunch of fire tv. if you want push button controls, use home assistant directly.
for example:
among many many things… you will not be able to do fast forward well using voicemonkey. ie, you can’t press & hold and release the fast forward as needed by prime video.
if there are some things you can’t do in homeassistant, then sure… do what you’re saying for those (i get it… i have a couple things i trigger via pushover/webhook to control4). but for the rest, go direct.
if you’re starting to invest your personal time in trying to make an awesome home automation setup, you might consider starting to use more open devices… ie, not tata ez. you’re already putting a layer on top of tataez, so get yourself out from under being stuck in their walled garden. you’ll thank us for it (maybe after cursing us initially :)… but you’ll definitely end up thanking us! )
to answer your initial question… to call a url, you’ll prob want to look at this:
you’ll create a rest command. create a script around it. then invoke that script from a lovelace card.
btw… if you’re hesitant about switching over from tata ez because of device quality… if you open up the tata hardware and look inside, you’ll find that they’re using off the shelf esp components. they’ve just flashed software walling off access to keep it proprietary… 
My only concern is availability. In India getting home assistant compatible devices is really hard or expensive!
Is there a way where home assistant can see the devices that Alexa is controlling?
unforunately i don’t believe there’s a good way to do that.
in terms of costs. i am looking on amazon.in and the tata ez switches are approximately 2500, the zigbee equivalents are approximately 2000.
Oh would it be possible to link me to the one which you’d recommend?
