Hardware: Home Brew Computer, i7 7700 CPU, 32GB Memory, 255GB SSD & 26TB NAS
OS: Win10 64
Java Runtime Environment: TBD
openHAB version: TBD
Issue of the topic: ??Would openHAB work for me??
I’ve been running INControlHA & Axial for over 10 years and it might be time for a change, but want to make sure I am not going to loose any capabilities in the process.
I have Aeon Z-Stick Gen5, over 25 Z-Wave Devices, mostly GE Switches, A Honeywell WiFi Thermostat, and a home brew Garage Door Opener that incorporates a Nu-tone Smart Plug-In outlet and my own relay directly wired into Chamberlain Garage door opener. I also have a Z-Wave motion sensor that lets us know if the garage door is open or closed.
The wife and I have really gotten attached to Alexa, asking her to turn on lights and other things.
My questions is; Using openHAB can I ask Alexa the status of my Garage door by querying the motion sensor to see if it is closed or open?
I was in hope that a Scene would allow for this, but cannot find any information pertaining on how to make it work.
Thank You for your time.
Hoping to hear from someone
Bill
I don’t have Alexa in my setup, however you could set a rule to update a virtual item that you advertise to the Alexa cloud; so while it may not be the motion sensor itself the value can be update to something else you can advertise to Alexa.
In the V2 Alexa openHAB skill, you can only ask for the temperature of something. So in a convoluted way you can get the state of the garage door. You make a temperature Item, expose it to Alexa, and have a Rule that sets the temperature to a value you remember for open or closed. The you can say, “Alexa, what’s the garage temperature?” Perhaps you used 0 and 1, or 0 and 100. Whatever you want for open or closed.
The almost ready V3 skill would let you do this more directly, but I’d definitely get the V2 working before trying V3.
Using the amazonechocontrol binding, you can setup a rule and routines to ask the status of any device… even one’s not exposed to Alexa. Here’s an example…
