Alexa controlling own volume instead of amplifier (OH3)

[RobertDH (Robert)]

Hi all,

I know there are some other questions about this issue but they date back to 2017 so I thought maybe this has been resolved somehow.

The problem:

I’m trying to control my amplifier’s volume via Alexa. So I setup a dimmer item with Alexa metadata.

This works fine until I use “volume” as the item name. I would like to say “Alexa, volume up” of “Alexa, decrease the volume” but this adjusts the volume of the echo dot itself.

Is there a work around for this yet? Maybe some way to disable Alexa’s own controls?

Thanks!

[Wolfgang_S]

You need to provide the item’s/device’s name via the voice command: E.g.

Alexa, volume up on “xxxxxxx (item name)”

I am using following meatadata in my endpoin’ts resp. channel’s configuration {alexa="Endpoint.Speaker"} and alexa="Speaker.volume" [increment="5"] in my endpoints configuration

[RobertDH (Robert)]

Hi Wolfgang, thanks for helping!
It’s a pitty we have to mention the specific device in the command.
I have gotten a bit further by the way. I added this group (copied from the docs):

Group Stereo    "Stereo"            {alexa="Endpoint.Speaker"}
Number Volume   "Volume"  (Stereo)  {alexa="Speaker.volume"}
Switch Mute     "Mute"    (Stereo)  {alexa="Speaker.muted"}
Switch Power    "Power"   (Stereo)  {alexa="PowerController.powerState"}

And this is controllable via “Alexa, turn on stereo” and “Alexa, raise volume on stereo”

The funny thing is that alexa seems to stick to the stereo group for a while. because after saying “Alexa, raise volume on stereo” once, you can then say “Alexa, raise the volume” and it wil raise the volume on stereo, not on the echo dot.

But, after not using stereo for a wile, Alexa will switch back to the echo dot.

[jeshab (Jeremy)]

@RobertDH

The funny thing is that alexa seems to stick to the stereo group for a while. because after saying “Alexa, raise volume on stereo” once, you can then say “Alexa, raise the volume” and it wil raise the volume on stereo, not on the echo dot.

But, after not using stereo for a wile, Alexa will switch back to the echo dot.

This is expected behavior in line with the way Alexa handles context awareness.

As far as volume controlling, there is an option to setup a default speaker when you link a speaker device and an Echo device in the same group but unfortunately Amazon decided to limit this feature to smart home manufacturers they partnered with. So this is not available even though a device is modeled as a speaker.