Amazon Echo and ISY

[barrygordon]

HuddaHudda,

 

Please show the full URL that is getting a page not found (404) error. Just redact the userid:password.

[btreinders]

So I changed it to "Living Room Shades" the On URL = http://username:password@ip:port/rest/programs/0030/003D/runThenbut the console and url are giving me a error 404. The program works fine through the admin console of the ISY. Maybe I will just wait a bit longer until the Skills are available. Its a "program" though not a device. My devices work fine.

 

Results from the url direct in the browser =

<RestResponse succeeded="false">

<status>404</status>

</RestResponse>

 

Should just be http://username:password@ip:port/rest/programs/programid/runThen What is the 0030 for?

[btreinders]

Should just be http://username:password@ip:port/rest/programs/programid/runThen What is the 0030 for?

 

huh, I guess it truncates these hyperlinks.  You can see the whole thing if you quote it in a reply.

[blueman2]

Barry, noticed you had a 2.0.0 version up.  I gave it a try, using the one time update button.  I pressed 'next' as it evaluated each device.  I did notice that it incorrectly thought some of my switches were dimmers and added intensity setting.  I will track down the model of those switches since I am guessing it is related to certain model numbers. Also, after the update, 8 of my 29 device listings were not discovered by Alexa.  No correlation I could find on which ones and why.  I ended up switching back to a backup of my database.  

 

I did add a few new dimmable scenes into alexa.  Alexa accepted the dim command, but lights only turned on or off.  No dim so far.

 

By the way, I noticed some scenes are given a CMD and others a SET command by your tool.  Curious what the differences are between them. 

 

Fun to play with this!!

 

EDIT: I GOT DIMMING!!!!!  I am still unable to make my scenes dim, but I did delete and the re-create a lamplinc device on your AWS-config tool and sure enough, it dims!!!  I tried 10%, 30%, 53%, 100%, and they all worked.

 

BARRY!!! You da' MAN!!!!!

 

Now to figure out why the scenes are not dimming.  I think I will just delete everything and re-create from scratch, and see if that helps.

[Scottmichaelj]

Should just be http://username:password@ip:port/rest/programs/programid/runThen Whatis the 0030 for?

So I changed the url to remove the 0030 which was added by the mapper, made the desired friendly name as Living Room Shades and now everything is working. I can actually say "Alexa open living room shades" and they will open by running my programID 003C, and then I changed the close url to program ID 3D and now can say "Alexa close living room shades" and they will close". Pretty snazzy stuff. Thanks bartenders for pointing out the 0030 that fixed it. I didn't want to mess around with the urls but that was the fix. Off to go play around some more.

[btreinders]

So I changed the url to remove the 0030 which was added by the mapper, made the desired friendly name as Living Room Shades and now everything is working. I can actually say "Alexa open living room shades" and they will open by running my programID 003C, and then I changed the close url to program ID 3D and now can say "Alexa close living room shades" and they will close". Pretty snazzy stuff. Thanks bartenders for pointing out the 0030 that fixed it. I didn't want to mess around with the urls but that was the fix. Off to go play around some more.

 

No problem, glad it's working.  Now if I could just get close garage door to work!  Close lights works.  It must be a programmed response built into the Echo to put that phrase into a to do list.  Please remove it Amazon!  

[barrygordon]

Blueman2,

 

I am working on adding some more debug capability.  I am not sure why set vs cmd but I will look into it. I did not actually try a scene for dimming but will later.

[barrygordon]

Blueman2,

 

All the commands for scenes should use cmd not set.  All mine show as CMD.  SET was a holdover from an earlier version and was in error. You can do an update for those scenes that say set after changing the command in the URL's to be CMD.

 

Scenes do not seem to be working.  That will be tomorrows task. 

[blueman2]

Thanks again, Barry.  I am thrilled with the dimming!!!  At least this shows variables like this can be passed to the ISY.  I changed all the SET commands to CMD commands using update.  Both seemed to work just fine, but better to use what is more standard.  

 

I have found the easiest ways to set a brightness level is:

 

Alexa, set the den light to 60

or

Alexa, brighten the den light

or

Alexa, dim the den light

[Morris Hansen]

I have been following this thread with great interest. My echo just arrived today.

 

When you say to dim or brighten without a value, how much does it change and is this configurable?

[blueman2]

Not sure, but it seems to be about 25% per dim/brighten command.  Not settable that I know of.  But you can of course give an exact % to go to.  

[barrygordon]

What version is your echo software.  Mine is 2723

 

The only way I can get lights to dim to a set value is the phrase 'Alexa set brightness to xx% on <NameOfLlights>'

 

Sine the URL I use only has /DON/value, I can not understand how you get the Echo to respond  to a DIM with no fixed value command unless you have changed the URL to DIM or BRT from /DON/${intensity.byte} to /DIM or /BRT.  If I do that then it will probably work, but the dimming takes place very slowly.

 

TIP: You can click on a device in the HUE devices pane to cause that device to load into the editor. You can then alter the onURL or the OffURL to be anything that is legal for the ISY and use the 'Test On' and 'Test Off' buttons to send the URL to the ISY to see what happens. Just don't do an Update unless you want to make a permanent change.

[rdavidowski]

Hi, Barry

 

I got the dimming to work !!!!!  But that is sort off, because is very eratic. Sometimes I say "Alexa set (Light Name) to 60" and it just sets up another value or it just does not do anything. The dim command is the worst.  Can anyone comment on their experience and the exact commands utter to Alexa. Thanks with the help. 

[barrygordon]

The only phrase that seems to work reliably for me is:

 

Alexa, Set brightness to xx% on <device friendly name>  as in :    Alexa set tbrightness to 50% on test lights

[trevorst]

Alexa told me how she likes to hear it today. After asking her several ways she replied " Tell me what you want to set and what to set it to".

So I did " Set the kitchen to 50%"

She gets it every time now. This also turns lights on to the desired setting if they are off.

One other thing I have noticed is, I need to give a slight pause between the device name and the "to" or she concatenates them and replies she can't find that device.

 

@Barry Gordon

Hey Barry good to see you active on this forum, We have exchanged posts an emails several times over the years, the last time was on an ip remote forum a couple of years ago. Still use one of the tools you developed to test ip commands and capture feedback.

See you settled on Commanf Fusion. I went with Demopad and have not regretted it. Like you have several iPads and iTouch devices throughout the house controlling things.

 

Just setup your Bridge device and seems to be working fine except I can not get it to bring up scenes. If I use the custom and add my own scene it works from the test button, but Alexa reports device is not working and check connections.

Also noticed you do not have a close/exit button on the app (whoops just found the big red exit button)

[barrygordon]

In the ini file you need to tell me the the names of your scene folders using the command 'scene filters = name, name, name'.  It should then show you the scenes from those folders.  The scenes I want the echo to be cognizant of I keep in a folder named zScenes-Echo and zScenes-Fans. The z is there to cause all my scenes to came after my devices.  it is stripped when I display the scene folders if requested by the 'Show Scene Folder' command. I guess I need to add an option 'All"' to not filter the scenes and allow the command to be removed, if you do not want to filter the scenes or you do not keep your scenes in folders.  Next up date will probably have that.

 

The command you provided works sporadically for me, while Alexa, Set brightness to xx percent on <light name>'  works best for me.  Perhaps different reverberation environments affect Alexa's speech recognition. My house has a long reverb time so it is a little echo-ey.

[Fatty]

wondering what this will do to the quest? http://www.cnet.com/news/alexa-hit-the-lights-amazon-echo-adds-insteon-support/

 

i really like my isy for everything but think if the insteon hub and isy could co-exist why not?

The insteon hub could act as thehue emulator so to speak. Am I missing something?

[bdlhome]

wondering what this will do to the quest? http://www.cnet.com/news/alexa-hit-the-lights-amazon-echo-adds-insteon-support/

 

i really like my isy for everything but think if the insteon hub and isy could co-exist why not?

The insteon hub could act as thehue emulator so to speak. Am I missing something?

 

I was wondering the same thing, if it can talk to the insteon hub then hopefully it can be made to talk directly to the ISY?

[barrygordon]

But we have that today.  All my lights and scenes respond to Alexa On / Off commands and my lights  will dim to specific brightness levels on command. Alexa needs some more phrasing attention since she (echo) sometimes misunderstands what is being said, and she is very particular.  If UDI had a command for scenes similar to the way they handle lights (/cmd/DON/level)  the dimming of scenes would be trivial.  I know of no way to set a scene to a specific brightness level, can someone help me there?.  I can do it with a program that sets the scene  to a specific level, but not with an argument that tells it the level.  

[Fatty]

I guess I was looking at an always on solution without a PC, Not sure how the insteon hub will handle dimming with Alexa's help. I'm very satisfied with the early version of the solution that you guys have worked so hard on. I have an always on PC that I run, no ups though. With any restart or power outage I need to run jar and discover devices in mapper. not a biggy but I thought that the insteon hub would correct that and allow easy dimming. I haven't tried Barry's solution yet.

 

I do appreciate the work you guys have done. I wish I would have learned to type and code many years ago.

[barrygordon]

Running the emulators on an RPI makes for an easy relatively inexpensive always on solution. A small ups to keep the RPi's powered should also be inexpensive. A 6 volt storage battery with a little zenner diode to produce 5.2 volts and a cheap trickle charger should do it for a bank of RPi's.  I am not sure how fussy the RPi is regarding its voltage but I am sure 5.2 is fine as that is what most 5 volt supplies produce anyways .

 

What I developed replaces 'Mapper' not the emulators. It only has to be run when you want to change the configured devices for the emulators.  The actual database of each emulator is kept as a file on the RPi.

[Guitartexan]

Has everyone seen this today? I just got an email......

"Echo now supports Insteon connected devices, including the Insteon Starter Kit, Dimmer Switch, and On/Off Switch—so now you have even more ways to control your lights, switches, and appliances at home without ever lifting a finger. Use Echo to switch on the lights from your bed or dim them from your couch to watch a movie. A full list of Echo compatible devices can be found here.

 

Getting started with Insteon is easy. Just connect your devices to the Insteon Hub via the Insteon Hub App and name your devices in the Insteon Hub App. Next, link your Insteon account in the Alexa App. Then, say "Alexa, discover my devices." With a Dimmer Switch and On/Off Switch you can control lights and appliances like TVs and popcorn makers with Echo. Just ask:

 

"Alexa, turn on the TV."

"Alexa, turn popcorn on."

"Alexa, dim the lights."

Also new this week, your Alexa Shopping List is now easily accessible on Amazon.com. When you visit Amazon using your computer or tablet, you will see a link to your Alexa Shopping List on the homepage, and also in the Wish List menu, where you can easily find and purchase the exact items you want. You can also add, edit, delete, or mark items completed. If you're on your mobile device, just use the Alexa App to view your Shopping List and search Amazon for results."

 

 

GT

[Tungsten]

Barry, your tool is great...thanks again for creating something so useful.  With regards to scene dimming: since the ISY (and insteon) do not support direct dimming of scenes would it make sense to add just the devices in a scene (instead of the scene itself) and give these some dummy name that you would never use? Then create & add these to a group with the friendly name on the echo.

[barrygordon]

Tungsten, I have done that but when you forget all devices on the Echo it forgets the group.  I have put in a request to Amazon to separate deleting devices and deleting groups.

 

The configuration tool has been updated to build 2.0.7.  This build has changes to the ini file and updated documentation (word doc).

 

Scenes no longer have to be in folders so a Scene filter entry is not required.  Zwave devices are handled. If the device type in the ini file has the word "Dimmer" in it's name the device is considered dimmable and the onURL will accept a brightness value from the Echo. In all other ZWave device cases the device is treated is an On/Off switch for purposes of generating the URL Rest command to send to the ISY. 

 

The configuration tool merely sets up the values for the HUE emulator. The Hue Emulator is limited by what the Philips bridge can do. Requests for changes to the HUE Emulator should be addressed to bwssystems.com.

[barrygordon]

I have just posted 2.0.19 if the configuration system. It has mostly changes relating to ISY controlled Z-Wave devices. The ini, exe and docx files have been Changed.

 

The word document has been significantly revised to provide a lot more information relating to Z-Wave devices and how the Echo>Emulator>ISY994 system communicates and the role of the Configuration system in all this.  I strongly suggest that you read the documentation.