The Allen & Roth cellular shade integration to Alexa (and to SmartThings) works fine with a notable exception: there still is no way to tell a shade to “Stop”. Only Open or Close.
The shades have very constant velocity when opening or closing and Alexa routines give sufficient ability to pause after “x” seconds to approximate shade position with this one addition to the skill. Is this possible?
I hear you. Sadly it’s not a custom skill, though perhaps we could export it like “Alexa, set My Shade to Hold mode.” Awkward for voice, maybe ok for routines?
Best way though would be built-in slider in the Bridge… but we’ve got to code that.
So, not sure I get it. Give me an “Alexa, Stop Shade 1” command (to go with Open and Close”) and I think I can make it happen from there. Is this impossible?
Correct. Alexa added a few years ago the ability to do “open/close”, but “stop” is not possible.
There are “modes” and we can probably do “Alexa, set My Shade to Hold mode.” or “Alexa, set My Shade to Stop mode.”, but the word “stop” may prove to be problematic.
I don’t care if I have to tell it to make me a sandwich….it will be passed in a routine anyway. How do I enable modes?
Please… whatever way it’s implemented give us a stop. I can use a timer to hit 50% or whatever I want. It’s pointless to use voice to then have to grab the remote to stop it. Thank you!!
Stop, pause, interrupt, etc… I agree routines will translate for us.
Has there been any movement on this??
I’d like to keep pushing on this topic since it hasn’t gained any traction. We can simply use routines to be able to get the shades to stop. Can we please look at adding that functionality?
I’m happy to say that as of our firmware release last week, you can now do this!
Hallelujah!
Is this available for the BD-1000 Bridge ? My firmware shows in the v3.21 range?
Available for all Bridges with serial numbers starting Z.That is, all Bridges we have made in the last 6+ years. Sorry the early “snowbird” units (serial numbers starting A or B) are not receiving updates for a few years now.
Ok feeling a bit stupid here. I created the scene, which works to stop shades (Yay!!)
How do I call it from an Alexa Routine? I have over 50 routines but can’t seem to find the command.
Hey Joel,
Here’s what it looks like for me. (Pardon the Abby Road reference.)
Perfect! Thanks Chris. Finding Scenes in the stupid Alexa app was a challenge. But it worked! Almost perfect on the first try (opening all shades, then lowering them half way. Just adjusting the timing a bit….
Hope you’re doing well. I still love my Bond Bridge….
Joel, I am doing well, thank you! And thank you for sticking around and supporting the Bond community for years now as we evolve. I got to say, a friend asked me yesterday if I liked what I do, and I could honestly say that the brightest spot about Bond has been the good vibes from our community of users, dealers, and partners. 
I would often feel that we are behind on things, but then I remind myself and our team that there are many expectations because of the number of people we are benefitting. We just need to keep prioritizing the right things and trying to set reasonable expectations. Sometimes that means taking a very long time to support a particular use case as was here. Just keep letting us know if there’s something you see missing and I will try to get it into our plan if possible.
Having been involved in tech startups, I know how stressful the realities of resource prioritization can be. You guys are adding value to such a wide range of products, there must be a million and one requests for this feature or that! It’s a Long and Winding Road—stay on it!