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Most of my spoken commands to Alexa go something like this:
"Alexa, time for bed"at which point she executes a pre-planned Routine (triggered by that spoken phrase). The routine may turn On a virtual switch (named, say, "VS: Time for Bed" on my Vera Plus, but known to the Alexa Smart Home skill as "Time for Bed" just to keep my sanity).
The VS is a child device of Switchboard plug-in (by @toggledbits ) and acts as a binary (On/Off) light switch. Typically, I'll instruct Reactor to turn the switch back off -- or, more commonly, have it set to turn itself back off after NN seconds in the Switchboard UI. In other words, it's just a brief Trigger for a Reactor routine or Vera scene.
Now, here's my question: In order to avoid creating dozens of virtual switches -- one for each Routine / Scene -- has anyone tried using a DIMMER instead?
Seems to me that a dimming device, since it can be set to 100 different "brightness levels", could trigger 100 different responses in Reactor. But I'm hesitant to try this arrangement until I know others have had success, and that the faux "dimming" process won't inadvertently trigger intermediate values (e.g. "ramping") along the way.
Eager to hear if this alternative workflow makes sense and is practical, insofar as "Binary" and "Dimmer" seem to be the only switch types that Vera allows Alexa to "see" on Discovery.
Thanks! - Libra
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Paulus Schoutsen / Mar 17 Nabu Casa has acquired ESPHome Nabu Casa has acquired ESPHomeNabu Casa has acquired ESPHome to ensure that the project can continue to flourish as a free and open source project.
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They are moving fast...
Franck Nijhof / Mar 2 2021.3: My Oh My 2021.3: My Oh MyIntroducing My Home Assistant, a new UI for service calls, 100% Fans, Z-Wave JS updates and Supervisor updates.
Latest HA release
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They are moving fast...
2021.3: My Oh My
Introducing My Home Assistant, a new UI for service calls, 100% Fans, Z-Wave JS updates and Supervisor updates.