Amazon Echo and ISY

[bgrubb1]

Has anyone else had issues with Alexa not understanding phrases as well the last week or so ??

I seem to have lots of issues with more complex phrases

..Barry

[btreinders]

Has anyone else had issues with Alexa not understanding phrases as well the last week or so ??

I seem to have lots of issues with more complex phrases

..Barry

I am definitely having issues too.  She does not understand TV anymore.  Just keeps asking what device.  I only have one TV command and did not change anything when she stopped recognizing it.  Tee Vee, T.V., T. V., nothing works anymore.  I had to use television to get around it.  That is the only issue I have noticed though so maybe not the same issue you are seeing.

[bgrubb1]

Well, TV is my most frustrating one

its interresting, Kitchen Lights is bulletproof, Bedroom Light hit or miss

Seems "Lights" works better than "Light"

Thanks for confirming, hadnt seen anyone else bring it up

..Barry

[philtor]

I had to switch from saying "TV" to saying "Television". 

[stusviews]

It does not understand sconces, so I had to use "wall lights." Initials are definitely a no-no. LR lights doesn't work, living room lights does.

 

And Alexa can be temperamental. I have a device named "lock indicator." "Lock indicator" doesn't always work even though the device is named "lock indicator", so I say, "indicator," which, mostly works.

 

Now, here's the flighty part. Last night I asked it to turn turn off the "indicator." Alexa's reply was, "I can't find a device called 'lock indicator'," but the device did turn off. Thus two anomalies, recognition of the full name in the response and the command worked, but the Echo didn't know it.

 

Even more. "Bedroom light" does not work, but "bedroom ceiling" does. Kitchen light works, computer room light works, dining room light works.

 

I'm not using an emulator. I have added a few device concurrently to the ISY and Hub 2.

[jratliff]

I call mine "T V screen" and haven't noticed any problems yet. My device "lights" often takes more than one try.

[rossarmstrong]

I have posted a new version of the HA Bridge configuration system (AWS_Config) on my web site.  This version should work with all versions of the HA Bridge with regard to control of a Harmony hub/device. It has had limited testing as I do not own any Harmony devices/systems. 

 

Any feedback appreciated.

 

Barry

Thanks for your help Barry in getting my RPi up and running.

 

I'm now adding the Harmony capability to my system.

 

I've installed the resful-harmony-0.1.4.jar and assigned it port 8085.  

 

I use the command:

 

nohup java -jar -Dserver/port=8085 /home/pi/echobridge/restful-harmony-0.1.4.jar 192.168.1.172 [username]  [password] > /home/pi/echobridge/logs/log85.txt 2>&1 & 

 

It appears to run correctly from my rc.local because when I enter 192.168.1.75:8085/harmony/list/activities, I get a page full of data.

 

The log85.txt file contains lots of data and I saw the following, FAILED Serverconnector@172b21d{HTTP/1.1}{0.0.0.0:8085}

 

And when I run your config file, it reports that the harmony returns a 404 not found. I can confirm the username/pw is correct in the ini file.

 

Reading back through this thread, am I supposed to run another instance of the ha-bridge with the following harmony info included (from your post dated 11 Nov):

 

nohup java -jar (space) 

-Dvera.address=<IP address of ISY994> (space)

-Dupnp.config.address=<IP address of Raspberry Pi> (space)

-Dserver.port=808x  (space)

-Dupnp.response.port=5000x  (space)

-Dupnp.device.db=/home/pi/echobridge/data/device84.db  (space)

-Dharmony.address=<IP address of your Harmony Hub/remote> (space)

-Dharmony.user=<your harmony account userid>  (space)

-Dharmony.pwd=<your Harmony account password>  (space)

/home/pi/echobridge/ha-bridge-1.0.7.jar > /home/pi/echobridge/logs/log84.txt 2>&1 &

 

Your config app works great with my 4 emulators running on the RPi when I remark out the Harmony section.

 

Any thoughts? I know you don't have a Harmony and your troubleshooting may be limited.

[barrygordon]

Ross,

The restful harmony app is no longer needed if you are running HA Bridge version 1.1.0 or better. The restful harmony code was incorporated into the HA Bridge at that version. Go to bwssystems.com and the apps tab.  Look for the link to the Github page, it is buried in the text. Go there and read how to set up the HA bridge to talk directly to the harmony in addition to the ISY and the Vera hub. Suggest you run HA Bridge version 2.2.1

 

Make sure you pull the latest version of the Config system.  Send me a copy of the Alexa log file and I will look at it.  In the Harmony Hub section I will only need the address of one of the HA Bridges. I use that bridge to read your Harmony activities and devices.  You may put the data for a harmony device on any of your bridges as long as they are all set up to have the harmony data, However I suggest that you just use one Bridge in that mode.

[rossarmstrong]

Barry - that change now no longer causes the 404 issue.

 

 

You are very helpful!

Edited December 11, 2015 by rossarmstrong

[barrygordon]

I am confused based on the email I got (I subscribe to this thread).  You obviously changed what you posted.

 

Is everything okay at this time or do you want me to look at something?

[rossarmstrong]

I errantly forgot to change the port in the emulator section of the ini file.

 

Once I made that correction, all was well so I deleted the post since it was prior to any replies.

 

So much for erasing evidence of my mistakes!

 

Harmony is working great. Just need another Echo for the theater room. Hoping another $129 special pops up on slickdeals before Christmas.

 

I guess I can work on trying to troubleshoot all the pieces needed to add Sonos to the Echo in the meantime!

[barrygordon]

Ross, 

 

For Sonos, the Echo can control a device that it can pair with (bluetooth) and the device has the AVRCP spec implemented. If Sonos has that protocol operating then the Echo should be able to issue control commands e.g play, pause, etc. This is documented in the Alexa app under things to try, control media playback by voice.  Control will be one way as if the Echo was controlling the Sonos as an IR remote

Edited December 15, 2015 by barrygordon

[jspoon]

Michael,

 

I understand the Connected Home is delayed due to the changes in certification.  Last I remember, the Skills interface was delayed due to a defect in Echo software.  Is that still the status for Skills?

 

Will you publish Skills without Connected Home if it is done earlier?

 

Is there a beta program to try out the current Skills in development?

 

Sorry for all the questions...

 

Jay

[imagamejunky]

As of yesterday afternoon the skill has been released.

 

http://forum.universal-devices.com/topic/17082-interface-with-amazon-echo/?p=157836

 

It's very flawed though.

Junky

[Morris Hansen]

I guess I can work on trying to troubleshoot all the pieces needed to add Sonos to the Echo in the meantime!

I have Sonos control working great using Alexa with the ISY in the middle. Need to setup each Sonos device and function (play, pause, etc) as a separate network resource.

 

It is very responsive with next to no delay.

[rossarmstrong]

Its great to see users who have successfully integrated the Sonos into their system.

 

My initial "copy, modify, paste" of others people's settings is causing some error messages in the networking module. 

 

I just need to search and read more.

 

Although it has been a bit of an adventure getting everything setup on my RPi, it really does work quite well. 

 

It will be a worthwhile comparision using the emulator versus the skill once things mature or both sides a bit.

[DCH]

I have Sonos control working great using Alexa with the ISY in the middle. Need to setup each Sonos device and function (play, pause, etc) as a separate network resource.

 

It is very responsive with next to no delay.

Mohansen,

 

Can you please describe your Sonos/ISY set-up in more detail? I'm working on getting Echo/ISY going with the Alexa skill (sitting for too many minutes saying "Yes" every 10 seconds or so when devices are taking too long to refresh; I have ~ 150 devices found), and would like to integrate my ten Sonos zones as well. Do you think that's possible with your method?

 

I've splurged on Echos to place strategically around the house, but now have to figure out how to best name everything so Alexa will understand. If I fully understood what barrygordon was doing (yup, read all the pages, I think barrygordon is a godsend to us), I would implement the RPi2 I bought just for the HA Bridge approach, but I'm not a programmer and realized I too heavily need my hand held while setting up the appropriate file tree structure, and so on. I thought of just trying to run off my main PC, which is always on, or...now that I think of it...maybe off my Synology NAS?.... Or, wait for Amazon/Michel to finally reach "agreement" on the connected home.

 

Dean

[shaikh3]

I was wondering if it's possible to have the bridge running on an android device, particularly the Amazon Fire Tv?

 

With the new FireTV having Alexa built in, the Fire TV Stick+Voice Remote+HA Bridge could serve as a very affordable standalone solution, without the need for an Amazon Echo or Raspberry Pi/other machine to host the bridge.

 

I'm curious to hear if anyone has tried this, and whether it would even be possible?

[Morris Hansen]

Dean, I will describe this in more detail later. I had almost everything typed in and then fat fingered my typing and lost it all.  

 

Will need to do this later when I return home.

[barrygordon]

This thread now appears in two forums. How are you using the ISY and Amazon Echo.  Perhaps a moderator could take the one in How are you using the ISY and change to a "This thread has been moved to . . . "

[ScottAvery]

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?

[barrygordon]

If The administrators set it up I will be willing to moderate it.  They would need to move all of the posts regarding that subject to the new thread from the old one, or give me the where withall to do so

[rizast]

So I'm still having an issue with the Echo discovering any devices. I've enable upnp on my Verizon Actiontec wireless router. its configured to obtain DHCP from my domain controller running DHCP server. all LAN/Wifi devices can speak to each other.  I'm running ha-bridge 1.2.2.jar with no errors (1.2.1 was fine too) and also using Barry's AWS_Config which does connect to my ISY without any issues. when I open a web browser and access HA Bridge it does see the one device I added and can turn it on and off.

 

I can access HA Bridge through a web browser on other devices both WIFI & LAN on my network.

 

this does look like a network problem to me but don't know what else to try. 

I have a Sonicwall TZ210 is place as my firewall (WAN is plugged in here)

Verizon Actiontec Router working as an Access point with DHCP forwarding to DC

DHCP is on Domain Controller

 

 

Here is the command I run to get HA-Bridge up

 

C:\Echo>java -jar -Dupnp.config.address=192.168.1.33 -Dserver.port=8080 -Dupnp.r
esponse.port=50001 -Dupnp.device.db=c:\echo\data\device.db c:\echo\ha-bridge-1.2
.2.jar
[main] INFO com.bwssystems.HABridge.HABridge - HA Bridge (v1.2.2) starting setup
....
[main] INFO com.bwssystems.HABridge.devicemanagmeent.DeviceResource - HABridge d
evice management service started....
[main] INFO com.bwssystems.HABridge.hue.HueMulator - Hue emulator service starte
d....
[main] INFO com.bwssystems.HABridge.upnp.UpnpSettingsResource - Hue description
service started....
2015-12-13 12:56:19.503:INFO::Thread-0: Logging initialized @927ms
[Thread-0] INFO spark.webserver.JettySparkServer - == Spark has ignited ...
[Thread-0] INFO spark.webserver.JettySparkServer - >> Listening on 0.0.0.0:8080
2015-12-13 12:56:19.596:INFO:oejs.Server:Thread-0: jetty-9.3.z-SNAPSHOT
2015-12-13 12:56:19.643:INFO:oejs.ServerConnector:Thread-0: Started ServerConnec
tor@115ed41{HTTP/1.1,[http/1.1]}{0.0.0.0:8080}
2015-12-13 12:56:19.643:INFO:oejs.Server:Thread-0: Started @1066ms
[main] INFO com.bwssystems.HABridge.upnp.UpnpListener - UPNP Discovery Listener
starting....
[main] INFO com.bwssystems.HABridge.upnp.UpnpListener - UPNP Discovery Listener
running and ready....
 

Edited December 13, 2015 by rizast

[barrygordon]

I agree with your assessment that it is a network issue. I know nothing about your network equipment. Can you simplify your network (for testing) to the simplest configuration possible, first eliminating your firewall and then the domain controller.   Could you send me (email) a sketch of your network schematic showing what is connected to what including IP addresses and port numbers in use.

 

I do not understand why you use a Domain Controller on a simple home network unless your network is being used a lot more extensively than just for a simple home/home-office

 

Most networks I see have a cable modem or some similar device connecting to their ISP, then a router then perhaps a switch. The router acts as the firewall, and most of them provide a 4 port switch integral to the router and handle wi-fi or have wireless adapters (WAPs) connected to the switch

 

Let me describe my home network.

 

The configuration is ISP->CableModem->Router->24 port switch->host devices or secondary switches.  The network runs at Gigabit speed,  The router is by Mikrotik and has an integral 4 port switch of which I use two ports. One port goes to a VoiP phone adapter (vonage) and one port goes to the 24 port switch. The router does all the fire-walling between the LAN and the WAN (Internet). The LAN side has no firewalls and is completely open communications wise. The LAN is a single sub-net (192.168.1.xx). The router handles DHCP and provides for reservations giving the net effect of static IP's.  There are three WAP's in the house all ceiling mounted running using POE.  There are three secondary switches each connected to a main switch port. The secondary switch are all 16 port units. One in the Theater, One in the Server room, one in my Office. The reason for the secondary switches is because at those locations there are lots of devices (hosts) but when I built my home I only ran a single Ethernet cable to each location. The only port open to the external world is 80 which is for my web server. No other port will answer a ping nor will they accept unsolicited traffic, i.e. traffic a host on the LAN did not request. The LAN is setup to allow uPnP. Protocols in use on the LAN are TCP/UDP at the bottom level; and above them things like http, https, uPnP SMB, SOAP.  All switches are un-managed. All network equipment is UPS protected and the house has a backup standby generator which cuts in after a 20 second loss of utility power.  Ergo power outages are not an issue.

Edited December 15, 2015 by barrygordon

[Tungsten]

Also make sure you're not running Windows firewall (or at least open up those ports).