homebridge-alexa Version 2 - Home Skill Based
Enable Amazon Alexa access and control your homebridge controlled devices and accessories. Full support for all Amazon Alexa devices, including the echo 2nd Generation and software based solutions. Uses an Amazon smart home skill based approach for integration between HomeBridge and Amazon Alexa.
Country availability - The plugin is available in these countries, English (AU), German (DE), English (CA), English (US), French (FR), English (UK), Italian (IT), English (IN), Spanish (ES), Japanese (JP), Spanish(US), Portuguese (BR) and Spanish (MX).
- Supports multiple homebridge instances running on your network.
- Auto-discovery of multiple Homebridge's
- Supports the following HomeKit accessory types Lightbulb, Outlet, Fan, Fan2, Temperature Sensor, Window Coverings and Switch.
- Supports passing of sensor updates in real time to Alexa for use in routines.
- Includes support for brightness and colour.
- Creates a Contact Sensor that monitors the status of the connect to the Homebridge Alexa Cloud Servers.
- The plugin does not need to be installed in your 'main' homebridge instance. It can be installed in any 'Homebridge' instance in your setup.
- Enables control from non-hardware based alexa devices like Invoxia Triby, and AlexaPI.
- Features
- Table of Contents
- Supported devices
- Alexa Voice Commands
- Installation of homebridge-alexa
- Service Availability and Issues
- Roadmap
- Credits
- Support for Light Bulbs, Switches and outlets
- Support for Color Light Bulbs and Colour Temperature of white Light bulbs
- Support for Fans (As Alexa doesn't support Fans coverings I'm using Other)
- Support for Window coverings/blinds (As Alexa doesn't support window coverings I'm using Other)
- Support for Garage Doors
- Support for Temperature, Contact and Motion Sensors.
- Support for Occupancy Sensors as a Contact sensor.
- Also supports sending real time updates from Contact, Occupancy and Motion sensors to Alexa, for use in routines.
- Support for Fan2 aka Dyson fans
- Support for Valves, Sprinklers and Shower Heads (As Alexa doesn't support these, they are Other)
- Support for more than 100 accessories
- Support for generation 2 Echo's and other Alexa devices not supported with the original version
- Support for Speakers ( Tested with homebridge-yamaha-home, homebridge-soundtouch and homebridge-http-irblaster )
- Support for Apple TV ( Supports homebridge-apple-tv )
- Support Spotify playback controls on Yamaha Receivers via homebridge-yamaha-home
- Support for door locks
Alexa device names are the same as the homebridge device names.
This only supports accessories connected via a homebridge plugin, any 'Homekit' accessories are not supported, and will never be supported.
- Lightbulbs, outlets and switches
- Dimmable lightbulbs, outlets and switches
- Colour lightbulbs
- Speakers
- Apple TV
- Temperature Sensors
- Motion Sensors
- Contact Sensors
- Thermostat
- Heater/Cooler
- Door locks ( Lock and status only, Alexa does not support unlocking )
- HomeKit Television ( Initial support only On/Off and Volume Control )
- Door/Garage Door - Supported as a on/off device and also supported as a contact sensor for routines
- Fans, Humidifier Dehumidifier and Air Purifiers - Supported as a Switch
- Window Coverings / Blinds - Supported as Other
- Valves, Sprinklers and Shower Heads - Supported as a light bulb
- Occupancy Sensors - Supported as a Contact Sensor
- Camera's ( for use with an Alexa show etc )
- Eve devices
- Security Systems
- Alexa, discover devices
-
Alexa, turn on device
-
Alexa, turn off device
-
Alexa, set device to 50
-
Alexa, dim device
-
Alexa, brighten device
- Alexa, turn device red/green/blue
- Alexa, set/make the device cooler/whiter ( Color temperature )
- Alexa, set/make the device warmer/softer ( Color temperature )
- Alexa, make the device warm white ( Color temperature )
warm, warm white
incandescent, soft white
white
daylight, daylight white
cool, cool white
- Alexa, turn on device ( Open's a garage door )
- Alexa, turn off device ( Close's a garage door )
See example using a routine to fix the wording
- Alexa, turn on device ( Open's blinds )
- Alexa, turn off device ( Close's blinds )
- Alexa, set device to 50 ( Moves blinds to 50% )
- Alexa, set thermostat to 20
- Alexa, set thermostat to heat/cool/automatic/off
- Alexa, unlock my device ( Amazon is blocking this function )
- Alexa, lock my device
- Alexa, what is the temperature in the device ( Not supported in Japan )
- Alexa, pause device ( Apple TV )
- Alexa, resume device ( Apple TV )
- Alexa, play device ( Apple TV )
- Alexa, stop device ( Apple TV )
-
Alexa, turn on device
-
Alexa, turn off device
-
Alexa, raise the volume on device
-
Alexa, lower the volume on device
-
Alexa, volume up 20 on device
-
Alexa, set the volume of device to 50
Or
- Alexa, raise the volume on device
- Alexa, lower the volume on device
These are the remote buttons
- Alexa, pause device ( pause/play )
- Alexa, resume device ( pause/play )
- Alexa, play device ( select )
- Alexa, stop device ( back )
- Alexa, next on device ( right arrow )
- Alexa, rewind on device ( left arrow )
-
Panasonic TV: - [email protected]
- Alexa can turn on and off and control volume
-
Sony Bravia TV (Android TV) - [email protected]
- Alexa can turn on and off and control volume
-
Sky Q decoder - [email protected]
- Alexa can turn on and off
-
Samsung Tizen - homebridge-samsung-tizen
- Alexa can turn on and off and control volume
-
Yamaha AVR - homebridge-yamaha-zone-tv
- Alexa can turn on and off and control volume. Also control Spotify/Airplay playback
- Alexa, change to the channel to # on device
- Alexa, change the input to input on the device
- Alexa, lower the volume on device
- Alexa, volume up 20 on device ( Speakers )
- Alexa, set the volume of device to 50 ( Speakers )
- Alexa, change channel to 1-6 on device
- Alexa, pause Stereo
- Alexa, resume Stereo
- Alexa, stop Stereo
- Alexa, next song on Stereo
- Alexa, rewind on Stereo
- These are only visible to routines, no voice commands are available
- If you are looking for a basic setup to get this plugin up and running check out this guide (https://sambrooks.net/controlling-homebridge-using-alexa/).
The setup of the plugin is very straight forward, and requires enabling insecure mode of each homebridge instance you want to control from Alexa.
- All homebridge instances that you want to control from Alexa need to run in insecure mode with -I included on the command line. How you make this change will depend on your installation of homebridge, and how you start homebridge. If you start from the command line, it would look like this:
homebridge -I
- If your using systemd to manage homebridge, the -I is added to the file /etc/default/homebridge in the line, HOMEBRIDGE_OPTS ie.
# Defaults / Configuration options for homebridge
# The following settings tells homebridge where to find the config.json file and where to persist the data (i.e. pairing and others)
HOMEBRIDGE_OPTS=-I
# If you uncomment the following line, homebridge will log more
# You can display this via systemd's journalctl: journalctl -f -u homebridge
#DEBUG=
- If your using pm2 to manage the startup of homebridge, you can add the -I option with these steps
pm2 delete homebridge
pm2 cleardump
pm2 start homebridge -- -I
pm2 save
To review your settings, use command below to check if homebridge was sucessfully registered to pm2. After that, you can try to reboot your system and check whether you can control homebridge devices with Alexa app.
pm2 show homebridge
- If you have multiple homebridge options, the -I should be listed first. ie
HOMEBRIDGE_OPTS=-I -U /var/homebridge
- If you are running with a docker container ( Oznu's), you can add the -I flag following these instructions:
homebridge/docker-homebridge#79
Variable=HOMEBRIDGE_INSECURE
Value=1
Go to the Docker app
Stop the Homebridge container
Edit the container and go to the Environment tab
Add environment variable
Save and start container
- The setup of homebridge-alexa is similar to other plugins, except it doesn't have any devices in the Home app;-) I'm just reusing the runtime and configuration file management. And it only needs to installed once if you have multiple homeridge's installed. It will auto-discover and connect to the other instances.
sudo npm install -g homebridge-alexa
- An account to link your Amazon Alexa to HomeBridge needs to created on this website https://www.homebridge.ca/. This account will be used when you enable the home skill in the Alexa App on your mobile, and in the configuration of the plugin in homebridge.
- Add the plugin to your config.json. The login and password in the config.json, are the credentials you created earlier for the https://www.homebridge.ca/ website. This only needs to be completed for one instance of homebridge in your environment, it will discover the accessories connected to your other homebridges automatically.
"platforms": [
{
"platform": "Alexa",
"name": "Alexa",
"username": "....",
"password": "...."
}
],
- username - Login created for the skill linking website https://www.homebridge.ca/
- password - Login created for the skill linking website https://www.homebridge.ca/
- If you had changed your homebridge pin from the default of "pin": "031-45-154" ie
"platforms": [
{
"platform": "Alexa",
"name": "Alexa",
"username": "....",
"password": "....",
"pin": "031-45-155"
}
],
- Enables passing to Alexa of real time events from Motion and Contact sensors. For use in the Alexa app to create Routines triggered by these sensors. Not required unless you are using Alexa Routines.
"platforms": [
{
"platform": "Alexa",
"name": "Alexa",
"username": "....",
"password": "....",
"routines": true
}
],
- This enables debug logging mode, can be used instead of the command line option ( DEBUG=* homebridge )
"platforms": [
{
"platform": "Alexa",
"name": "Alexa",
"username": "....",
"password": "....",
"debug": true
}
],
- Frequency of refreshes of the homebridge accessory cache, in seconds. Defaults to 15 minutes.
"platforms": [
{
"platform": "Alexa",
"name": "Alexa",
"username": "....",
"password": "....",
"refresh": 900
}
],
- Limits accessories shared with Alexa to a single homebridge instance. ( I'm using this setting with Amazon for skill testing. ). The setting is ip:port of homebridge instance.
"platforms": [
{
"platform": "Alexa",
"name": "Alexa",
"username": "....",
"password": "....",
"filter": "192.168.1.122:51826"
}
],
- Combine disparate accessories into one common device. My example here is combining my TV Remote (KODI), which only has ON/OFF and Volume controls into the Apple TV (TV) playback controls. And combining the spotify controls from my Yamaha receiver into the Zone.
"platforms": [
{
"platform": "Alexa",
"name": "Alexa",
"username": "....",
"password": "....",
"combine": [{
"into": "TV",
"from": ["KODI"]
}, {
"into": "Front",
"from": ["Yamaha"]
}, {
"into": "Rear",
"from": ["Yamaha"]
}],
}
],
- Devices to configure as speakers as HomeKit currently does not have a Speaker service, and enable the alexa phase
Alexa, raise the volume on.
"platforms": [
{
"platform": "Alexa",
"name": "Alexa",
"username": "....",
"password": "....",
"speakers": [{
"manufacturer": "...",
"name": "..."
}]
}
],
- manufacturer - Is the manufacturer of the accessory as shown in the Home App
- name - Is the name of the accessory as shown in the Home App
ie
{
"platform": "Alexa",
"username": "...",
"password": "...",
"name": "Alexa",
"speakers": [{
"manufacturer": "Yamaha",
"name": "Front"
},
{
"manufacturer": "Yamaha",
"name": "Rear"
},
{
"manufacturer": "HTTP-IRBlaster",
"name": "Panasonic"
}
]
}
- This enables Alexa to be able to change channels on your TV by number, and enables the phrase
Alexa, change to the channel to.
"channel": [{
"into": "TV",
"manufacturer": "HTTP-IRBlaster",
"name": "Tuner"}],
-
into - Name of the existing accessory to add the input function to. In my setup this is my Apple TV accessory.
-
manufacturer - Is the manufacturer of the accessory as shown in the Home App
-
name - Is the name of the accessory as shown in the Home App
The accessory to receive channel change commands will receive the channel number as the value.
- This combines several buttons that control inputs on a TV or Stereo into an Alexa input control and enables the phrase
Alexa, change to input to. For the names of the inputs, Amazon provided a list ( see alexa name below ) that you can choose from. You can map multiple alexa names to the same button as well.
Alexa, change the input to Tuner on the TV
Alexa, change the input to HDMI 1 on the TV
{
"platform": "Alexa",
"username": "...",
"password": "...",
"name": "Alexa",
"inputs": [{
"into": "TV",
"devices": [{
"manufacturer": "HTTP-IRBlaster",
"name": "Tuner",
"alexaName": "TUNER"
}, {
"manufacturer": "HTTP-IRBlaster",
"name": "Tuner",
"alexaName": "TV TUNER"
}, {
"manufacturer": "HTTP-IRBlaster",
"name": "Tuner",
"alexaName": "TV"
}, {
"manufacturer": "HTTP-IRBlaster",
"name": "HDMI1",
"alexaName": "HDMI 1"
}, {
"manufacturer": "HTTP-IRBlaster",
"name": "HDMI1",
"alexaName": "TV KODI"
}, {
"manufacturer": "HTTP-IRBlaster",
"name": "HDMI1",
"alexaName": "MEDIA PLAYER"
}, {
"manufacturer": "HTTP-IRBlaster",
"name": "HDMI2",
"alexaName": "HDMI 2"
}, {
"manufacturer": "HTTP-IRBlaster",
"name": "HDMI2",
"alexaName": "TV NETFLIX"
}]
}],
In my setup I use an OTA Antenna, hence the Tuner option and have a KODI box on HDMI 1, and a Apple TV we use for Netflix on HDMI 2. For the alexaName's "TV KODI", "TV TUNER", and "TV NETFLIX" these were not part of the Amazon documentation and may stop working at any time or may not work in your region.
-
into - Name of the existing accessory to add the input function to. In my setup this is my Apple TV accessory.
-
manufacturer - Is the manufacturer of the accessory as shown in the Home App
-
name - Is the name of the accessory as shown in the Home App
-
alexaName - This the input your are asking Alexa to change to.
AUX 1, AUX 2, AUX 3, AUX 4, AUX 5, AUX 6, AUX 7, BLURAY, CABLE, CD, COAX 1, COAX 2, COMPOSITE 1, DVD, GAME,
HD RADIO, HDMI 1, HDMI 2, HDMI 3, HDMI 4, HDMI 5, HDMI 6, HDMI 7, HDMI 8, HDMI 9, HDMI 10, HDMI ARC, INPUT 1,
INPUT 2, INPUT 3, INPUT 4, INPUT 5, INPUT 6, INPUT 7, INPUT 8, INPUT 9, INPUT 10, IPOD, LINE 1, LINE 2, LINE 3,
LINE 4, LINE 5, LINE 6, LINE 7, MEDIA PLAYER, OPTICAL 1, OPTICAL 2, PHONO, PLAYSTATION, PLAYSTATION 3,
PLAYSTATION 4, SATELLITE, SMARTCAST, TUNER, TV, USB DAC, VIDEO 1, VIDEO 2, VIDEO 3, XBOX
- This is the config from my Apple TV after completing the pairing. Please note, "showDefaultSwitches": true and "defaultSwitchesIncludeATVName": true, are required parameters. Please note I blanked out the devices/credentials section with my ATV credentials.
{
"platform":"AppleTV",
"name":"Apple TV",
"devices": [{
"id": "Cottage",
"name": "TV",
"credentials": "...." }
],
"showDefaultSwitches": true,
"defaultSwitchesIncludeATVName": true,
"showPairSwitches": false,
"hideWelcomeMessage": true
}
This uses the plugin homebridge-yamaha-home and a Yamaha Receiver which includes Spotify and Spotify Playback Controls.
As of April 14, 2019 I changed the Homebridge device parser massively, to add support for Locks and Heater/Cooler devices. To go back to the old device parser, you can set an option oldParser to true. Default is to the new parser.
"oldParser": true
- Start homebridge in DEBUG mode, to ensure configuration of homebridge-alexa is correct. This will need to be executed with your implementations configuration options and as the same user as you are running homebridge. If you are homebridge with an autostart script ie systemd, you will need to stop the autostart temporarily.
ie
DEBUG=alexa* homebridge -I
- Please ensure that homebridge starts without errors, and output should be similar to this. This is from my setup, and I have several instances of homebridge so you may have a different number of alexaHAP lines.
alexaHAP Starting Homebridge instance discovery +0ms
alexaLocal Connecting to Homebridge Smart Home Skill +1ms
[2018-3-17 11:23:57] Homebridge is running on port 51826.
alexaHAP HAP Device discovered Porch Camera [ '192.168.1.226' ] +87ms
alexaHAP HAP instance address: Porch Camera -> howard.local -> 192.168.1.226 +1ms
alexaHAP HAP Device discovered Howard [ '192.168.1.226' ] +4ms
alexaHAP HAP instance address: Howard -> howard.local -> 192.168.1.226 +0ms
alexaHAP HAP Device discovered Howard-Hue [ '192.168.1.226' ] +0ms
alexaHAP HAP instance address: Howard-Hue -> howard.local -> 192.168.1.226 +0ms
alexaHAP HAP Device discovered Spare Camera [ '192.168.1.226' ] +1ms
alexaHAP HAP instance address: Spare Camera -> howard.local -> 192.168.1.226 +0ms
alexaLocal offline +5ms
alexaHAP HAP Device discovered Penny [ 'fe80::ba27:ebff:febf:bbaa', '192.168.1.4', '169.254.185.85' ] +42ms
alexaHAP HAP instance address: Penny -> penny.local -> 192.168.1.4 +0ms
alexaHAP Homebridge instance discovered Howard with 12 accessories +7ms
alexaHAP Homebridge instance discovered Porch Camera with 1 accessories +11ms
alexaHAP Homebridge instance discovered Howard-Hue with 5 accessories +1ms
alexaHAP Homebridge instance discovered Spare Camera with 1 accessories +10ms
alexaHAP Homebridge instance discovered Penny with 26 accessories +101ms
alexaHAP HAP Device discovered Bart-Dev [ 'fe80::1c05:2c:5ae4:abdc', '192.168.1.231' ] +662ms
alexaHAP HAP instance address: Bart-Dev -> Bart.local -> 192.168.1.231 +0ms
alexaHAP Homebridge instance discovered Bart-Dev with 1 accessories +7ms
alexaLocal reconnect +4s
alexaLocal connect command/northernMan/# +174ms
Please note, that if you have other HomeKit devices on your network, like Philip's hue hub's, they will generate a HAP Discover failed message that can be ignored.
- In your Amazon Alexa app on your phone, please search for the "Homebridge" skill, and enable the skill. You will need to Enable and link the skill to the account you created earlier on https://www.homebridge.ca/
- At this point you are ready to have Alexa discover devices. Once you say Alexa, discover devices, the output will get very verbose for a minute. After discovery is complete you should see a line showing the number of devices returned to Alexa.
ie
.
.
.
alexaTranslator Alexa Controllable Penny 22 +1ms
alexaTranslator Alexa Controllable Bart-Dev 0 +0ms
[2018-3-17 11:01:03] [Alexa] alexaDiscovery - returned 36 devices
In the event you have errors, or no devices returned please review your config.
Please note, as part of the verbose output from discovery devices, all your devices with the Alexa voice commands for each accessory are output in CSV format. You could grab these, format them into something usable and share.
- Installation is now complete, good luck and enjoy.
-
Contact Sensor Alexa monitors the connection to the cloud service. When the contact sensor is Closed, the connection has been successfully made to the cloud service, and when the contact sensor is Open the connection to the cloud service has not been made. To determine why the connection to the cloud service is not working, please check your homebridge log files. During normal operation the Contact Sensor should be Closed.
-
Real time monitoring of the homebridge.ca cloud service is provided by Uptime Robot.
-
Cloud service operational event reporting and alerting is sent to the #homebridge-alexa channel in the Homebridge Discord instance, and the uptime robot reports events there in real time.
To assist in troubleshooting setup issues with your account, the hombridge.ca website displays the status of your account.
From here you should be able to determine if your plugin is communicating with the service and if your Amazon Alexa account has enabled the Homebridge-Alexa skill.
- I have started recording troubleshooting tips here based on issues seen by the community Troubleshooting.
- All homebridge PIN's in your setup need to be set to the same value.
- Whitelisting/blacklisting of accessories is not supported, but this can be achieved at the plugin level by putting the plugins you don't want exposed to Alexa in their own instance of HomeBridge, and for that instance of Alexa, don't include -I command line option. Discovery will fail for that instance, and the accessories will not be exposed.
- An Alexa device or a software based Alexa is required. Using just the App or Website does not work, and device discovery will fail to find devices. The Reverb app is a software based Alexa that is known to work.
- The maximum number of supported devices is 300. This is a limitation from the from the Amazon side, and not the plugin.
- If your Amazon account is not domiciled in the country where your Alexa is located the skill will not work. This is a limitation on the Amazon side and not with the plugin. ie if you are in the UK and use an Amazon.com account, the skill will not work. You need to use an Amazon account domiciled in the UK
I have created a Discord channel on the homebridge discord server to troubleshoot issues not on the troubleshooting page. If you reach out there, I'm usually available. The channel is called #homebridge-alexa
To collect a debug log, please start homebridge with this command line
DEBUG=* homebridge -I
Sometimes during troubleshooting I need a dump of your homebridge accessories. Please use this command to collect it. If needed you can change the ip address, port or pin to match your environment.
curl -X PUT http://127.0.0.1:51826/accessories --header "Content-Type:Application/json" --header "authorization: 031-45-154"
See Roadmap
- Ben Hardill - For the inspiration behind the design.
- Chrisx9 - German translation
- Tait Brown - HomeSkill Icon
- ozno - Recommendation for the bonjour MDNS implementation, and testing on RPI 0 W
- fazerize - Initial support for Thermostats
- francescob - Validate TV Integration for [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected]
- jelvs - Validate TV Integration for homebridge-samsung-tizen
- krocko - bose soundlink preset / channel change