I want to create virtual lights and switches which can be controlled via Alexa.
input_booleans can only be used to trigger something in Alexa.
I want:
create a virtual light that can be triggered via Alexa
create a virtual switch that can be triggered via Alexa (to for example trigger a scene in HA or start an automation)
create a virtual doorbell that can be triggered from HA and invoke the doorbell mechanism in Alexa
Please be kind if I might have overseen an article which describes it.
There are so many ways in HomeAssistant: matter bridge (but alpha), has Alexa integrations, emulated hue bridges, …
The easiset way to get Alexa to control things in Home Assistant is by subscribing to Home Assistant Cloud from Nabu Casa. Do you have a subscription to this?
I made it to work via input_booleans and switch templates.
I exposed the switch template to Alexa and triggered the input_boolean turn_on/off service in the helper.
BUT, the GUI method of exposing isn’t flexible enough.
For example no possibility to set the display_category.
If I try to add those infos via configuration.yaml it seems that it has no effect.
Can someone explain me:
what I have to do if I want to use only the configuration.yaml cloud:alexa procedure to get the Alexa integration to work
what I have to restart if I make changes to the configuration.yaml
Several restarts and disabling/enabling of Alexa seemed to have worked somehow but not really.
Except as described below, you need to restart Hom Assistant. Go to Settings → Overflow menu (…) → Restart Home Assistant → Restart Home Assistant → Restart.
However, there are some things that can be reloaded without a full restart. These items have dedicated restart buttons in Developer Tools → YAML configuration reloading.
Also, anything set up through the UI (so, not through yaml) doesn’t require a restart.
I’m pretty sure that all that does is expose Home Assistant entities to Alexa so that you can control them with voice commands. Not sure why you want a virtual light or a virtual switch when you can expose the light and the switch themselves.
Doorbell I don’t know about. It does rather sound as if you’re conflating several different Alexa integrations.
Could you explain what you want to do (not how you want to do it)?
I wanted to expose virtual switches because my HomeKit thread devices from Nanoleaf didn’t want to pair via HomeKit bridge.
My intermediate solution then was to create a boolean helper which triggers the light in HomeKit automation.
I managed to pair the Nanoleaf essential bulbs in the meantime via resetting and trying to pair loooots of times.
In order to be able to control the HomeKit lights via Alexa I needed a mechanism to trigger the boolean helper from Alexa. And since the boolean helper can be exposed but not controlled easily via Nabu Casa Cloud Alexa integration I tried the virtual switch - which worked in the end - see above.
Why do you mean that I’m talking about several Alexa integrations?
Only one integration - the Nabu Casa paid cloud version.
Want to expose as many functionality to Alexa as possible.
Since I’m triggering my doorbell announcement currently via Alexa integration in node red I also want to move that to home assistant Alexa cloud.
So in summary:
What do I want to do now:
only the doorbell is left. I want to react to a shelly switch input and trigger an Alexa doorbell chime. Not via TTS, not via automation but via the official doorbell mechanism of Alexa (which is the node red package virtual smart home (node-red-contrib-virtual-smart-home (node) - Node-RED) capable of)
Yes I know the recommendation is to restart home assistant every time.
But I only want to restart if its really necessary.
The HomeKit bridge for example has an action to restart.
Is there also an action for the Alexa integration?
I also know that I’m able to reload the yaml configurations.
But for the Alexa integration I’m not sure which one to reset and if it’s enough.
The Alexa integration behaves a little bit odd.
adding cloud: Alexa: to my configuration.yaml seem to have no effect. Adding filters, adding devices has no effect. I have found no info what I have to do if I want to rely only on the configuration.yaml and not the gui.
a renamed entitiy doesn’t work anymore (removed it, added it back). Only disabling the Alexa integration and activating it again helps. But then I need to configure my devices in Alexa again (which I already did 3 times and I don’t want to do it once more )
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