Before you read the text below please be aware: This skill is designed for the Home Automation enthusiast. It is not a physical device nor does it come with one, what it does come with is endless possibilities.
Why did we build this skill and the accompanying website? It was simply because we didn't want to spend a lot of money on an electronic doorbell that would not integrate with our existing home automation systems.
What is it we provide? We provide for free the ability to create as many virtual doorbells as you like. There are no limitations on the number of doorbells, this is because once you realize what this can do for you, you will want to create a lot of them.
Why create a lot of doorbells, I only have a couple of doors? Virtual doorbells are only the start, yes you can create a virtual doorbell for the benefit of making your Alexa device(s) play a chime sound when triggered, and yes you can alter the chime sound if you choose, but you can also take this further using Alexa Routines. Alexa routines enable you to make a custom announcement, play the news, play the radio, switch an Alexa connected device on or off or all of the previous options together with many more besides. Alexa routines can be triggered to start using a virtual doorbell, once you get that then you will want a lot of virtual doorbells.
How do I get started? You will need to create an account on our accompanying website (https://www.ijpuk.com), this account is completely free of charge when you do we automatically create you a "Front door" virtual doorbell to start you off. You will also need to link your Amazon account to our website. You do this from either this web page or through our website. During the Amazon Account linking process, you need to perform "Device discovery", this is to synchronize the virtual doorbell(s) on our website with the Amazon system. In the Alexa App, look at your list of devices, you should now see our "Front door" doorbell virtual device. Ensure that you enable this for "Doorbell press announcements" if you don't then it won't make a sound. Using our website, you can press the Test button and your Alexa(s) should now chime. If you want to start an Alexa Routine, then begin by creating a routine and set the triggering action to be a smart home device and choose your virtual doorbell from the list of devices.
Ok, so the doorbell makes a sound, what next? As we said earlier, this skill is designed for the Home Automation enthusiast. We offer a simple API service which will enable you to connect your existing home automation system to the Alexa system, which opens up a whole world of possibilities of what you can now build. Our customers have successfully integrated with many home automation systems bridging the technology gap between competing platform standards. To use this API you do need a premium account which comes at a very small annual fee, see our website for details of this.
From our website we also provide you with sample code that will trigger our virtual doorbell API written in Bash, C#, Python, Go, LUA and we also provide IFTTT instructions to assist you in connecting your home automation system with the Amazon Alexa system.
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