juan15pablo Posted January 31, 2019 Share Posted January 31, 2019 Hi! Can I make that Control4 triggers an Alexa Echo routine? Ie: When I unlock the yale, the Echo starts to say welcome and tell me the 'TO DO' list. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pounce Posted January 31, 2019 Share Posted January 31, 2019 Yes. Contact Sensor or Motion Sensor's can trigger Echo routines....and these can be simulated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juan15pablo Posted January 31, 2019 Author Share Posted January 31, 2019 And how can I achieve that? In the Amazon app, "It dont find any compatible device" when I try to configure a "When" in a new routine. I have a Nyce door sensor in the C4 system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dman000000 Posted March 21, 2020 Share Posted March 21, 2020 I am trying to trigger routines on Alexa devices from Control4. None of my C4 devices show up in the list on the app. Does anyone know how to get something to show up in the Device list for triggers? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crshepard7 Posted March 22, 2020 Share Posted March 22, 2020 IFTTT maker driver. https://drivercentral.io/platforms/control4-drivers/utility/ifttt-maker-control4-driver-chowmain/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dman000000 Posted March 22, 2020 Share Posted March 22, 2020 The only reference to Alexa in the IFTTT description is issuing commands TO C4. I am trying to utilize the routine feature of Alexa to trigger Alexa actions based on system/ device changes. This is native Alexa functionality but none of my Control4 devices show up in the app as triggers for routines. The only device that does is my ring doorbell that has its own skill enabled. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jfh Posted March 23, 2020 Share Posted March 23, 2020 Alexa routines can be used to trigger C4 actions. I do it all the time using the Epic Systems driver (and a light level for the device in the Alexa routine). You cannot do the reverse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dman000000 Posted March 23, 2020 Share Posted March 23, 2020 Thx for replies. I get how C4 drivers work with Alexa as I have been using the Epic driver for a long time. What I am trying to understand is how the native routine functionality of Alexa can be used to trigger Alexa actions. This is setup from within the Alexa app. It seems that there are some devices whose states can be used as triggers. My ring doorbell for example shows up in the app. I can trigger Alexa actions off of motion or button presses. For some reason, the devices for my other skills (C4, Wemo, Ecobee, etc.) don’t show up in the trigger device list. Does anyone know what other devices do show up in that list? Figuring this out would take everything in my house to the next level since we have Echos in every room. It may involve using a third party device as a middleman but I can envision how this would work if I could just figure out what other devices do integrate with Alexa as triggers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jfh Posted March 23, 2020 Share Posted March 23, 2020 The devices that show/allow you to manipulate states have specific skills written using the Alexa API which allow that. In order to do what you want a C4 driver would need to interface with such a skill. That skill has to reside on a server somewhere. And, other than being able to have Alexa speak a specific phrase when the routine was completed, you would get no other function available to you from C4. Why not just use routines to trigger C4 macros? If the function works it makes no difference to the end user if the command is recognized by an Alexa routine or a C4 trigger. The only ‘disadvantage’ is that everything isn’t self-contained in the C4 project. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dman000000 Posted March 23, 2020 Share Posted March 23, 2020 One of things that I want to do for example is to have my echo announce if one of the garage doors is open when we do the bedtime macro. There are other similar announcement that I’d like to do over the echos. Before anyone suggests that I just use C4 announcements I will say that is. It my preferred approach. I have the C4 matrix and amp but a) do not have speakers in every room (because the family prefers to use the echos) and b) the performance of the C4 system for short announcements is not 100% for me due to delays in the auto sensing triggers on the amps. i get the need for a new C4 driver/ skill as one approach (because C4 for some reason doesn’t integrate better with Alexa in this regard). But I believe there is a workaround that is pretty easy to integrate. where there are already some skills that have this functionality, I am guessing that there are devices that integrate with C4 whose Alexa skill can be used as a trigger. I would just need to have that device speaking to both C4 and it’s own Alexa skill) like I already do with several devices. From there the programming on each end is easy...although may need to use IFTTT as a middleman. I’m just left trying to figure out what devices have Alexa skills configured so they can be used as triggers. I sounds like smartthings has the ability but haven’t used any of that stuff before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jfh Posted March 23, 2020 Share Posted March 23, 2020 You want a function (Alexa TTS) that, to the best of my knowledge, is not available in the API. Everyone that has C4 and uses an Echo wants that (and the ability to know which device processes the request). i know you don’t want to hear this but without changes by Amazon and/or a skill that requires resources most developers wouldn’t be able to support what you want. If you want to use an Alexa routine as a trigger (and an Alexa generated custom response) to C4, you can do that today. You cannot do the reverse (today). Using a device with an Alexa skill would provide NO BENEFIT over using an Alexa routine so I’m having a hard time understanding why you would want to go in that direction anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benoît van Osch Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 I would like to buy a ceiling fan that I can control through Control4, e.g. the remote control in my bedroom. I found a universal receiver that connects to Alexa through Wifi so started looking into the possibility of being able to trigger actions in Alexa from Control4, as I would expect this to be the only way to get this working, unless anyone has any other ideas? 'SIMPLEconnect® WiFi® ceiling fan enabled for home automation featuring integrations with Amazon Alexa, Apple® HomeKit™, and Google Assistant putting the ultimate control in the palm of your hands or by the sound of your voice' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msgreenf Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 i am not aware of anyway to integrate that into control4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jfh Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 16 minutes ago, Benoît van Osch said: I would like to buy a ceiling fan that I can control through Control4, e.g. the remote control in my bedroom. I found a universal receiver that connects to Alexa through Wifi so started looking into the possibility of being able to trigger actions in Alexa from Control4, as I would expect this to be the only way to get this working, unless anyone has any other ideas? 'SIMPLEconnect® WiFi® ceiling fan enabled for home automation featuring integrations with Amazon Alexa, Apple® HomeKit™, and Google Assistant putting the ultimate control in the palm of your hands or by the sound of your voice' Closest thing would be the Bond Bridge. Chowmain has a C4 driver that integrates the Bond Bridge. You could then use the Epic Systems Alexa driver with Alexa routines to control the fan. Note that solution does mot use the Alexa skill for your receiver at all. If you must use the receiver skill you could use a TTS driver in C4 (e.g. Polly) to actually speak Alexa commands though the novelty wears off quickly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ziocan Posted June 12, 2020 Share Posted June 12, 2020 On 1/31/2019 at 1:10 AM, juan15pablo said: Hi! Can I make that Control4 triggers an Alexa Echo routine? Ie: When I unlock the yale, the Echo starts to say welcome and tell me the 'TO DO' list. Thanks! Found a way to do this using virtualbuttons.com. Basically you pay a subscription for couple bucks a months and install their Alexa skill. They expose virtual buttons that can be used as the "when" condition in a routine. You need a driver that can call an external https URL and you're set (I wrote a 100 line driver myself using driverworks for this purpose). To trigger the Alexa routine, program your C4 system to call the URL of the virtualbutton you have configured in the routine. Works like a charm. HTH Rick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RAV Posted June 12, 2020 Share Posted June 12, 2020 56 minutes ago, ziocan said: Found a way to do this using virtualbuttons.com. Basically you pay a subscription for couple bucks a months and install their Alexa skill. They expose virtual buttons that can be used as the "when" condition in a routine. You need a driver that can call an external https URL and you're set (I wrote a 100 line driver myself using driverworks for this purpose). To trigger the Alexa routine, program your C4 system to call the URL of the virtualbutton you have configured in the routine. Works like a charm. HTH Rick Care to share your driver? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ziocan Posted June 12, 2020 Share Posted June 12, 2020 Sure thing, here it is. Just configure the virtualbuttons URLs in the properties, then to programmatically call one of the URLs just set the webhooks variable to the corresponding number. Rick webhooks.c4i Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juan15pablo Posted June 12, 2020 Author Share Posted June 12, 2020 Thanks ziocan, it worked!! If you only use 1 button, it is free... I will continue testing it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ziocan Posted June 12, 2020 Share Posted June 12, 2020 Yeah works fine. This is something that Control4 itself could provide (the virtualbutton service I mean). Maybe within our 4sight subscription, that already brings voice scenes.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jfh Posted June 12, 2020 Share Posted June 12, 2020 Confused. If I already have an Alexa driver (native or Epic Systems) why would I want the virtual push button service when I can already have Alexa activate C4 programming? This seems like an unnecessary (and potentially costly) add on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vitali Posted June 13, 2020 Share Posted June 13, 2020 On 4/29/2020 at 2:21 AM, Benoît van Osch said: I would like to buy a ceiling fan that I can control through Control4, e.g. the remote control in my bedroom. I found a universal receiver that connects to Alexa through Wifi so started looking into the possibility of being able to trigger actions in Alexa from Control4, as I would expect this to be the only way to get this working, unless anyone has any other ideas? 'SIMPLEconnect® WiFi® ceiling fan enabled for home automation featuring integrations with Amazon Alexa, Apple® HomeKit™, and Google Assistant putting the ultimate control in the palm of your hands or by the sound of your voice' May be I miss something. But you can use Lutron Caseta Fan control. It can be controlled by anything (Alexa, Siri (Home Kit), Control4, Google Home) both ways. Turn on with Siri (Alexa, Google Home), turn off with C4 Elvis 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WholeHomeControl Posted June 13, 2020 Share Posted June 13, 2020 12 hours ago, jfh said: Confused. If I already have an Alexa driver (native or Epic Systems) why would I want the virtual push button service when I can already have Alexa activate C4 programming? This seems like an unnecessary (and potentially costly) add on. The Alexa driver lets you have Alexa activate C4 programming. However, what about if you wanted C4 to activate an Alexa routine? That's where the virtual buttons come in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jfh Posted June 13, 2020 Share Posted June 13, 2020 7 minutes ago, WholeHomeControl said: The Alexa driver lets you have Alexa activate C4 programming. However, what about if you wanted C4 to activate an Alexa routine? That's where the virtual buttons come in. Can you give me an example of why you would want to do this? If you have Alexa routines that call C4 programming, why would you want to have C4 invoke the routine to call the C4 programming? In that case why not just do what you want in C4? Say I have an Alexa routine “Alexa, do this thing” which runs a C4 macro “Do this thing”. I don’t see why pushing a virtual button from C4 to call “Alexa, do this thing” routine to run the C4 macro “Do this thing” provides any usefulness over calling the C4 “Do this thing” macro directly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WholeHomeControl Posted June 13, 2020 Share Posted June 13, 2020 Suppose you want a keypad button in Control4 that turns on your bathroom light and starts playing a news update on your Echo. You cannot do the second part of this scenario within C4; you need C4 to tell Alexa to do that thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jfh Posted June 13, 2020 Share Posted June 13, 2020 31 minutes ago, WholeHomeControl said: Suppose you want a keypad button in Control4 that turns on your bathroom light and starts playing a news update on your Echo. You cannot do the second part of this scenario within C4; you need C4 to tell Alexa to do that thing. Ah. I understand now. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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