One other thought for a bit more security…
If you normally go straight from the bedroom to let the dogs out, you can add a conditional statement that checks to see if the bedroom motion is still active before asking for the password. If the bedroom is inactive, then it can go straight to the alarm mode.
Essentially, I usually try to find a pattern with the user’s routine, and then use another condition to verify that it is indeed you opening the basement.
Oh this is good. I read to the bit I needed and I’ve set a Piston using EchoSpeaks.
When my Study PIR detects motion She who shall not be named now asks if I want to hear music - I answer yes and she searches for music and automatically plays it! Nice.
I used the Boolean variable thing to prevent Madam from asking again.
Seems to work nicely.
I will have to try this with other Pistons!
Thanks
Found a problem with my version - it worked earlier but won’t now. The Boolean variable defaults to ‘True’ in the Defined section and won’t ask the question. If I manually set it to false then every time I move she asks if I want to hear music!
Here is a screenie of my Piston:-
Any ideas?
Rich
Edit
Figured it out, the final Statement - Set Variable = False - should not have been nested with the others. It needed to be in it’s own statement.
You might have already tweaked it… but just so you are aware…
Piston n6pz has one trigger: Motion Sensor 2’s motion.
This means the piston will run top to bottom each time the motion changes to active or inactive.
As of today, when I say, “Alexa, Yes” or “Alexa, No” in response to a programmed question/response/action as discussed in this thread, my Alexas now say, "Sorry. This phrase is no longer supported. Please go to the Alexa app to choose another phrase."
I’ve now changed my Alexa routines to listen for, “Yes, please” and “No, thank you”. We’ll see if that works OK. I think Echo may be reserving ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ for responses to questions IT asks.
Alexa has blocked many phrases lately. I am trying to think of a natural phrase to replace “Alexa Yes” and “Alexa No”…
Thankfully, the only edit required is in the Alexa Routine…
IE: Change the words highlighted below:
I agree that it is easily corrected to something of your choice. I’ve changed mine to “Yes, please” and “No, thank you” to see how those work out.
They work fine as far as Alexa, ST and WebCore are concerned. I was speaking of how they’d work from a memory and flow standpoint for my wife and I. So far, so good for us too.
I gotta say, if we could not adapt (to changing technology), then our SmartHomes would become very dumb, LOL
THanks WCmore. I had an idea today that I wanted to add a yes no question to a piston and I had come to the conclusion that I should do it somehow with simulated switches, but had only a vague notion of how I would do it in my head. Just before starting to try and code something up I did a search and well this made things much simpler.
My litter box reminder piston now will ask if we cleaned it, if we say yes then it resets the reminder, if we answer no or don’t say anything it tells us the last time it was cleaned.
If ST screws up webcore too bad when they switch over I am going to be 
.
I changed mine to “Alexa okay” and “Alexa not now”, but I think yours are a bit more natural and memorable. I’ve struggled to ge the family to remember my new phrasing.
With 24 years of Army service, I was tempted to change them to Affirmative and Negative. However, my wife - although very supportive of my military time, was not actually IN the Army and therefor did not appreciate those choices…
Seems to be working but in my one piston I have setup so far the answer is “Yes I did”, or “No I did not”. Since No I did not works if you don’t say anything I added the yes answer to my question. Alexa tells you what the yes response is, after the question. I was worried it might take to long but it seems to be working.
Question for the experienced…
I am trying to create a “morning” routine where I start with some music, then move into “Good Morning” and then my flash briefing.
Unfortunately, Amazon limits music to being the last item on routines, but I want it to be the first, play for 10 mins, then move onto the good morning then flash briefing.
So… I tested it out this morning and it was hopping all over the place, what do I need to do to make this work in sequence (once one is over, the next thing happens?):
Do I need a wait between each, or perhaps use a different command?
P.S. Muting is a great tool for the kid that won’t get up with his alarm by saying “Echo, STOP”. He has to get out of bed to physically turn it off, but by that time he is up (at least so far!).
The music and Flash briefing will just start playing and then move to the next item in the piston. I know that is the case with music and I would assume it is the same for the flash briefing. So You probably need some waits
Great questions Kevin, but it honestly deserves to be in a new topic, since it has absolutely nothing to do with this thread…
Hello,
I just stumbled on this and I’m really excited about the possibility of it. However, I tried to set up a simple piston to test with and I am having no luck with anything. Initially, it would speak the response for neither a ye sor no answer, but that doesn’t even happen anymore. I’m really not sure what I did wrong because I used the example piston and didn’t change much.
You moved the critical WAIT in that piston.
(IE: the WAIT must be AFTER the speak text, to give you time to respond)
You can see the original in my first post here. (Import code: “tj6nv”)
Side Note:
I am not sure that line 40-42 will do what you want. Normally, we cannot send a “Turn on” command to a contact sensor…
