Alexa and Programming

[Don Cohen]

I currently have Control4 2.10.6, as both a Dealer and End-user.  I activated the Control4 Skill within the Alexa App, and generally things work quite well.  I have discovered, however, what appears to be a current limitation:

I have a Lighting Scene that I execute when going to bed, which turns off all downstairs lights, with 10 and 20 second delays for 2 of the lights, so I can see while heading upstairs.  I can activate this scene by voice through Alexa, and it works fine.

I have enhanced this through programming:

1.  When this scene is activated, if the last light is currently is off, it turns it on, so I can see on my way up, and then turns it back off using that 20 second delay.
2.  I also added a command to have it lock the garage door lock when the scene is activated.

When this scene is activated within Composer Pro, with the Control4 Tablet, or the Control4 App on my phone, everything works as desired - both the lighting, and the associated programming steps.

When I activate the scene through Alexa, it only executes the Lighting Scene, and doesn't seem to 'trigger' those 2 associated programming steps within Control4.

Is there any way to get this working so that activating the scene through Alexa also triggers the associated programming?
Would 3.0 provide this functionality?
Would the Epic 3rd party driver allow this to work properly?

 

Bonus question: Is there any way to use an Alexa command to activate a Custom Button?
I would like to provide a simple way of opening the garage door lock, and turning lights on, when we come back home and the house is dark and locked.  I created a Custom Button that works just fine to do this, but being able to do it via Alexa, through our phones, would simplify it further.

Thanks!

[sonic30101]

You need the voice scene driver in the project to make custom voice scenes that you can link to macros or custom buttons. How are you initiating the scene in c4 with a custom button and not the lighting scene itself to get the additional conditional programming to hit? Alexa needs to hit that if it is the case that you are initiating it via macro/custom button since Alexa is going straight to the lighting scene

[msgreenf]

As stated in your previous post use voice scenes

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[Don Cohen]

Thanks for the quick reply.  I'm new to this industry, so will do some reading up on the Voice Scene Driver.  I'm not sure which scenario you're referring to, though, in your question:

For the Lighting Scene for lights off at the end of the day, I added Programming steps to turn on the light when off, and lock the garage door, triggered by that scene being invoked.

For the Custom Button, I just created and programmed a custom button to unlock the door, and turn on a few lights.

 

But it sounds like the Voice Scene Driver is where I need to go next, thanks to you and msgreenf below.  I'll see what I can learn about that.

Thanks!

[Don Cohen]

I guess my only concern in adding the driver, is whether or not it will disrupt my current setup with Alexa, where it works quite well controlling a complex home theater, family room tv, etc.

Will this require me to reconfigure, re-do, my current setup?

[msgreenf]

Voice scene doesn't change anything you have setup. Just adds new capabilities

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[Don Cohen]

Excellent - thanks.

I'm also reading that officially neither Amazon nor Control4 allow including Unlocking Doors in these scenes, so if that's the case, this wouldn't help in at least the 2nd scenario, which does include unlocking the garage door.  The other locks it, and I'm guessing this is okay?

Initial reading suggested possible work-arounds, but it's unclear whether or not it's appropriate or safe to pursue these.

Thoughts on this issue?

[msgreenf]

You can make it work. It's up to you if you think it's safe enough

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[Don Cohen]

Gotcha.

Sorry for a technically different question, but related to the same problem:

I am trying out a different approach, to use when leaving the house, wanting to have all the lights turn off, and the door lock after a 20 second delay.  Rather than using an App, Tablet, or Voice as a trigger, there is an Auxiliary Switch right at that door.  It connects with another Auxiliary Switch, and an Adaptive Phase Dimmer, all wired to the Ceiling Light in that room.

So I went to Programming, and using Double-tap of the Top Button as the trigger, put in the programming to turn off the lights, with that same 20 second delay on locking the door.  It executes fine from within Composer Pro, and tapping the Adaptive Phase Dimmer itself, but not from either Auxiliary Switch.  These do control the Ceiling Light properly, but I can't activate the Programming via the same Double-tap of the Top Button.

I am assuming this *should* work, and that I'm leaving out some configuration, steps, etc. (although I realize my assumption may not be correct).

You've been generous to answer my other questions, hopefully you can resolve this for me as well.

Many thanks.

[chopedogg88]

You can't execute programming from an auxiliary keypad. Only the dimmers and configurable keypads and switches.

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[Don Cohen]

Thanks for that. Disappointing, but it is what it is.

And as I've been reading, there is an 'official' way to include unlocking doors with Alexa. In the Voice Scene documentation, changing from Version 15 to 72:

"Lock Unlock functionality added when setup with an unlock code in Amazon's app"

I remember playing around with this when we got started with all this, and entered a code for this purpose, and it worked fine.

And it looks like Voice Scenes is already present in my project, so guess I'll play around with this, and see if I can get it to do what I want.

Many thanks to all who have helped.

[chopedogg88]

If you want to go through the effort, it's usually possible to move the actual dimmer to the location that you want it in the 4way by just changing the wiring slightly. As long as you have 2 traveler wires you can use them to reroute the switch leg over the traveler to the location where you want to put the dimmer. Then use the other traveler to run the yellow wire to the aux keypad(s).

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[Don Cohen]

Well, that was easy.  Just created a Voice Scene, "Lock the House", discovered it through Amazon, and it works fine.  Turns on that one light if it's off, then sequentially turns off the lights, and then locks the garage door.

The only downside is the syntax: "Alexa, Turn on Lock the House" is a bit awkward, but it gets the job done.  Any way to customize this?

chopedogg88:

Yes, it occurred to me to physically move the dimmer, but this is definitely above my pay grade.  Ironically, I just had an electrician out here yesterday installing one of the Auxiliary Switches (which because it was behind the TV, was overlooked during the main installation).  But I will keep this in mind, as that would actually be the simplest way to do this!

[msgreenf]

Why not call it house lock. Turn on house lock seems more natural

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[chopedogg88]

Or just use an Alexa routine and call it Goodbye or lock the house and then just say Goodbye.

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[South Africa C4 user]

Or use Routines for Alexa?

[Don Cohen]

All excellent suggestions - thanks.

I didn't realize Routines were an option with Alexa (I had previously used Routines with my Harmony Hub/Remote prior to Control4), in part because they don't seem to show as an option when using it on my PC. But with the App, this should be fairly easy to configure.

Thanks!