how do i get alexa working

[Ryan maturi]

Hello, 

this is my second post to this form, I am trying to figure out how to get Amazon Alexa to work. right at the moment i have this firmware flashed and connected to my wifi. when i ask alexa to discover devices, she doesn't find anything. i am able to access the config page for the firmware. i have other esp8266 modules running with wemo emulation and they work ok.

please point me in the right direction, 

thanks,

[Ryan maturi]

Figured it out its #define USE_WEMO_EMULATION  

just needed to unquote it 

[Zeph Smith]

OK, you have resolved how to enable Alexa integration, good.

I'm newer still at this and would like to know how Alexa integration works, both in practical terms (how to use it) and under the hood (what communicates with what to make it work).  I'm hoping for a page in the wiki to describe all that.

I gather from what you had to change to enable it, that it's done through having the Sonoff emulate the Belkin Wemo.  Does the Echo/Dot poll the local network and discover Wemo outlets (and Sonof's pretening to be Wemo outlets) and their user-assigned names, to allow Alexa to control them from within the LAN (without going out to the cloud)?  If so I would imagine something has to be configured?

Would this work for IFTTT as well?   I gather a real Wemo can be controlled by Google Home via IFTTT, but I'm guessing that is beyond what firmware on the Sonoff can do, without a cloud server?

[hkru...@gmail.com]

Hi Zeph,

Wemo and HUE emulation need UPnP/SSDP to work. If you ask the echo to search devices it sends out a Multicast search request to the local network. Both emulation types then answer (in different forms) with an URL to a xml service description. After that the echo requests the wemo setup or queries the hue lights with the friendly name(s) and they appear as smart home devices in the alexa app. Communication is done only on the LAN, no cloud needed for basic support with Wemo and HUE. All you have to configure is the friendly name in the config other menu.

Greetings,

             Heiko.

[Zeph Smith]

Thanks, that's a good start to my understanding!  And it sounds like good news.

You mention Hue emulation; is that available too for Sonoff?

My other question is about getting it to work with Google Home, for example via IFTTT (which Google Home supports).  Is that possible?  (I'm guessing that some kind of cloud service is required)

[Jay S]

I would guess you would have to use some external server to do that.

Do you use any sort of home automation system at the moment?

If not, node-red is worth considering.

It is very easy to integrate IFTTT into the platform.

[Ryan maturi]

Jay,

 I am considering dumping my domoticz server in favor of node red. does node red run on raspberry pi ?  if so would it be fairly easy to use my existing esp8266 running esp easy to communicate with node red? I also see that this sonoff firmware now supports Hue emulation, does this mean i can run a ws281X Led strip and command it to change colors via alexa / node red ? 

Thanks,

[Jay S]

Hello Ryan,

Yes, node-red runs perfectly fine on a raspberry pi. I run it on an rpi 3 and a mate runs it on an rpi 2.

Use Peter Scargils code (See here) to install everything required to get it up and running. I use it on raspbian lite (no desktop), but its up to you what OS you use.

It can also be installed on other SBC's. I've had it up and running on an orange pi and Pete has had it running on a number of friendlyarm devices.

I haven't tried out the Hue emulation yet but I will be as I have a Sonoff LED to play with. I'm not sure about different colours, I'm not sure if they're supported yet.

But node -red is a very good platform to work with. Very easy to program as its all drag and drop.

Jay

[hkru...@gmail.com]

Hi,

the Echo built in Hue-Support only knows switchin on/off and controlling brightness. On/Off is supportet at the moment. WS2812 isn't supported right now in Hue emulation. You can controll the complete strip with rgb colors and dimm it or you controll individual LEDs but MQTT is required at the moment. I think about creating a virtual WS2812-device to make it controllable via Hue emulation.

Greetings,

                  Heiko.

[Alex Joni]

Hi Heiko,

is that still the case today? (e.g. with Tasmota 5.9.1?)

I'll be interested in having this extended..

Thanks,

Alex

[Cysix]

This is probably overly complex, but I thought I would mention how I use Alexa with my Sonoff switches.  I have all the Sonoffs talking to my Mosquitto MQTT hub.  I have switches configured in Home Assistant for each of the Sonoffs.  Home Assistant is bridged to a SmartThings v2 hub via stjohnjohnson/smartthings-mqtt-bridge.  The SmartThings Alexa integration allows it to control any device configured in SmartThings.  For the Sonoffs I create a virtual (simulated) switch in SmartThings.  Then in Home Assistant I use automation to synchronize the SmartThings virtual/simulated/dummy switches with the actual HA configured Sonoff switches.  Seems overly complicated, and well it is, but it works like a charm once you get use to configuring things.  I had a ton of Z-wave/Zigbee prior learning about HA and Sonoff, so this is the configuration I ended up with.  Home Assistant now has native Alexa integration.  There are a bunch of tutorials out there on connecting Sonoff/Tasmota to HA and similar for HA to Alexa.