KMan

Is buying a cheap android tablet or phone and using it just for an alarm clock an option (no need for cell service)? Or even just seeing if anyone you know has an old one lying around unused? I've been using the tasker/autoalarm solution for a while, and it works really well. Additionally, I use an always on clock app, and it serves as a bedside clock as well.

Maybe I'm not understanding what you are saying, but IFTTT can run a program on the ISY, which then can do anything ISY can do.

Ah, you should be good to go with my instructions in post #3. One other thing ... you need to go in to the ISY portal and give the program a spoken name. There is a quirk in the ISY interface, in that when you first set it up, it queries the ISY for devices/scenes/programs and auto populates the spoken names. If you add devices/programs/scenes after setup, you need to go into the portal and add a spoken name. And then do discover devices again.

Advantage of the connected home: - Better accuracy - Simpler syntax (you are limited to on, off, set, dim, brighten and maybe a few other actions, but you don't have to say "Alexa, tell ISY to...") Advantage of the skill: - More flexible syntax Personally, I prefer the connected home. I've tried the skill, and didn't have good luck with Alexa understanding "tell ISY" or "ask ISY". For simplicity, I suggest working with the connected home first. Once you get that working, you could switch to the skill if you like the syntax better. You can have both enabled if you want. It is the syntax which determines which Alexa uses ("ask ISY" or "tell ISY" or "open ISY" keys the echo to use the skill). Anything else will go through the connected home. Have you installed the ISY portal? Have you connected the ISY through the connected home? Have you discovered devices?

Assuming you are using the ISY connected home (as opposed to the ISY skill): "Alexa, turn Pioneer On" will run the "then" part of the program. "Alexa, turn Pioneer Off" will run the "else" part of the program. For the program: Just put the required network resources in the "then" and "else" actions. No need to put any conditions in the "if", just disable the program. Unfortunately, to control volume, you cannot use terms like "volume", as echo interprets that to mean it's volume rather than another device's volume.

I had the same symptoms for a short time when I was first switching from the emulator to the connected home. I don't remember doing anything specifically that made it clear up (it lasted less than a day for me). I know that I cycled power to the echo, ISY and PLM ... but I don't really think that had anything to do with clearing it up.

Listen to him. You don't want to be running two DHCP servers, unless you know what you are doing. Post the make and model of the new router that you added. It can likely be set in a mode that it will act like a switch and not a router (including turning DHCP off). Unfortunately, it is not always obvious how to do this, since they try to make them plug and play for the normal use (which is one router on the network).

Sounds to me that both routers are acting as DHCP servers, and your ISY is ending up on a network that isn't reachable from the router that your PC is connected to. In addition, some other device is at the IP address that you think your ISY is at. You should be able to log into both routers and find out what IP your ISY is actually at (look for "attached devices" or something similar. While in there, you might try turning off the DHCP server on one of the routers if both have it turned on.

The other thing besides syntax that you need to be careful about is colliding with any of Echo's built in words. I'm trying to control my whole home audio via Echo, but words like "Music", "Radio", "Volume" or any radio station numbers/call sign collide with Echo's built in functionality and don't work.

Updating this in case someone finds this thread in the future. Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I've researched them and have settled on JRiver's Media Center, running on an always on PC (already in use for other reasons). Thanks to user hbsh01 who mentioned JRiver in this thread. JRiver is very easy to control via REST, and plays internet radio easily via vtuner. I've been able to easily integrate Echo -> IFTTT -> ISY -> JRiver to control my whole home audio via voice. Seems to be working very well. Next step is to remove IFTTT and use connected home directly. The iTunes integration isn't as seamless as I'd like (currently exporting then importing), but I have some ideas to make that easier.

Thanks for this post. I've been doing something similar with Subsonic (another media player), but the REST API is pretty limited. They expect the client to do most of the heavy lifting, so I've written some python scripts to translate simple network resource requests into complex Subsonic REST calls. I will have to check out Jriver.

Wouldn't that time be insignificant compared to the speech recognition and the cloud transactions (echo -> amazon -> portal -> ISY)?

Nice job. Is this a typo? Or does some pronunciation and use actually match that?

Would I need to activate the networking module to access the web services on the ISY?No/ The network module is not needed to access the REST api that the ISY provides. The network module provides the ability for the ISY to send network requests, and to upload your own web pages to the ISY.Are there any limitations to using the web services?Yes there are limitations. The REST API provides "read" and "update", but not "create" and "delete". In other words, you can't create/delete a variable or a program, nor can you edit existing programs. If all you want your UI to do is read/write variables and execute programs, you can do that. But if you want your UI to be able to write programs/variables (or edit them), you won't be able to do that.

Do you have multiple profiles set up on the echo (his and hers)? This sounds like the behavior I experienced when I had the echo set to a different profile than the profile that the ISY portal is linked to.