Alexa thermostat.mode in GUI

Apps & Services Amazon Alexa
1

OH 4.1.1

How do I translate this Alexa thermostat mode Item metadata from a text file (which works) to the GUI?

Number CabinThermostatMode  "Cabin Thermostat Mode [%s]"  (CabinThermostat)  {alexa="ThermostatController.thermostatMode" [OFF=0,HEAT=1] }

I tried this, but Alexa doesn’t understand when I try to change the mode to OFF or HEAT. I also notice that in the Alexa app it says the mode is “Custom” so I’m guessing I have some sort of syntax problem.

  "metadata": {
    "alexa": {
      "value": "Thermostat.Mode",
      "config": {
        "supportedModes": [
          "OFF=0",
          "HEAT=1"
        ]
      }
    },
    "semantics": {
      "value": "Point"
    }
  },
2

What utterance did you use to change mode? What is the exact response you are getting back? The syntax looks good. Is this item on its own or part of a group endpoint?

Can your item return other mode values not exposed to Alexa?

3

The item is part of a group which I call “Cabin Furnace”. I have a setpoint and a temperature also in the group, and they work. I can set the temperature by Alexa and I can get the current temperature.

If I say “set cabin thermostat mode to 0” (using the label on the Item), Alexa responds “I don’t know how to set Cabin to that setting”. Same if I say “set cabin thermostat mode to off”.

If I say “set cabin furnace mode to heat” (using label on the group) I get “that command doesn’t work on device cabin furnace”. Same if I use the numbers 0 or 1, or “off”. I also tried “set cabin furnace thermostat mode to heat”, but also heard that doesn’t work on device cabin furnace.

The thermostat mode Item is a Number - I don’t understand your last question. Being a number, it could result in out of range numbers (only 0 and 1 are allowed), but I don’t know how I can restrict it.

thanks for your help.

4

You can only use the defined thermostat modes on the Alexa side (off, heat, …). The skill is actually doing the mapping once a request is received. It is important to use the exact label you have defined for your thermostat group. Can you try Alexa, set cabin furnace to heat? The same should work with the off mode.

Also, make sure to trigger an Alexa discovery each time you are updating your metadata configuration.

I would recommend using a proxy item to restrict other mode values. For your use case, having a switch item could be useful especially since the skill would add the ability to request turning on and off your device.