ahwman

As of July 20, everything was working as normal with Alexa and all of my devices. Unfortunately on July 21st sometime in the afternoon, Amazon must have pushed a new update, as several commands which were working normally now produce the response "A few things share that name, which one did you want?". The devices which seem to be an issue are used for rewind and fast forward on my TiVo and are named "right1", "right2", etc. since "skip" and "rewind" are reserved Echo words. So here we go again with having to come up with more unique names because Amazon decided to make sweeping changes for some reason... Anyone else experiencing this and found a solution? Thanks, Chuck

Thanks so much Benoit. I was a bit confused by seeing my existing IFTTT commands under a sub account. It now makes sense... Chuck

Care to elaborate on how to do this? Thanks, Chuck

I have successfully set up sub accounts in my ISY portal for use with multiple Amazon Echo's. That said, when I log into a sub account//connectivityAmazon Echo tab, it's a blank slate as I would expect. However, when I try the same with IFTTT, all of my commands from my main account are present. Is it possible to link IFTTT to multiple Echo's in the same way we can with the Amazon Echo v2 skill? Thanks, Chuck

That's great news! The ISY just keeps getting better and better. Keeping my fingers crossed for sooner rather than later...

Michel, Any chance that the ISY will be compatibile with entertainment skills? This would alleviate contextual issues as well as having to work around reserved words. Example: Using the ISY portal and the connected home integration to turn the volume up on my TV, requires me to say "Alexa, turn on high" vs. being able to say "Alexa, turn the volume up". Or, "Alexa, turn on freeze" to pause my DVR vs "Alexa, pause". As you can see I have to work around reserved words and the context becomes quite clumsy. My understanding is that using the entertainment skill like with a Harmony hub allows you to start an activity and then successive commands are directed towards that activity until another activity is started. I'm not sure how this would be integrated with the ISY but it sure would make things easier and open up a whole new world... Thanks for all you do! Chuck

I noticed today that Amazon has just released a new skill for "Featured home entertainment products that work with Alexa". What caught my attention is that unlike current skills, you do not need to invoke it by "Ask...". Instead you can simply ask things like "Alexa, turn on the tv", "Alexa, volume up", etc. This appears to be what I've been waiting for as I have had to create a patchwork using the ISY portal by naming commands as devices which creates problems with context "Alexa, turn on volume up" as well as issues with using reserved keywords like volume and mute since these are understood as Echo commands versus connected home device commands. That said, I currently have two wifi to ir units and am looking to add two more and am considering purchasing a few BroadLink All in One's as they're only around $38 on Amazon. My biggest concerns are the following: • By enabling this skill, how will it effect my current configuration? Example: I have devices already named "TV" and can turn them on using Alexa via the connected home ISY portal. • How does this skill differentiate between different rooms and devices? I would love to hear from someone using this new feature... Thanks, Chuck

Hello, I'm looking to update an ISY state variable using IFTTT and the Maker Channel. I've created the IFTTT event in the ISY portal and set the value to "IFTTT value", however I don't know the syntax for creating the web request in the maker channel. I'm simply looking to update the variable to a "0" or "1" based on a geofence. Thanks, Chuck

I hear you. The only issue with using IR is that I can't duplicate the long "Menu" press which takes you back to the home screen...

There is nothing external to run. The term gateway is simply used in iRule to create an IP connection between devices over HTTP/TCP... That said, it is a very elegant and reliable implementation, however I wish to mimic this ability through my ISY.

I'd like to be able to send TCP IP commands to my Apple TV 4's via my ISY994. I currently have this ability through iRule which uses its own gateway and works very well. Just wondering if anyone has found a way to accomplish this through an ISY? Thanks, Chuck

I set up TCP commands which speak directly to my TiVo's using network resources in the ISY. I then created spoken names which correspond to the network resource commands using the ISY portal. It works very well when Amazon isn't messing with the Connected Home side of the Echo, which unfortunately is currently the case... Chuck

The commands are being understood correctly in the Alexa app. Keep in mind, these are the same commands I've been using for months successfully. Just posted, let's see if we get anything back... Chuck

Yes Michel, I migrated to V2 quite some time ago. I'm wondering perhaps if what I'm seeing is a side effect of work being done on Amazon's end as some of the old commands are working intermittently. I'm crossing my fingers that things return to normal in a few days, otherwise this throws a huge wrench in my set up.. Chuck

Yesterday around 6:00 PM, I noticed that many spoken commands which were working fine for months, are no longer recognized. This is the third time I've had to reconfigure commands which were previously working. It's getting to the point where it's almost impossible to create contextual commands instead having to use off the wall words to accommodate the Echo. Example 1: "Alexa, turn on PageUp" which is equivalent to arrow up on my TiVo, now turns up the Echo volume. Example 2: "Alexa, turn on MenuRight" which is equivalent to arrow right on my TiVo, now causes Alexa to tell me which songs I've recently added?? As much as I love and rely on my Echo's, I've really grown tired of being held hostage to major changes made on the backend without any warning or explanation which quite literally renders my devices useless... Anyone else seeing this? Chuck

That explains it. Unfortunately the app on my Apple Watch doesn't support post requests, so I guess I'll have to continue using the alternate method... Thanks, Chuck

When I try it using the key in a browser, I get an error. However, they work fine using the Maker channel. Which is why I switched back to using a user name and password.

It was a simple matter of replacing the "@" with "%40" in the ISY portal email address. Example: john@doe.com becomes john%40doe.com. For some reason the "@" causes the URL address to fail... Chuck

I already have IFTTT working using the ISY portal links without needing to send user/pass. What I'm trying to do is send get requests from my Apple Watch. That said, I was able to figure it out... Thanks, Chuck

I'm trying to add some of my IFTTT commands created within the ISY portal with an application on my Apple Watch to send HTTP commands. However, when attempting to trigger the commands using the URL copied from within the ISY portal, I get an error "Cannot get...." I could simply use local HTTP commands directly to my ISY, however I then cannot use them outside of my LAN. Thanks for the help, Chuck

Thanks Michel for the update. Chuck

Michel, Has Amazon ever come back with a response regarding all of these changes? I'm still seeing anomalies with certain keywords and it's very frustrating... Thanks for all you do! Chuck

Michel, I have it set up correctly. I live in Detroit Michigan, which honors daylight savings time. However, when I use the time server to synchronize, as I've had it set for years, it puts me an hour behind telling me that daylight savings time is engaged when it should be disengaged. For now, I have to uncheck the time server to synchronize and instead use the computers time. Anyway to fix this? Chuck

Thanks Michel, If I uncheck daylight savings time, will it still honor daylight savings time in the fall and automatically adjust? Chuck

I agree, however I never had any issues until upgrading my firmware last night. Not sure why this would change... Chuck