Sonoff s31 device not seen by Alexa after flashing it with ESPhome

Configuration
1

I flashed S31 with ESPhome and the device is shown in HA. However, I’d like to set if off/on using a command to Alexa. I did not use EweLink previously. How can I get Alexa to recognize it?

Thanks,
Rich

2

The first thing to do is to make sure the switch entity is exposed to Alexa. If you are using HA Cloud to connect HA to Alexa you can do it through the UI by going through the entity’s settings then selecting “Voice assistants”.

3

If you mean Nabu Casa then no I am not using it. Otherwise, I have no idea what HA Cloud is. Google search does not seem to find it. Do you have a link to it?

Thanks

4

Though it may colloquially be called “Nabu Casa”, the service is called Home Assistant Cloud. Nabu Casa is the name of the company that runs it.

If you are not using HA Cloud, what method are you using to expose HA to Alexa?

5

That link just seems to connect to my HA instance.

6

Not sure what you mean by exposing. I have HACS installed.

7

Can you currently control anything in HA through Alexa? Or, do any of your entities from HA appear in your Alexa app?

8

I have some WEMO plugs but they have their own Android app.

I have a few HA automations that announce messages thru Alexa.

9

Also have a few YoLink window/door switches that also announce via Alexa on certain conditions. But they also were installed via YoLink Android app and were discovered by HA.

10

It sounds like you need to set up a connection to expose HA to Alexa.

There are a few ways to expose Home Assistant to Alexa :

  1. Easy and full featured, but not free (after the first month): Get a Nabu Casa/Home Assistant Cloud subscription .
  2. Pretty easy and free, but limited: Emulated Hue .
  3. Full featured and free, but not easy: Set up a Custom Alexa Skill .

I believe there is also a way to do it through Node Red, but I have not used NR in years so you will need to do some searching to verify that.

11

I had a trial Nabu Casa subscription some time ago.

Thought I might need to do the following steps

  1. re-flash original Sonoff firmware
  2. connect using ewelink app so Alexa discovers it
  3. re-flash esphome firmware

Question is will Alexa still/find it after I re-flash ESPhome on to it

12

No

13

I decided to use ESPhome over Tasmota. Was that a mistake?

14

I believe you would have the same issue with Tasmota.

Looking at the docs, Tasmota does seem to be able to use the same approach as Emulated Hue linked in my previous post.

15

Do you know…

If I decide to get a one month subscription to Nabu Casa. Then, after a month I cancel that subscription, will Alexa still recognize the s31?

16

No, there will no longer be a connection between your HA instance and Alexa… so Alexa will not be able to control the device.

17

Thanks Didgeridrew

18

UPDATE: I was able to flash s31 with Tasmota firmware and use Belkin WeMo emulation option so I can access S31 from Alexa.