Just ordered a Kasa HS200 Smart Switch to replace a dead Insteon switch.
My now defunct Insteon switch was automatically turned on and off via openhab pre-sunset and post-sunrise furthermore I was able to control it via Alexa thru the use of the Hue emulation and I do not use openHAB cloud due to internet reliability.
I would like to do that with the Kasa switch. Any advice or instructions?
Alexa is just as network dependent as openhab cloud.
Not helpful.
Furthermore the less I have running on some remote server the more reliable my local devices are.
If openHAB was sending ON/OFF commands to your Insteon switch, then it can send the same to your Kasa switch. Just add the Kasa via the TP-Link binding, then do one of the following:
Your post wasn’t really clear, all I was pointing out was that any use of alexa is cloud dependent, so why exclude the openhab cloud service if you want to use alexa?
There is a binding specifically for the kasa/tp-link switches and other devices. It is a direct api call, not cloud dependent, and works like a charm. No cloud required.
Thanks. Got it working. Renamed to dead switch and then added the Kasa. Then named it the dead switch old name.
I’m alway a little reluctant to make changes to my openHAB setup and live by the “if it ain’t broken” mantra.
You are correct. Please forgive the rambling.
My question is can I use HUE emulation to add the Kasa Switch to Alexa?
I have following two files insteon.items and tp-link.items
Within tp-link.items I have the following.
Switch garagedoorlight “Garage Door Light” [ “Switchable” ] { channel=“tplinksmarthome:hs200:xxxxxx:switch” }
The Kasa switch that replaced the dead Insteon is being controlled by Alexa because I gave it the same name and made no changes with Alexa locating new smart devices.
You can add the HUE ["Switchable"] tag to any openHAB item that has ON and OFF states.
Alexa ← → HUE ← → openHAB ← → Insteon/Kasa/whatever
openHAB is pretending to be a HUE hub and pretending that your ["Switchable"] device is a HUE device. It never communicates anything more to HUE.
Russ, thanks for that info.
It’s been a long time since I had Alexa discover my new devices and I’m not looking to create more trouble for myself. I don’t remember if it adds things wholesale or allow you to pick what you want to add to Alexa when you put things into discovery mode.
I am wondering if the HUE emulation and/or Alexa will freakout break when I try to discover new devices now that my switch named Garage Door Light in no longer an Insteon device but a tp-link device and using different means of communication.
I don’t use Alexa, but it’s only going to see the items that you tag as HUE devices. If you remove the item (or even just the tag), I would assume that the item will disappear when you sync Alexa with HUE. That’s what happens with Google Assistant.
Whatever the case, it shouldn’t be difficult to add/remove a single item from Alexa. People do that all of the time.
Again, HUE and Alexa don’t have any idea about Insteon or TP-Link, because openHAB is telling them that:
openHAB doesn’t pass on any more information than, “you can tell this device to turn on and off”.