Alexa / Amazon Echo: Easy way to control MAX! Thermostats

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Hi guys,

I’m wondering if there’s an easy (=fool proof) way to control the MAX! thermostats with the Amazon Echo 2 / Amazon Echo Dot. With OpenHab 2 there seems to be a solution available so I was wondering if a plugin for pimatic might be on its way already?

Hm, one upvote but no feedback so far - is this request too exotic? Is there a way to make this work with some sort of rule?

I’m considering moving to OpenHab for this plugin but I can’t believe that Echo is not generating similar interest within the pimatic community, too…

@guybrushmr80 openHab uses their own Alexa Smart Home skill. This requires a connection between openHab and Amazons AWS cloud. For pimatic this would mean it must be accessible from the internet. This is not what I wanted for my pimatic instance. pimatic-echo works completely in your local network.

I see, thanks for explaining! Are you saying that there is no way to get thermostats working with Alexa in your local network by using pimatic?

@guybrushmr80 As far as I know the smart home features that echo supports on the local network are very limited. It’s just switching and dimming lights. No temperature, no colors, no sensors etc.

@michbeck100
I am also interested in this feature. Maybe there would be a possibility to use the dimming machinsm. Say…
Dimm to 20% is 20 °c
And in the plugin configurable:
On is always 18°C
And off is 14°C
Before I did it with ha Bridge this way.

If I have some time I will make a pullrequest.

If I’m not mistaken, OpenHab uses a Hue-Emulation. Does the Hue Bridge support thermostats? I thought it’s only about lights? If OpenHab indeed lets the Max! thermostats pretend to be lights, how is it possible the temperature can be set via voice commands for something that is considered a light? Is this because of the color-temperature some lights support? That would be great as it wouldn’t require a weird workaround.

@guybrushmr80 No, Hue emulation doesn’t expose thermostats. Openhab use their own Alexa skill: https://github.com/openhab/openhab-alexa
This might be a good template for pimatic, though. If one doesn’t mind to open pimatic to the internet.

@michbeck100 said in Alexa / Amazon Echo: Easy way to control MAX! Thermostats:

@guybrushmr80 No, Hue emulation doesn’t expose thermostats. …

But as mentioned above, at least you could control the MAX Thermostats as if they were light bulbs. I‘m using ha-bridge and get basically 3 different functions:

• Schalte Heizung aus -> set temperature to 16 degrees
• Schalte Heizung ein -> set temperature to 21 degrees
• Schalte Heizung auf < number> -> set temperature to <number>

@googlyeyz @GuybrushMR80 Just raise a feature request on github or better, create a pull request

@googlyeyz can you share your exact setup how you accomplished this? Sounds really interesting. I wouldn’t really need to set the exact temperature, turning the heaters on and off would be enough.

xCite86 posted detailed instructions a while ago here:

https://forum.pimatic.org/post/21528

Shouldn’t it be possible to set up
a dummy switch that can be controlled with Alexa and have a rule that changes the temperature whenever that switch is triggered? I tried that yesterday but I’m struggling with setting the Max! Thermostat to “comfy” - “mode” seems only to support “manu” and “auto”.

@GuybrushMR80 @GooglyEyz

Which plugin do you use … pimatic-max or pimatic-maxcul ?
I have implemented the max support for the pimatic-maxcul. For me it works well.
currently i make the changes for the “normal” heating devices. ( DummyHeating/ pimatic-max )

But maxcul is ready. Maybe someone can test the changes too?

The on/off temperature is comfort and eco temperature.

After this test i would create the pull request.
Just download the changed version of the echo plugin.

# **stop pimatic first**

cd /**pimatic-folder**/node_modules/
rm -rf pimatic-echo 
git clone https://github.com/treban/pimatic-echo.git
cd pimatic-echo 
npm install 

# **start pimatic again**

I’m using pimatic-max - pimatic-maxcul is requiring additional hardware, replacing the cube, right?

not necessarily. i have flashed my cube with the cul-firmware. but this is a other topic.
I think this evening i will have implemented the other thermostats also.

currently i dont now to which temperature i should translate the on/off commands.

I think the easiest way to turn the heater on/off would be to set them to comfy/eco. But I’m not sure how to set this in a rule… probably super simple but I just don’t get it.

The normal heating devices and also the max-devices (it extends the build-in heating device)
don’t have a comfy/eco temperature.
Only the max-cul plugin provides this settings.

I think the best way would be to implement this values in the pimatic core heating device template,
instead to make this in the echo-plugin.

but I can see and toggle the comfy/eco setting in the UI!?

nice. I overlooked that.
The comfy/eco values come from the config directly into the GUI without being present in the devices as an attribute.

I’ll make the changes and let you know.