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.

To be clear, doing it this way the secondary ISY would talk to the primary ISY, which would then talk to the BuzzLinc or 2867-2222. The secondary ISY doesn't communicate directly with the insteon devices in the primary residence. If you already have enabled internet access (or have the ISY portal) on the primay residence ISY, it is pretty straightforward. Steps: On the primary ISY, create a program that does whatever you need it to do (trigger buzzlink for example). Set this program to disabled. On the secondary ISY, create a Network resource that points to the primary ISY IP address. Use the rest api (documented here) to have the URL run the program created in #1 (use the program ID). Here is an example of a rest URL that uses the ISY portal to run the then clause of program ID 004D: https://<user>:<pass>@my.isy.io/isy/<portal key>/rest/programs/004D/runThen On the secondary ISY, create a program that detects the condition and triggers the network resource.

If you have the Network Module for your secondary residence, it can notify the ISY in the primary residence to do any notification you want.

This would require Amazon to add "Run" to the connected home interface. I'd be surprised if it happens. In the mean time, I am pretty happy using IFTTT: "Alexa, Trigger Christmas Tree Off" (or whatever you want after "Trigger"). It is a hassle to setup and maintain in IFTTT, but "Trigger" works much better for me than "Tell ISY to...."

Well yeah, after you show me! I still don't understand why it isn't put on the home page with non connected home requests.

I've noticed this too, and it is not specific to the ISY. If by design, it is a very strange choice by amazon not to log the connected home requests, unless they assumed people just wouldn't have issues with them. But I've run into times when I've tried to use a skill, but Echo interpreted it as connected home and nothing was logged, so there is no way to know what happened.

I have 2 "profiles" (users) on my echo, and it seems to be more of a headache than it is worth. The Connected Home aspect seems to be entirely separate between the 2 profiles. I believe you'd have to do "discover devices" in both profiles, and I'm not sure you can link both profiles to the same ISY. And if you're using ifttt, I believe you'd need to 2 separate sets of recipes for each profile. And the music collections aren't shared, you only get the music selection that is associated with that profile. I only use one of the profiles now, never switching between them.

Another possible issue: I have a scene named "master bedroom lamp", but it is showing up in the portal as a device. I don't know if this has any functional difference. I *think* this is because I used to have a device named "master bedroom lamp", but have since renamed it. I think the device and scene were both called "master bedroom lamp" at one time, which may have left some weird crumbs within the ISY. ETA: The portal does not list the device separately, so it is as if the scene and device were combined into 1 entry in the portal ... with the scene's name, and the device's info (it has the address of the device). ETA: Found another device that I've renamed that has the old name in the portal. How do I update the list in the portal?

Got it set up and working, and had a few bumps along the way .... 1) UI issue in the portal Using Chrome Version 47.0.2526.106 m, on Windows 10 ... If I close and then re-open the "Amazon Echo" tool, the second time (and all subsequent times) the window is opened, it is positioned to start above my chrome window, so the top of the dialog box is cut off. There are no scroll bars or any apparent way to move the window. This is most apparent if I've changed the number of entries to 100 (41 are shown total), in which case several devices aren't visible due to being off the top of the window.

My wife has an large iTunes library, and is very comfortable navigating and purchasing in iTunes. For things like this, she is very resistant to change ... so the iTunes requirement is mostly about WAF.

What software are you running on the pi?