Need some help with an automation involving SpotifyPlus

[ovizii]

Maybe someone can walk me through this, my doorbell broke, I got a Shelly Wi-Fi button and wanted to trigger a doorbell sound playing on a Spotify device named "ha-mil"

Got a bit lost.

The first parts of the automation seem to work, but I can't figure out how to play say this track: https://open.spotify.com/track/7a2JJL4LpkErSS2qboslTw when it triggers.

alias: Doorbell
description: ""
triggers:
  - domain: mqtt
    device_id: fe3a18a9efa534905694b17eead01adc
    type: button_short_press
    subtype: button_1
    trigger: device
  - domain: mqtt
    device_id: fe3a18a9efa534905694b17eead01adc
    type: button_double_press
    subtype: button_1
    trigger: device
  - domain: mqtt
    device_id: fe3a18a9efa534905694b17eead01adc
    type: button_triple_press
    subtype: button_1
    trigger: device
conditions:
  - condition: time
    after: "06:30:00"
    before: "23:59:00"
actions:
...
mode: single

So far I have tried media_player.turn_on and spotifyplus.player_activate_devices as well as other options, but I'm obviously doing something wrong.

I'd appreciate if somebody can just give me some hints on what steps I need to take, i.e. activate a player, then activate device, etc...

[thlucas1]

@ovizii
define an action to call the spotifyplus.player_media_play_tracks service.

Example - note this is from the Developer Tools window (you can't directly paste it into the script actions).
Also change the entity_id to your SpotifyPlus entity_id.

action: spotifyplus.player_media_play_tracks
data:
  entity_id: media_player.spotifyplus_todd_l
  uris: spotify:track:7a2JJL4LpkErSS2qboslTw
  device_id: fe3a18a9efa534905694b17eead01adc
  delay: 0.5

[ovizii]

Thanks a lot. Its "almost" working as inteded. Here is my current action:

actions:
  - action: media_player.turn_on
    metadata: {}
    data: {}
    target:
      entity_id: media_player.spotty_mil
    enabled: true
  - action: media_player.volume_set
    metadata: {}
    data:
      volume_level: 0.75
    enabled: true
    target:
      entity_id: media_player.spotty_mil
  - action: spotifyplus.player_media_play_tracks
    metadata: {}
    data:
      entity_id: media_player.spotty_mil
      uris: spotify:track:7a2JJL4LpkErSS2qboslTw
      device_id: mydeviceid

The first problem was, that if spotifyplus was not active, nothing happened, so I added the media_player.turn_on
part to get it working.

Unfortunately, I have another issue with the volume. I usually listen to music at 0.25 but this doorbell sound is way too low-level to be heard. Hence, my above action to set the volume.

But what actually happens is that the player gets turned on, then the volume jumps from 0.25 to 0.75 and then the chime sounds the same as if it was playing at 0.25. After it finished playing, the volume jumps back down to 0.25 (I am watching the spotifyplus card)

Now if I manually set the volume to 0.75 on the spotifyplus card and press the play button on that card, the chime actually plays at a volume you'd expect out of 0.75.

Can you spot anything I am doign wrong?

[ovizii]

Hm, I spotted something I could change, instead of media_player.volume_set I tried using spotifyplus.player_set_volume_level - let me test that and update my reply here.

   - action: spotifyplus.player_set_volume_level
    metadata: {}
    data:
      entity_id: media_player.spotty_mil
      volume_level: 40
      device_id: 7ff159cb3b6c4f1416bbfee60abeaf5c05395d05

[ovizii]

Hm, the volume of 0.25 is the initial volume spotify connect sets upon connect. This was important to not get blasted away. So I removed this part to see if that gets rid of the volume jumping back down to 0.25.

  - action: media_player.turn_on
    metadata: {}
    data: {}
    target:
      entity_id: media_player.spotty_mil
    enabled: true

Unfortunately when I disable that part, the volume doesn't get set at all :-(

Open for all ideas. For now, I am also sending a notification to my phone, I'm sure that I will notice that before I hear this low-level chime :-)

[ovizii]

Oh, and thanks for your help. I will close this if I can't figure it out in the next few days, if I do, I will update the thread, maybe it'll be of use to someone else one day.

[ovizii]

Btw. never mind. I have changed things, and I am now playing my doorbell chime via mp3 using squeezelite player also installed on this HA instance. IT'll play at its own, louder volume, over Spotify Plus if it is playing. :-)

Works fine with me.

If I have time, I'll insert another check to see if Spotify Plus is playing, pause it and resume it afterwards but for now this will do.