Use Alexa to issue on/off commands to dimmers

@Huw, it seems to work fine for me: I have Hue lights and Z-wave dimmers, and control these both individually and via scenes - all from Alexa via Zipato

Interesting.

I've just tried "Alexa, dining table on" - the dining table light has a dimmer on it. I got the response "That command doesn't work on device dining table".

If I say "Alexa, dining table at 50", then it'll turn the light on at 50%, but I can't just use on and off.

Shutter controllers have the same issue for open/close. It would be really awesome if zipato/alexa worked that way as well as set to x%

not sure if this would cause and issue with same device name, but could you create a virtual on/off switch named the same that sets the lighting levels to 0 and 100 via rules? Or activate (make visible) the on/off switch in the dimmer (i know fibaro have this option)

do we have any news on this, it is really starting to bug me. Why cant I just tell a dimmer to turn off? It also restrict grouping lights together via the Alexa Smart Home skill itself.

I have to agree, as cool and great as the Alexa-Skill is, having to say 0% and 100% v.s. Off / On is an oversight.

Granted, it's not a major issue but it's annoying and it does take away from the overall experience.

ask support for this simple feature, including open and close for motors/blinds/shutter/doors. They said we need to vote for it

So vote and add comments to keep this post up the top of the forum, as it is rather annoying not being able to say turn off a bloody dimmer light.

I vote for ON/OFF on dimmers and OPEN/CLOSE/TILT commands for roller shutters (tilt if you use venetian blinds) as well as 0 - 100 %.

Similarly, the IR virtual thermostat cannot be turned on/off using alexa, only temp can be changed.

The blog or and best that is extremely useful to keep I can share the ideas of the future as this is really what I was looking for, I am very comfortable and pleased to come here. Thank you very much.

animal jam | five nights at freddy's | hotmail login

just keeping this up the top so people can vote for it. It is currently one of my biggest annoyances.

Funny thing though, I noticed on/off works for osram lightify bulbs that are dimmable. Anybody tried a zipato rgbw bulb?

Here's how I have Alexa control dimmers with an "on" or "off" voice command. Currently, it does not remember the last setting of the dimmer, but perhaps that could be done.

I create a virtual switch for each dimmer that I want Alexa to control. The virtual switch triggers a rule that sets the dimmer to a fixed level (for example 80%) when on, or zero when off. Now, when I say "Alexa, turn the kitchen light on", the rule is executed and the light is set to 80%.

You can use the Alexa Groups feature to assign the virtual switch with a name that is easy for Alexa to understand, such as Kitchen, as opposed to my Zipato name Kitchen Ceiling** (I suffix all Zipato virtual devices with a "**" so I can easily recognize them).

Hi Steven, thanks but I am aware of work arounds like this, but it defeats the purpose of a single dimmer switch work with both value commands AND simple on/off. Your method unfortunately will only provide the on off command to a dimmer, but you now can not set the value of that switch unless you name it something altogether different to the dimmer. This means for a home that may have all dimmer lights, they now need to double that number just to have on/off commands, and these switches will need to be named different to the dimmers. So you now need to remember which light name needs a value and which needs basic on/off commands.

It really is a simple fix for Zipato. Even adding doors/blinds with and open and close commands.

Check out this autovoice tutorial from Joaoapps using this with autovoice https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55lfdlVZHOc&t=623s

This is extremely inconvenient. I was hoping to switch from Smart Thing to this, using Amazon Echo for voice control. But even though Zipato supposedly promises more flexibility, it's ability for basic commands through Amazon Echo is so lacking that I can't even get past doing the basic stuff such as turning on/off dimmers, and turning on/off all lights out of the box. Very disappointed. Please add (1) the on/off commands for all generic dimmers via Amazon Echo, and (2) build in default commands to turn on/off all lights. More importantly, create a good manual! Your documentation is very bad for a $300+ product.

Yes pleas add on off !!!

yes on/off for dimmers is really pissing me off now. And open close for blinds.

@ClaireLin you can create a scene within zipato to turn off all lights and another to turn on. Only issue here is when using alexa to trigger an "all off scene" you need to ask it to turn "on" the "all off scene"

You can also create a group within the alexa smart home skill and group many lights together to turn them all on or off. This method is slower in reaction time than creating a scene, and again, you cant add dimmers to a group of on/off lights.

Documentation is not Zipatos string point, but there Youtube channel is very good, check it out. https://www.youtube.com/user/zipatotv

Hi everyone,

We added an option On/Off for Dimmers. So now you can use that command in Zipato Skill.

Regards,

Dominik