Alexa announcements when more than one condition are met.

[RobCrisp]

I am a noob when it comes to this. I got Node Red up and running and setup TTS though Alexa. I have to manually auth with Amazon every 3 days but I make that work.

I made a flow to have Alexa announce when a door is open. Now I want to take it one step further and have Alexa announce when a door is opened only if another device (occupancy) is On. Here is what I have.


On the left are each of the door sensors. They go through a Switch so an action is only preformed when they are "opened" Then another device is checked and passed though another switch. If the status of that device (occupancy) is on then a payload is set with the text and then spoken though the echos. This works if I take out the occupancy and the switch. I suppose I could make new virtual devices and only have HS turn them on when occupancy is ON and use them as the basis for my flow but that seams like a bit of overkill.

Can someone tell me what I am going wrong?

[ksum]

Which contrib did you use for Alexa? I believe the Apple Strudel contrib is the latest and one you should use.

[ksum]

As for the occupancy device, look up the simple gate contrib and have your occupancy device open it close the gate. Your occupancy device is changing msg.payload to contain values for that specific occupancy device. This is replacing what is coming from the other HomeSeer devices, so your announcement is likely the state of your occupancy device. The gate node would go where you're current involvement device and the switch node before it are located, replacing both. The occupancy node would go to a switch node which will have 2 wires out. Each goes to a change node which is set to either open or close the gate node. When open, the messages from your HomeSeer devices will go through the gate and proceed to be processed for TTS. When closed, it will terminate the message from being processed further.

My apologies for not providing links and an example. I won't be at a computer for a while. You could search here for the simple gate contrib to find samples if needed.

[IanIreland]

Which contrib did you use for Alexa? I believe the Apple Strudel contrib is the latest and one you should use.

I'm using 'cake baked' works fine for me.

[ksum]

See This Post for instructions on using the Simple Gate Node mentioned above with the Alexa Speak flow as a way of turning the flow execution off or on via a HomeSeer device. In the linked example a virtual "Announce Status" On/Off device. If it is not an On/Off device, change the Switch node to use values from your virtual device.

[RobCrisp]

Thanks for this. I am using the alexa-remote2 as that was in the homeseer guide but will try the apple Strudel Contrib and check out the link you provided about the gate.

[RobCrisp]

See This Post for instructions on using the Simple Gate Node mentioned above with the Alexa Speak flow as a way of turning the flow execution off or on via a HomeSeer device. In the linked example a virtual "Announce Status" On/Off device. If it is not an On/Off device, change the Switch node to use values from your virtual device.

I have to be missing something simple. Your link helped me get this setup but its still not working for me.

I setup my occupancy as the virtual on / off homeseer switch ( can see this change real-time in node red). This passes into a switch with on and off. On should open the gate and Off should close the gate. However when I turn on / off the occupancy the gate never open or closes.

[ksum]

Change the Property field Switch Node after your HomeSeer Occupancy Node to be payload.staus
The HomeSeer node's output payload is an object, not a simple variable.

Also, I believe you have the Open and Close settings flipped so the gate will be closed when you want it opened.

[RobCrisp]

Change the Property field Switch Node after your HomeSeer Occupancy Node to be payload.staus
The HomeSeer node's output payload is an object, not a simple variable.

Also, I believe you have the Open and Close settings flipped so the gate will be closed when you want it opened.

Thanks again! First day of the new year and I already learned something new!