Workaround to Plugin

[mterry63]

I couldn't get this plugin to work yesterday when I loaded it, but I was able to setup a workaround using Alexa routines. I created 2 virtual devices "Ring Doorbell" and "Ring Motion", checked "IsLight" in settings and checked "voice command". I ran the Alexa device discovery and created 2 routines, 1 for motion, 1 for doorbell. Under the routines I set Alexa to turn on the corresponding virtual device in each routine.

That allows Homeseer to have a device change when motion occurs or when the doorbell is pressed. That was all I was looking for. If you use this route, be sure and reset the devices to "Off" after you use them as a trigger, or after some timeout.

[MNB]

Martin, slow question.. when your doorbell is rung how quickly (seconds wise) does Alexa respond and change your Virtua device. The reason I ask is via the BLRING there is a definite latency (>3-5 minutes) between door bell depressed and actual reporting whilst the Ring App is almost instantaous.

[mterry63]

Alexa seems to respond as quickly as the Ring app on my phone. I havent had many instances trigger yet but it appears to be instant.


Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

[MNB]

Martin thanxs for the comeback, is it possible for you to share examples of your HS3 events? Me thinks I would like to duplicate it with my setup as my current setup lags way too much, thanxs in advance Mike

[mterry63]

OK, Here you go. Pretty basic. First I created a virtual device named "Ring Motion Detected" and set "is light" and "voice command" to true in the device settings and discovered it in the Alexa app. Then I created a Routine in the Alexa app like this:



"Front Door" is the name of the Ring Doorbell in the app. "Front Door detects motion" is a built in option in the app.

Then I have 2 events - 1 to trigger action on front door motion (for the moment I just announce through Alexa using Node-Red and MQTT)



A second event turns the virtual device off after 60 seconds. I did that in case we loiter around the door it won't keep triggering.




I have duplicate for doorbell Ring instead of motion, with a similar Routine configured in the Alexa app and similar virtual device. You get the idea. It's been instant triggering so far over the past few weeks.

Hope that helps.

[MNB]

Alex, many thanxs for the comeback and pics, I'm sure that there are other folks out there using Ring products and your methodology seems to be straight forward, Mike

[taylormia]

mterry63 Just want to say thank you for this method to use the Alexa Ring skill to trigger HS events....I am now using an Alex Routine to trigger the turning on of a HS virtual device as you describe..which is then used to send an MQTT topic/payload (using the mcsMQTT plugin) which is then used by other events. The triggering of the HS3 virtual device by the Alexa Routine happens one sec from doorbell press. Here are the Alexa Routine some example events:

Alexa Routine (using the Ring Skill) that turns on HS3 Virtual Device on doorbell press:

[MNB]

Alex and @

taylormia many thanxs for sharing I too have found that using this approach seems to be near instantous in having HS3 respond accordantly. taylormia I was intriged by your "show camera..." event, how does this work and is this the only way to have TV's and/or Alexa display the Ring door bell at hand? Mike

[taylormia]

taylormia I was intriged by your "show camera..." event, how does this work and is this the only way to have TV's and/or Alexa display the Ring door bell at hand? Mike

I use an Aeon Smartswitch 6 to detect when the TV is turned on by monitoring power consumption of the TV - and then turn on a virtual device (Virtual Family Room TV) when the TV is turned on. I also have a separate Hikvision IP camera at the front door that uses and RTSP stream. If the TV is on and the Ring Doorbell is pressed, I use the Kodi plugin (since Kodi is my home theater app) to stop whatever show is being played and then start the RTSP stream from the Hikvision camera. The FrontDoor stream is shown below. I have not found a way to extract the Ring Doorbell stream to show on the TV.

[MNB]

taylormia thanxs for comeback. I like the idea about using a

Aeon Smartswitch 6 to detect whether or not the TV's state, I currently use one for my Wash machine finished announcement will have to do the same with my TV's. I was hoping that someone had the solution to display the Ring videos as I can do it on my displayable Alexa's using the Ring app. Mike

[MNB]

I figured I'd share my latest Ring setup as your solution seems to work swimmingly! You will noted that I've keep my BLRing Devices as they provide device status whilst my two new Virtual devices one for Motion and the other for Ring, I also condensed my Events into a single event one for Motion and the other for Ring and am announcing via my SONO speakers. Mike

[MNB]

Looks like Ring/Alexa has put out a new update out and it kind of makes the Alexa Routine and HS3 events obsolete. All you have to do is go to Devices> Cameras and locate your Ring Devices, select the appropriate ring device and you will now be presented with an expanded "Announcements" options; Motion Announcements, Doorbell Press Announcements along with which Announcement devices (Alexa devices). The reason I stumbled upon it is that my door bell motion announce wasn't triggering and its because of this new enhancement because you must have motion and doorbell Announcement enabled before Alexa will trigger. I found that using this new feature not only allowed me an opportunity to customize the doorbell but it also ported the door bell video to Alexa devices that can show video..

[rsisson]

I used ifttt to do roughly the same thing, sometimes slow though

[avpman]

OK, Here you go. Pretty basic. First I created a virtual device named "Ring Motion Detected" and set "is light" and "voice command" to true in the device settings and discovered it in the Alexa app. Then I created a Routine in the Alexa app like this:



"Front Door" is the name of the Ring Doorbell in the app. "Front Door detects motion" is a built in option in the app.

Then I have 2 events - 1 to trigger action on front door motion (for the moment I just announce through Alexa using Node-Red and MQTT)



A second event turns the virtual device off after 60 seconds. I did that in case we loiter around the door it won't keep triggering.




I have duplicate for doorbell Ring instead of motion, with a similar Routine configured in the Alexa app and similar virtual device. You get the idea. It's been instant triggering so far over the past few weeks.

Hope that helps.

I apologize, I'm a little dense when it comes to virtual devices. Here is what I created for the Doorbell. Did I do it correctly? Thanks in advance!