ScottAvery

This issue calls into question the short sighted decision to make groups and scenes identical in the Insteon protocol. They should be two independent functions. It has been easy to work around, but now with the advent of much more flexible and intuitive inputs (voice and other integrations) we need the flexibility that two separate capabilities would provide. An ideal work around would be to have the portal create new scenes through the ISY to set devices to 10% increments, then have the portal select the most appropriate scene upon receiving a scene level set request from Alexa. This could be an option that a user would manually invoke from the portal interface to create these portal-managed scenes. User could tweak the auto generated scenes to handle one-offs, like on-level of 0 for devices the scene specifically excludes. That said, the specific case of zero on levels could be kept static in each scene.

IFTTT support is in beta for the UDI Portal now, so that may be a path forward for you as there is IFTTT support for Harmony Hub.

Could you please describe your approach to IR commands from echo/portal?

Red or gone? Will we be able to enter multiple spoken for the device?

I set up two profiles, but have been lazy about actually configuring the mobile profile dashboard. I don't use mobilink that often anyway, but since I have never used it away from home I will assume that is a rare case and leave it on wifi until needed.

Ultimately we do need a reliable solution for this issue. Most of my rooms have multiple lights and they need to operate together in scenes. For what it is worth, my non-statistical sample of one failed when I tried to use the Alexa app to group the devices. I set up two floor lamps from my scene as individual devices in the ISY Portal, then created a group in the Alexa app. Asking Alexa to dim the group resulted in only one of the two dimming. Something fishy between Amazon -> Portal -> ISY. Was this feature tested?

Do you still need a second profile or does this cover both local on wifi and roaming through portal? If two profiles, can profile selection be automated?

If cost is your biggest concern, and you just want to try things out quickly, I would also point out that you can install the BWSSystems Hue emulator on a windows PC if you don't already have a Raspberry Pi laying about, and then run Barry's configurator as described in the long Amazon Echo and ISY thread. Post 867 has some install instructions, but there may be more hiding deep in the thread. (http://forum.universal-devices.com/topic/14525-amazon-echo-and-isy/?p=156514) This is an expensive hobby, but since you already have the best controller you are going to find, you can step into the rest of it piecemeal. I started out several years ago with just the ISY and switches for exterior lights (for timers). I could have done it cheaper with a purpose built timer, but I wanted to be able to expand. I then bought a handful of new pieces each time there was a major sale. I would recommend you do the same - a room a at time, or a function at a time. Ultimately you may want to add the Zwave module to have access to more device types (better locks, multifunction devices, better thermostats), but for now, x10 is cheap and Insteon can be purchased in 4 packs or in occasional sales at smarthome.com (join the mailing list for a first-timer coupon), or at Costco.com.

I appreciate that you have taken the time to post an approach for this synching issue. Do any of your scenes have multiple lighting devices or are they all single dimmers/relays with multiple controllers? With multiples in the scene, does one light come on then the others come on after the Fix is activated? Or might you use something less obvious as the echo target and then activate lights together?

We definitely need a method to distinguish multiples.

I believe this is a limitation of the Insteon protocol. Any solution built into the ISY would be a kluge that would not work as well as you hope, as individual devices would have to be sent their setting and you could not send them all at the same instant. Can you send a dim level to a group configured in the Alexa App? I have not tried that yet. I, too, want a solution to this problem as I want to be able to keep my scenes in synch but be able to set levels through echo. Has anyone else solved this problem? I imagine it could be solved programmatically through creative tracking of Alexa's inputs. If we had some *ahem* virtual nodes we could have Alexa make changes to those then set the real devices to match.

Follow the steps for installation of the portal module. you have to approve the portal connection in the ISY console.

This missing step confused me, as well. The steps in the first post told me I was complete but I had never been asked for my ISY portal account. I didn't set that link up before since it was not required for the skill.

Do I understand correctly that adding the portal access method to Mobilinc will slow down all communication, even when on local LAN? I have never been a ML Connect customer nor used port forwarding, so this would be my first attempt at such. Do I replace my local ISY credentials with portal credentials in the Mobilinc settings, or are there two sets of credentials? Thanks!

OH, and adding locks to the spoken list did allow them to work. Not sure I want someone to be able to yell in the window to unlock the door though. I suggest some tunable options for locks be a future feature. Also, would love it if I could Alexa could tell Izzy to "shut the front door" to have it lock, not because it makes sense, but because I am a fan of the word play as replacement for STFU.

Yes, other than some words it doesn't seem to like, putting all spoken entries on the portal in lowercase has worked for devices and scenes. This should be trivial for Benoit to fix in the code. edit: now that the Connected Home is active I am updating this to remind readers this thread referred to the beta version of the SKILL only. Current UD supported method: http://forum.universal-devices.com/topic/17861-amazon-echo-connected-home-feature-beta/?p=162199

So I have had some progress in that I discovered Alexa (or portal, rather) appears to be case sensitive. I of course unscientifically changed a dozen things at once, to include disabling the skill and reconnecting Alexa to the ISY, then I created a new Spoken entry on the portal for a scene for all office lights in lower case "office", whereas all my other entries had been Title Case. The office command was recognized. I created some scene entries, to include "kitchen" and "dining room" and those worked. "main hall" still doesn't work. Going to continue to tinker.

I tried hall and kitchen. Alexa is hearing the words but not sending them successfully to izzy.

I followed what instructions I could piece together with no success. I installed the portal module successfully, registered, confirmed the account, and then tested connecting to the web admin console from my.isy.io, and was able to access devices. I enabled the skill in the echo and put in my portal credentials. I tried updating devices through Izzy but she told me that method is out of date and to add spoken names within the portal. I added 4 or 5 of them there on the portal, and had 4 or 5 in the notes field of my ISY. Results always the same, I ask Alexa to tell Izzy to turn on [device spoken name form portal] and she doesn't know that device, and asks again what device? The Alexa app shows that she did hear me correctly. I tried changing names in the spoken field on the portal to be one two or three word names. none worked. I tried ask Izzy to lock all locks and she said zero devices successful, so that seemed like progress but didn't satisfy me as there were two unlocked Zwave locks that should have responded. Any advice?

I believe you cannot directly connect ISY to Harmony Hub because the login protocol is not supported in the current ISY firmware. There is a workaround that some have used using a third party product to create a REST interface. I have not tried it myself, but search for BWS Systems RESTful Harmony here or on the web. I am not sure if that does two-way communication, but if so you would also need the ISY Network Module to send outbound to the hub.

It looks like they might only carry data and audio cables anyway.

I believe the OP was thinking of Monoprice, as I have seen that referenced in a few of the cabling threads. I don't think it will much matter for a single run of thermostat wire, but might save you a lot if buying 1000sds of feet of cat6 or speaker wire. I had to get some thermostat wire myself for a humidifier install, and I think Home Depot had 3 5 or 7 conductor wires in bulk packages, pre-cut, but did not offer it cut to length at any savings.

nursery, playroom car port butler, butler's pantry sun room, conservatory, orangery grill ... Second Star to the Right engage, make it so dungeon, tower, belfry

It was fully moved. That is just a pointer in the old location. Now that we have a whole forum could we get a separate thread with just the info for using the HA emulator and configurator?

This is the first year in many that I have not bought anything from them during the sale. I looked at my pile of failed devices and decided not to replace any. I did buy a whole house surge (type 2) to install to see if that has any bearing on my device failure rate, but through Amazon. Smarthome marked up or excluded anything worth ordering with the discount. Egregious examples: Echo was marked excluded on the item page and the new Harmony Elite was marked up to $470. WTF? It would be nice if the 4 packs showed up again, though.