Echo Dot + Samsung Smartthings = Several Devices Found??

[stevepius]

I am really struggling to get echo to control even a single bulb properly. I have the Cree A19 bulb which Samsung Smartthings found without issue. I Created a routine called Turn On Living Room Lamp 1 and it worked perfect. I created another called Turn Off Living Room Lamp 1.

Now ALL it does is says "serveral devices found" and I have to then tell it "Cree bulb" which makes this totally useless. Obviously people are turning things on and off with Echo - how are you doing it??

I even tried forgetting everything and have it rediscover. Tried unplug and plug back in, no luck. This is extremely frustrating as it should be so simple. Even renamed it to something basic "Living Room Lights On/Off" and same result.

[kilofox]

No need to create a routine just to turn off one bulb. (however it should work) Just tell Alexa to turn on/off the bulb using the bulb's name.

PS... I believe Smartthings Routines with Alexa is a "beta".

[stevepius]

Thanks for the reply.  You are right it does work with just the bulb name, but was testing for the sake of both lamps.  I didn't realize their group feature wasn't fully baked yet.  I saw echo can make it's  own groups as well, but in the echo group it  didn't ask me how i wanted the "things" to behave (on/off, etc.)  SHould I be using echo groups?

[kilofox]

I use Echo Groups for specific rooms.

I tried Smartthings Routines... it failed the first time, however its been working fine the past couple times I tried it. Routines in Smartthings are nice because they can control everything. Just make sure the "things" are in the Routine. Do you have Routines turned on in the Alexa app?

[kilofox]

I saw echo can make it's  own groups as well, but in the echo group it  didn't ask me how i wanted the "things" to behave (on/off, etc.)  SHould I be using echo groups?

They (the groups) should respond to on/off and percentages. "Alexa, turn on the kitchen lights (kitchen light group)" ".... or off" "Alexa set the kitchen lights to 50 percent." (if bulbs are dimmable)

[NEODax]

I am really struggling to get echo to control even a single bulb properly. I have the Cree A19 bulb which Samsung Smartthings found without issue. I Created a routine called Turn On Living Room Lamp 1 and it worked perfect. I created another called Turn Off Living Room Lamp 1.

Now ALL it does is says "serveral devices found" and I have to then tell it "Cree bulb" which makes this totally useless. Obviously people are turning things on and off with Echo - how are you doing it??

I even tried forgetting everything and have it rediscover. Tried unplug and plug back in, no luck. This is extremely frustrating as it should be so simple. Even renamed it to something basic "Living Room Lights On/Off" and same result.

I put every single device into an echo group.

2 bulbs in ceiling light in my living room- I make one group for those two bulbs called "front light" since it's right by the front door.
I also add those two bulbs to a second group called 'living room' since that is what room it is in.
Then I add it to a third group called 'everything' which includes every single smart device I have besides my thermostat.

Now when I say 'Alexa turn front lights on,' the ceiling light works.

When everything is off in the morning I say 'Alexa, turn living room on,' and the lamp, the  ceiling light both turn on.

At night when I have all 30 lights, switches, etc. Turned on and it's time for bed, I say 'Alexa, turn everything off,' and all the house lights, fan, neons n bar signs, hue iris' lava lamp, turntable n receiver all shut off at the same time.

[DParker]

+1 on ditching the routines, which are not warranted for such a simple control task.  Just...

• Give your bulbs sensible names.
• Make sure you've instructed SmartThings to make them available to your Alexa account (via the ST "Amazon Echo" smart app).
• Instruct Alexa to perform device discovery via the Smart Home section of Settings in your Alexa app.  (You could do that via voice with one of your Echos/Dots/Taps, but you're going to need the app to perform the next steps anyway).
• If you want to be able to control your bulbs as a group as well as individually, create a device group under "Smart Home" with whatever short, unique name best describes it.  For instance, if you want to control all bulbs in your living room with a single command create a group named "Living Room Lights".
• For each group you've created in the previous step, add to it whichever lights you want included in it.  Note that a given device (light, whatever) can belong to multiple groups if that would serve some purpose for you.

I have 2 lights in a group named "Living Room Lights", 4 in a group named "Family Room Lights" and 1 more in a group named "Dining Room Lights".  In addition to that, I have all 7 of those same lights in a group named "Downstairs Lights".  This gives me a lot of flexibility.  I can turn on/turn off/dim each light individually, or all lights within a single room...or control the entire downstairs...each with a single command.  I also included my family room ceiling fan in the "Family Room Lights" and "Downstairs Lights" groups so that when we go to bed at night saying, "Alexa, turn off the downstairs lights" the fan will shut off too, just in case we otherwise forget to turn it off separately.  (I also have a fail-safe SmartThings rule that shuts everything off downstairs after midnight, just in case.)

[stevepius]

THanks for all the great responses guy - nice to see so many people with experience willing to help.  I will definitely give  this a go tonight.  I didn't realize that I didn't really need routines.  Echo just seems to struggle  with them at this time...I'm sure will improve in the future.  Can't wait to give it a go!

[steve28]

I am really struggling to get echo to control even a single bulb properly. I have the Cree A19 bulb which Samsung Smartthings found without issue. I Created a routine called Turn On Living Room Lamp 1 and it worked perfect. I created another called Turn Off Living Room Lamp 1.

Now ALL it does is says "serveral devices found" and I have to then tell it "Cree bulb" which makes this totally useless. Obviously people are turning things on and off with Echo - how are you doing it??

I even tried forgetting everything and have it rediscover. Tried unplug and plug back in, no luck. This is extremely frustrating as it should be so simple. Even renamed it to something basic "Living Room Lights On/Off" and same result.

Yep.  Exact same issue here with Harmony activities.  When I ask Alexa to "Turn on <Harmony Activity Name>" It also complains that it found several devices and asks which one I mean.  I then reply with "<Harmony Activity Name>" and it goes through.  This is despite the harmony activities having very unique names.

[dcullen]

I have posted various times on this issue, the firmware seems to prioritise other services/actions/skills over the user defined group/device names, as you mention when using Harmony certain identifiers such as TV Guide, Sky One work but others such as Sky Guide, Sky Comedy, Fox try to run other inbuilt skills/commands. Harmony has its official skill relaesed now in the US (UK to follow) so it will be interesting to see how more flexible it is to issue commands and if they extend to key presses rather than just harmony activities.