family-dashboard-code ▸ docs/alexa-timer-setup.md
updated 2026-02-28

Alexa Timer Display Setup

This guide walks you through setting up Alexa timer display on your Home Assistant dashboard.

Overview

The Alexa Media Player integration exposes your Echo devices’ timers, alarms, and reminders as sensors in Home Assistant. Combined with a custom Lovelace card, you can display active timers on your wall dashboard.

Prerequisites

Step 1: Install HACS

HACS (Home Assistant Community Store) is required to install the Alexa Media Player integration.

  1. Open Home Assistant terminal or SSH
  2. Run the HACS installation script: bash wget -O - https://get.hacs.xyz | bash -
  3. Restart Home Assistant
  4. Go to Settings → Devices & Services → Add Integration
  5. Search for “HACS” and complete setup
  6. Restart Home Assistant again

For detailed instructions: https://hacs.xyz/docs/setup/download

Step 2: Install Alexa Media Player

  1. Go to HACS → Integrations
  2. Click the + Explore & Download Repositories button
  3. Search for “Alexa Media Player”
  4. Click Download
  5. Restart Home Assistant
  6. Go to Settings → Devices & Services → Add Integration
  7. Search for “Alexa Media Player”

Step 3: Authenticate with Amazon

The Alexa Media Player uses a web-based authentication flow:

  1. When prompted, select your Amazon domain (amazon.com, amazon.de, etc.)
  2. A login page will appear in your browser
  3. Enter your Amazon credentials
  4. Complete any 2FA prompts
  5. You may see a CAPTCHA - complete it
  6. If you see an OTP (one-time password) request, check your email

Troubleshooting Authentication

“Confirmation required” error: - Check your email for an Amazon security notification - Click the approval link in the email - Retry the authentication

CAPTCHA keeps appearing: - Try using a different browser - Clear cookies and try again - Some users report success with mobile browsers

“Unknown error” during login: - Wait a few minutes and try again - Check if Amazon services are experiencing issues

Step 4: Configure Entities

After successful authentication, you should see your Echo devices listed:

  1. Go to Settings → Devices & Services → Alexa Media Player
  2. Click on your Echo device
  3. Note the entity IDs, especially: - sensor.echo_[name]_next_timer - Timer information - sensor.echo_[name]_next_alarm - Alarm information - media_player.echo_[name] - Media player controls

For a nice visual display of timers:

  1. Go to HACS → Frontend
  2. Click + Explore & Download Repositories
  3. Search for “alexa-alarms-timers-card”
  4. Click Download
  5. Refresh your browser (Ctrl+Shift+R)

Repository: https://github.com/Kethlak/card-alexa-alarms-timers

Step 6: Add Timer Card to Dashboard

Option A: Using the Custom Card

type: custom:alexa-alarms-timers-card
entity: sensor.echo_kitchen_next_timer  # Replace with your entity
title: Kitchen Timers
show_empty: true
empty_message: "No active timers"

Option B: Using a Template Card (Manual Countdown)

If the custom card doesn’t work, use this template approach:

type: markdown
content: |
  # Timers
  {% set timers = state_attr('sensor.echo_kitchen_next_timer', 'sorted_active') %}
  {% if timers and timers | length > 0 %}
    {% for timer in timers %}
      {% set remaining = as_timestamp(timer.date_time) - as_timestamp(now()) %}
      {% if remaining > 0 %}
        {% set mins = (remaining // 60) | int %}
        {% set secs = (remaining % 60) | int %}
  ### {{ timer.label or 'Timer' }}: {{ '%d:%02d' | format(mins, secs) }}
      {% endif %}
    {% endfor %}
  {% else %}
  *No active timers*
  {% endif %}

Option C: Simple Entity Card

type: entity
entity: sensor.echo_kitchen_next_timer
name: Next Timer

Step 7: Test the Setup

  1. Say “Alexa, set a 5 minute timer”
  2. Check Home Assistant: - Go to Developer Tools → States - Search for your timer entity - Verify the timer data is present
  3. Check your dashboard - the timer should appear within 30 seconds

Understanding Timer Data

The timer sensor provides these attributes:

sorted_active:  # List of active timers
  - date_time: "2024-01-15T14:30:00+01:00"
    label: "Eggs"
    status: "ON"
    id: "timer-123"
sorted_all:     # All timers including completed
process_timestamp: "2024-01-15T14:25:00+01:00"

Refresh Rate

Timer data updates every 30-60 seconds by default. For faster updates:

  1. Add this automation to your configuration:
automation:
  - alias: "Refresh Alexa Timer Data"
    trigger:
      - platform: time_pattern
        seconds: "/15"  # Every 15 seconds
    condition:
      - condition: state
        entity_id: sensor.echo_kitchen_next_timer
        attribute: sorted_active
        # Only refresh when timers are active
    action:
      - service: alexa_media.update_last_called
        data: {}

Multiple Echo Devices

If you have multiple Echo devices and want to show all timers:

type: vertical-stack
cards:
  - type: custom:alexa-alarms-timers-card
    entity: sensor.echo_kitchen_next_timer
    title: Kitchen
  - type: custom:alexa-alarms-timers-card
    entity: sensor.echo_living_room_next_timer
    title: Living Room

Re-Authentication

Amazon sessions expire periodically. When this happens:

  1. You’ll see errors in the HA logs
  2. Go to Settings → Devices & Services → Alexa Media Player
  3. Click Configure
  4. Select Relogin
  5. Complete the authentication flow again

To minimize re-auth frequency: - Use an Amazon account that doesn’t have 2FA enabled on every login - Consider creating a dedicated Amazon account for HA

Troubleshooting

Timers not showing

“Unknown” state

Card shows “No active timers” but timer is running

Authentication keeps failing

Resources