Question about Alexa usage

[alangward]

Hi,
Sorry, but I don't know the German language (apart from enough to buy a few beers and get to the airport!). So, I hope you don't mind me making this post in English.
I have had a fhem system (now running on a Pi 4) for a number of years to control my heating system, and various other things.
I hoped that I could use the Alexa feature to allow me to control external devices known to Alexa already from within my fhem system. What I read implies that it has been designed to allow Alexa to control fhem devices.
In particular, I had hoped to control some 'Blitzwolf smart switches - for example, to turn on a heater in the greenhouse if the outside temperature drops to a certain level.
Is this possible?

Thanks
Alan

[MadMax-FHEM]

Hello,

don't mind (too much   )...

What you could do is:

"build" a Routine in the Alexa-App and at "its end" you can "turn on/off" a device "controlled" by Alexa/Amazon...

With the echodevice-Module you are able to start Routines and indirectly "switch" the device...

https://forum.fhem.de/index.php/topic,82631.msg747482.html#msg747482
(read carefully and start using npm_login right away!!)

Regards, Joachim

[alangward]

Thanks.
I'll have a look at this
Alan

[TomLee]

I hoped that I could use the Alexa feature to allow me to control external devices known to Alexa already from within my fhem system.

Implies for me that you make your Blitzwolf devices known to Alexa with the original firmware.
Do you know tuya-convert?  This makes it easy to flash the devices with alternative software, e.g. Tasmota, to integrate them directly into FHEM using MQTT or MQTT2 (the more preferred / easier way), i.e. without going through a routine.

Sorry for my english i just use a translator.

Regards

Thomas

[MadMax-FHEM]

Implies for me that you make your Blitzwolf devices known to Alexa with the original firmware.
Do you know tuya-convert?  This makes it easy to flash the devices with alternative software, e.g. Tasmota, to integrate them directly into FHEM using MQTT or MQTT2 (the more preferred / easier way), i.e. without going through a routine.

Sorry for my english i just use a translator.

Regards

Thomas

Thaks Thomas.

But keep in mind that actually alexa-fhem Connector (the easiest way to control fhem devices with Alexa) is not yet available for English...
(as far as I know)
https://wiki.fhem.de/wiki/FHEM_Connector_f%C3%BCr_Amazon_Alexa


About the "old" (more complex: Lambda function @Amazon, open and forward port to the alexa-fhem host [at your local system] etc.) way I don't know regarding English (or outside Germany)...
https://wiki.fhem.de/wiki/Alexa-Fhem
(if you choose that way: you only have to follow instructions on Amazon side [and decide for Smart Home Skill or Custom Skill] / you can also use the alexa-fhem "installation" from the alexa fhem Connector but you have to extend the alexa-fhem.cfg with your Skill information)

Regards, Joachim

[TomLee]

Ok, I hadn't even thought about that  , as long as there is no one who can implement the requirements mentioned here, there will probably be no FHEM skill in the UK skill store.

Then the variant using the echodevice module to start a routine is the simplest.

But even then I would free the Blitzwolf devices from the cloud and make them known to the Alexa app via the Belkin WeMo emulation in the Tasmota interface.

[alangward]

Hi,
Thanks for all the advice.
I'll look into the Tasmoto solution, but I had hoped to avoid re-flashing the switches.
I am also looking into tracking the protocol between the iPhone app and the switches to see if I can simulate that from perl.

Cheers
Alan