Alexa to control audio

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1

Hello,

I use Alexa to contol different things in my home and it works fine!

But I have a problem, when I want to control my Yamaha AV. When I say to Alexa “start radio x” Alexa thinks, she should play the radio. But what I want is alexa to start my yamaha av and to start network radio. Same problem, when i say “increase audio volume”. Alexa increases her own volume level, instead of the volume level of my yamaha av.

I think the problem is, that the openhab skill is not supporting “audio” commands.

Is it possibel to enhance the skill?

2

In addition:
I want not to wire alexa to my yamaha av!

3

The current skill is based on the Smarthome API’s of Amazon/Alexa. No audio controls are available.

As a workaround you could implement some virtual switches.
E.g. “network radio”. If you say “Alexa, turn on network radio” this switch is triggered.
Using a rule, you could turn on your Yahama AV and switch it to network radio. I don’t know if a binding exists for Yahama or you can control it using OpenHAB in some way, but there is a Yahama Receiver binding, so I guess that is covered.

Related to increase/decrease volume, you could follow a similar approach. But you would need to use some strange phrasing:
“Alexa, turn on Yahama volume increase” => would again trigger a virtual switch that increases the volume by e.g. 5%.

You can always consider building a custom Alexa skill. And I’ve read that Yahama has already foreseen Alexa integration for some of their receivers. Maybe you’re lucky.

4

Hello,

is it possible to change the openhab skill to support audio commands?

The problem is, that if alexa hears the word “radio” or “volume” it always akts wrong!

As a workaround i have the discibed solution already running. But that is not really a good solution (especially for my wife ;-))

5

Yes, WAF is an issue. I recognize that. :slight_smile:

Unfortunately, it is Amazon that needs to expand the API for this. See API Reference Guide.

As soon as Amazon has included this in their API, the OpenHAB skill can be adjusted.

6

Looks like this is supported now and a couple of people are working on it, https://github.com/openhab/openhab-alexa/issues/40. Are you aware of this and able to contribute. Sadly I’m not a Dev but wouldn’t love to be able to move it forward :slight_smile: