blueman2

I am happy to let everyone know that the creators of the RESPONDER tool that allows the Echo to respond to your requests has released their updated and much improved version. They also have changed their company name to 3PO Labs (homage to C-3PO the protocol droid for man-machine interactions). I have updated my the first post of this thread with a WIKI and instructions on how to use their new tool. I would appreciate it if someone would go through these instructions and let me know where I missed something, got something wrong, or need to add clarity. I will quickly update as I get feedback from people. Give it a try. And please thank the folks at 3PO-Labs. http://www.3po-labs.com/

And then some. Barry is not only a great code writer, he is a great person. Very giving of his time. Great to hear!!! Now, you should start experimenting with the ability of the Echo to provide responses to your questions! See the thread of 'Echo talks back'

Hooogaaaaan!

+1

The issue is that Amazon carefully controls the 'Actions' that follow the word "Alexa". The ones set aside to use with skills (which is what I use) are: Open, Ask, Tell, and maybe a couple other words. What is, Give me, etc are not allowed and controlled by Amazon. Of course, they have a different idea of how you would use 'tell'. They WANT you to use it to say "Alexa, Tell Izzy to do xxxx". And of course they also carefully control the Izzy and other skill names. But since what I am doing is considered development and only my Echo(s) can see my skills, I get to use any word I want after Tell, Ask or Open. "Tell me" just seemed easiest and most natural to use. Of course, playing around, I did of course create a response for "Alexa, Open a can of whup *** on my son". Alexa responds with "Would you like a 12 ounce can. 16 ounce can, or does he need a 55 gallon drum of whup ***?" Ah, the fun things you can do with alexa skills. EDIT: Well, color me wrong. "Give Me" is a proper 'action'. Hmmmm. Canadians always get their way. Actions include: ask begin do launch load open play resume run start talk to tell use give me can you give me I still prefer "Tell me.....". But the nice thing about this new tool DERP is creating is that you can decide for yourself how you want to talk to your Alexa. Just keep it clean.

I am continuing to tweak the ability for Alexa to provide responses to my queries. DERP Group is not quite ready to release their new UI for their tool, but is is looking VERY promising. My guess is another couple weeks or so. But one change I have made is to the intent. For all my queries, I am using the following syntax: "Alexa, Tell me xxxxx" I tried lots of different ideas, then tested them on my family and others who are new to the Echo. The initial idea of "Alexa, ask Home to tell me" was just too hard to remember. Then I realized that 'TELL' one of the Alexa invocations for skills, and since I am not bound by what Amazon approves for intents, I can use 'ME' as an intent. Alexa, tell me inside temperature Alexa, tell me outside temperature Alexa, tell me power usage Alexa, tell me fan speed Alexa, tell me pool pump status Alexa, tell me security status These really roll of the tongue alot easier than "Alexa, ask xxxx" because the 'ks' and 'sk' of Alexa and Ask create a tongue twister of sorts. Again, the Portal is easier, but I love being able to do away with 'Izzy' as a concept and just keep one woman in the conversation: Alexa. And I just like being in total control of the words I use to talk to Alexa and exactly what she responds with. I love throwing in some dry humor in her responses to give her a bit more personality.

It is sort of spread out in this thread. But just go to BWS Systems and use their ha-bridge software. It has instructions for use on a Pi. It is not geared towards the ISY, so you will need to customize the commands a bit, based on the above thread. I also use Barry Gordon's AWS config tool to make it all MUCH easier to configure. But you will need the latest 6.0.3 version which I do not think he has up on this site.

Just an update. The friendly folks at DERP Group who developed the A.S.K Responder saw how we are using their tool and are doing an upgrade so that it works even better for ISY users who want voice responses from Alexa. Update will come in the next week or so, and will allow you to better utilize the Invocation and Intent without creating so many user accounts/skills. It will make it much easier to use. They also have some longer term plans to add even more features. Pretty darn exciting to be able to customize Alexa to provide updates on just about anything that the ISY can track or store as a variable. And to be able to have her respond to whatever words you can think of for the intent.

??? I have 4 echos now, all on one account. They work fine controlling my lights and answering questions about the status of my ISY devices and variables. But then, I run my own Hue emulator and wrote my own Alexa skills. So I do not use the portal. I like having the extra control over the Echo and the ability to tailor things a bit more.

No need to cancel. In fact, there is no code or anything you need for the $10. Anyone who already owns a dot, and buys one before the release date, gets $10 store credit automatically. Nothing you need to do.

The thing I am most excited about is the software update to do a better job of selecting the echo nearest the user!! I already have 4 echos and I often get anywhere for 1-4 timers going at once because they all hear me. Annoying. BTW, they are giving $10 credit for people who already bought Gen1 dot (me). Also, they give a $50 discount on a 6 pack, $250!!! With both credits, I am getting a set of 6 for $40 each!!

This has been doable all along. You just need to use the intensity.byte variable: rest/nodes/13.72.4C.1/cmd/DON/${intensity.byte} for on URL The Fanlinc instructions say what the levels are for low, med, and High. But I think High is 100%, Med 50-99, low 49 and below.

Barry, just to let you know, I just upgraded to the latest HA_bridge v3.1.0 and your AWSconfig v6.0.3 still works great! Yes, the portal is wonderful but I love running an emulator on my own system for complete control.

And it just might be coming soon!! https://techcrunch.com/2016/09/08/amazon-echo-could-soon-start-talking-to-you-unprompted/

For what it is worth, I continue to use the HA_Bridge software by BWS and the config tool by Barry. It works 24x7 on a Pi with never an issue. I did decide to move away from several instances of HA-Bridge to just 1 on my Pi, because I am able to get about 50 device entries working just fine on one instance. It makes updating changes much more reliable. See my sig below for my configuration.

Here is my program for inside house temperature: Alexa skill inside temperature - [ID 00C5][Parent 00C6] If $Temperature_Inside_Average > 0 Then Resource 'Alexa Inside Temperature Skill' Else - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action') Use another program (or this one) to put your temperature into a State variable. I used $Temperature_inside_average because my other program (not shown) takes the average from 2 thermostats in the house. Then this program will then trigger the skill to get updated with the latest temperature. It will update any time the temperature changes. Not show, but $Temperature_inside_average is state variable 17 (2.17). And here is my resource: This resource gets re-sent every time the temperature changes, so that the correct temperature is always there on the amazon site ready to be read out to you.

NOTE: the following is depreciated. Please go to POST #1 in this thread for latest instructions... 1) First, set up a skill on Amazon using the article I referenced. However, do not name it Responder or use that invocation. Name it "Test Skill" and use "test skill" as invocation name. Otherwise, do everything the same. you can change the name to anything you want later. If successful, you will get a long string starting with 'amzn1.ask.account.' with a LONG string of numbers afterward. You will need that for the next step. 2) Create a network resource. You will require the networking module for this, or if you have the portal, you should already have the networking module. Create a resource using the template I included above in my original post. Make sure you confirm everything matches what I have. Only different will be the long code in the PATH box in the upper right of the network resource screen. You will still have "/resource/user/", but the rest will come from the number in step 1 above. Put that in. Do not add a '/' after it. But put in whatever <speak> words you want. Now click update, save, and then save again on the next screen. Now highlight the name of the resource and press test. Now give the invocation to Alexa, and she will respond with the words you entered. 3) Then, create a program for when you want Alexa to respond with those words. You might want to create several Network Resources for different IF/Then situations. Or use a variable for things like temperature, etc. It is up to you to make sure the skill is always updated with the right words based on if/then programs, so that when you give it the invocation, it gives the right words. Or, like I said, use a variable for things that change like temperature. You have to do this series of steps for every skill you want. So for me, I did this 6 times. That means 6 of those LONG character strings that you get from creating the alexa skill using the DER Group article. And 6 sets of network resources to provide the right responses to each skill. And a bunch of if/then programs for each to send the right network resource.

I am definitely enjoying the ability to have Alexa respond to my queries with status on my home. So far I have created: 1) Security Status: gives one of 5 possible home security status responses depending on doors, windows, etc. 2) Inside Temperature: gives house temperature based on an average of 2 of my thermostats. 3) Outside Temperature: gives outdoor temperature based on reading from outdoor sensor 4) Pool Pump Status: status of my pool pump, in RPM 5) Power Usage: reads out my current home power usage in Watts, refreshed every 3 minutes 6) Lights Status: tells me if I have any lights on in the house Each of these is invoked by saing "Alexa, ask {name listed above}". The really nice thing is that you can customize each reply. So if inside temperature is below 65 degrees, I use a replay that gives "The current inside temperature is ${variable}. Burr, cold". Or if above 76 it says "The current inside temperature is ${variable}, kind of warm in here". So you can give Alexa whatever personality you want. I am still playing around with invocation names to see what works most reliably and is most natural to say. You can use 1 or more words, totally up to you.

MWareman was correct! While I have not been able to directly add a device variable, I am now able to add a State or Integer variable to the JSON POST. Rather than creating 15 Network Resource entries for different temperatures, I can now create just one: I just have toinsert the temperature reading into the variable before activating the network resource. And remember, you have to re-send the JSON POST every time the variable changes.

No, I have not been able to successfully pass a variable as part of a JSON POST command yet. So I have had to create a separate Network Resource for every possible condition. I am up to about 30 network resources for my Alexa responses so far, and creating more every day. A kludge, but I do get Alexa to tell me pretty much every status I want to know. Inside temperature, pool pump status, doors locked status, windows closed status, outside lights status, to name a few. Does what I wanted. Well, except for my desire to have Alexa say things based on ISY without having to ask her a question (unprompted). EDIT: this is an old comment, before the new version of RESPONDER

Ah, the Windows solution works again.

The only thing you cannot see in my screen shot is the end of the path. I do not have a "/" at the end. If you match everything else, it should work. Look word by word and letter by letter.

Ok, that means the network resource you created is not talking to the alexa skill. That is a problem with the Network Resource probably. Did you change the "Content type: to /application/json"? I am sorry, I forgot to include that step before. But you can see mine is set that way. Did you do Update and save while editing the resource? Then, from the list of resources, you hit save. Then, select the name of the resource you created, and hit TEST. That should upload it. if not, look carefully at the settings in my copy of the resource. It the upload is successful, it will return with a copy of what you sent. If the response box in the ISY is blank, it did not work for some reason. Once that is working, you just create a program to trigger that network resource. I will include a copy in a bit...

BTW, I just realized you can create invocation names for each skill with shared words. So you can give commands such as: Alexa, Ask House Temperature Alexa, Ask House Security Status Alexa, Ask House Den Temperature Alexa, Ask House Lights Status and each of these will trigger a different skill. So it becomes a matter of creating the network resources to send words back to each skill depending on the status of your ISY/ELK/etc. The development is actually very easy and fast. I can add a new one in about 30 minutes. Keeping the "Ask House" wording makes it easier for the rest of the family to remember how to use. EDIT: this is an old comment, before the new version of RESPONDER

THIS! The thing I am really waiting for is the ISY being able to tell Alexa to say something or give a response without me having to talk to Alexa. But in the mean time, being able to give "Alexa, ask XXXXX" where XXX can be anything you want is a nice feature. It is still complex to get working and only for the do-it-yourself-er, but it is cool nonetheless.