Alexa Groups: thermostat.endpoint, setpoint, currenttemperature,

Apps & Services Amazon Alexa
1

I’d like to get a proper user of the alexa Groups, but I don’t understand how they work, I’m afraid…

is there some decent docu on how it should be used, because I don’t find anything useful for my use case:

  1. KNX (GIRA) actuators
    1.1. heating actuator, which regulates the floor heating
    1.2. touch sensors, which measure current temparature and calculate heating actions on given setpoint temperature
  2. I’d like Alexa to act on
    2.1. Alexa, set living room to standby/comfort/night/…
    2.2. Alexa, set living room temperature to 23 degrees
    2.3. Alexa, what is current temperature of living room

For that, I have put my items in a group:
grafik

With that I should be able to do that? What do I miss here?
(alexa only finds “Heizen Wohnzimmer”, all other items should be within the "thermostat endpoint, if I understand that little I got to read…?)

Details of items and channel configuration
  1. Heizen Wohnzimmer:
alexa-metadata
--------------
value: Endpoint.Thermostat
config:
  category: THERMOSTAT

KNX-channel
-----------
n/a
  1. Heizung Wohnzimmer:
value: ThermostatController.thermostatMode
config:
  ECO: NACHT=3
  HEAT: KOMFORT=1
  AUTO: AUTO=0
  COOL: STANDBY=2
  category: THERMOSTAT
  OFF: FROST=4

KNX-channel
  - id: WoZiHVAC
    channelTypeUID: knx:number
    label: HVAC Wohnzimmer
    description: Eingang 82 / Ausgang 90
    configuration:
      ga: 5.010:8/5/1+<5.010:8/5/11
-----------
  1. Soll Temperatur Wohnzimmer
alexa-metadata
--------------
value: ThermostatController.targetSetpoint
config:
  category: THERMOSTAT
  scale: Celsius

KNX-channel
-----------
  - id: WoZiTempSoll
    channelTypeUID: knx:number
    label: Soll Temperatur Wohnzimmer
    description: Eingang 80 / Ausgang 104
    configuration:
      ga: 8/1/2+<8/1/3
  1. Ist Temperatur Wohnzimmer
alexa-metadata
--------------
value: TemperatureSensor.temperature
config:
  category: TEMPERATURE_SENSOR
  scale: Celsius

KNX-channel
-----------
  - id: WoZiTempIst
    channelTypeUID: knx:number
    label: Temperatur Wohnzimmer
    description: Ausgang 64
    configuration:
      ga: 8/1/1
2

Your can’t configure custom thermostat mode with the ThermostatController interface but you could use ModeController instead with supportedModes="0=AUTO,1=KOMFORT,2=STANDBY,3=NACHT,4=FROST". Keep in mind you would lose the thermostat integration in the Alexa app going that route.

3

ok, I could do that - but is there really no way to present Alexa the thermostat as she wants it, in the endpoints? I’m totally free to change my OH3 configuration to match it for Alexa - best WAF and KAF (Kids Acceptance Factor)… :wink:

4

This is an issue with many thermostats, as they don’t use modes as Alexa wants them.
What you could try is to use a proxy item for the thermostat mode, string item preferred and a rule to set the desired mode to the real item.

5

hmm… Perhaps I don’t fully understand the needs of the Alexa-API, I have to read them again and then I’ll do something with proxy items and stuff… I really don’t need to expose the “real KNX”-items to Alexa, I could use proxies for that - it just needs to be an Alexa-approved setup…

6

After checking the Alexa integration again, I might have lead you to the wrong direction.
If I see it right, you can set custom modes like

Number Mode          "Mode [%s]"               (Thermostat)   {alexa="ThermostatController.thermostatMode" [OFF=0,HEAT=1,COOL=2,AUTO=3]}

So I think your config needs to be changed a bit :

value: ThermostatController.thermostatMode
config:
  ECO: "3"
  HEAT: "1"
  AUTO: "0"
  COOL: "2"
  category: THERMOSTAT
  OFF: "4"
7

You could as @hmerk mentioned but seeing your thermostat “modes”, some of them seem to be more presets than an actual modes. In your case, trying to match a specific Alexa mode is probably not the best WAF and KAF as you point it out :smiley:

One way you could do is to have split thermostat modes and presets. I am a little confused in how your thermostat works. Is it just controlling heat? If so, is there a way to just turn it on or you have to select a preset to do so? Is “standby” the same as turning off the thermostat? I assume “frost” is basically an away mode setting the target temperature low?

8

hmm… It’s an european heating system (Gira KNX actuators), thus they’re indeed not “modes” as in “heat, cool, …”. Thanks for pointing that out. In fact, they’re more like “scenes”, meaning there’s a setpoint temperature attached to it.

So, normally you would use:

  • Frost: keep it above 7°C (I use that for summer time)
  • Komfort: “normal” temperature, if someone is present (like 21°C)
  • Night: keep it ~2° below Komfort
  • Standby: that’s used by me for holidays with the whole family (every room at about 18°)

Normally, the actuators have time-based settings for the “modes” (they’re called operation modes) - and each mode has a specific setpoint temperature for each room, so my one son likes it cold, the other likes it hot… I override the time-based settings via presence detection and set the rooms to those “modes” accordingly - sometimes, we don’t want that - and so you can manually override both the time-based and the OH3 presence detection override! :wink:

So, my use case is:

  • Alexa, set room to Komfort
  • Alexa, set room temperature to 21 degrees

So, if I understand correctly, the “modes” are not meant for the operation modes of my heating actuators - so normally it’s only meant to set the setpoint temperature…?

9

So that what I understood, what you call “scenes”, I would call these “presets” since it sets a specific temperature. :smiley:

Anyway, that was my point of using ModeController instead. You would be able to use the utterances you mentioned. The only issue is that you won’t be able to select these “modes” in the Alexa app. So if you don’t use this, it shouldn’t be a problem.

value: ModeController.mode
config:
  friendlyNames: "@Setting.Mode"
  supportedModes: "0=AUTO,1=KOMFORT,2=STANDBY,3=NACHT,4=FROST"

Alexa, set thermostat to auto
Alexa, set thermostat to komfort
…