ahwman Posted October 22, 2015 Posted October 22, 2015 Yes, I did some research and I love the idea of being able to create a virtual device. Actually, I'm quite surprised this hasn't been implemented yet. I hope it makes it into v5 final firmware release... Quote
pjt588 Posted October 22, 2015 Posted October 22, 2015 Michel - i read the entire thread on Echo / Hue / ISY - quite a read, about two hours! Other than the cloud hosted model versus LAN only, what are the differences between the community project from Barry and others, versus the "official" UDI integration? Is the functionality the same? What will the cost be for the UDI solution when certified? (I have an ISY994 and an entire Insteon based HA setup - climate, motion, lights, sprinkler, etc) Thanks! Quote
Michel Kohanim Posted October 23, 2015 Posted October 23, 2015 Hi pjt588, I have not personally used what Barry and others have graciously contributed and tirelessly worked on. So, I cannot comment on the differences. With ISY Portal, you should be able to use Alexa, turn something on/off. For things that are not lighting, then you will need to use Alexa tell to lock all doors, etc. Or Run x. Cost of ISYPortal currently is $49.00 for two years. With kind regards, Michel Quote
mwester Posted October 24, 2015 Posted October 24, 2015 Michel, is the portal still in beta, or is it available for anyone to purchase right now? Quote
philtor Posted October 24, 2015 Posted October 24, 2015 I purchased it tonight. Very easy to setup. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Quote
MWareman Posted October 24, 2015 Posted October 24, 2015 Yep. I purchased mine this evening as well. Ready now for when the Alexa connected home goes live with it.... Quote
tim2u Posted October 24, 2015 Posted October 24, 2015 Pretty excited to see all the work with Amazon Echo. I just bought one and am already enjoying it a lot. This type of device is a huge addition to home automation. I've got autovoice allowing voice control of lighting via ISY but think an always on device in the kitchen (i.e. echo) will be better suited for voice control. Ive seen the current solutions you've mentioned for integrating Echo, but this is first I've seen about ISY's official integration. The other solutions are awesome, but I definitely prefer to not depend on another local computer and don't mind dependency on cloud for echo integration as it is not critical. Anyway, with that said, from what I understand, UDI's official implementation will require ISY portal ($50 for 2 years). Is this correct? Also, does ISY's Portal implementation mean that items such as IFTTT integration will also follow? I guess what I am asking is, other than network access without Port forwarding, what does Portal offer (currently and going forward)? Quote
pjt588 Posted October 24, 2015 Posted October 24, 2015 Thanks Michel. Is it just the portal or is there another component for Alexa integration via the portal that is not available yet? If i purchase the portal today, can i have Alexa integration today and where are the instructions to make this work? Last - where do i buy the portal? I looked on the UDI website and didn't see it. Thx! Quote
Xathros Posted October 24, 2015 Posted October 24, 2015 Thanks Michel. Is it just the portal or is there another component for Alexa integration via the portal that is not available yet? If i purchase the portal today, can i have Alexa integration today and where are the instructions to make this work? Last - where do i buy the portal? I looked on the UDI website and didn't see it. Thx! Sorry, not today... The Alexa ISY interface for connected home and skill have been submitted to Amazon for approval. These are not available for your Echo yet. Once Amazon approves and publishes them, then you will need the ISY portal and will need to link the ISY portal to your Amazon account. Until then, the ISY portal will allow you remote access to your ISY without the need to port forward and know your external IP address much like Mobilinc Connect does but without the extra features that Mobilinc Connect offers. Hope this helps. -Xathros Quote
Tungsten Posted October 25, 2015 Posted October 25, 2015 (edited) Will this new Alexa skill allow the querying of information from the ISY?. For example, "Alexa ask ISY what the current temperature is." or "Alexa ask ISY the status of living room light. " Edited October 25, 2015 by Tungsten Quote
bmercier Posted October 25, 2015 Posted October 25, 2015 Will this new Alexa skill allow the querying of information from the ISY?. For example, "Alexa ask ISY what the current temperature is." or "Alexa ask ISY the status of living room light. " Absolutely, any device that can be controlled can also be queried. In the case of the temperature, I'm assuming that you are referring to the ambiant temperature of one of your thermostat, so it's yes. Benoit. Quote
Tungsten Posted October 25, 2015 Posted October 25, 2015 I think w/ a thermostat it would be good to know the ambient temp & the heat/cool set point. I actually think the current set point would be more useful but getting both back on a single call would be nice. Quote
sorka Posted October 27, 2015 Posted October 27, 2015 Chuck, I think you should take this up with Amazon. We are simply working within the constraints of their environment. With kind regards, Michel I was getting excited until I saw that constraint. Being able to say "Alexa, turn on living room lights" would be really useful, but if it required adding a "tell ISY to" in the middle of that, it would pretty much kill it and wouldn't be worth while. It would just take too long to say it. Quote
ahwman Posted October 27, 2015 Posted October 27, 2015 I was getting excited until I saw that constraint. Being able to say "Alexa, turn on living room lights" would be really useful, but if it required adding a "tell ISY to" in the middle of that, it would pretty much kill it and wouldn't be worth while. It would just take too long to say it. From what I understand you will in fact be able to do as you wish. Remember that there are two layers to this. Alexa can understand basic lighting commands and pass them onto the ISY using natural language such as "Alexa, turn off kitchen lights", however when you wish to launch programs, you would then need to access the ISY skill which would require the additional wording such as "Alexa, tell home to run program xxxxx". At least this is my understanding... Chuck Quote
bmercier Posted October 27, 2015 Posted October 27, 2015 I think w/ a thermostat it would be good to know the ambient temp & the heat/cool set point. I actually think the current set point would be more useful but getting both back on a single call would be nice. The skill handles that has well. In regards to thermostats, you can: - Get the temp - Get/Set Mode - Get/Set setpoints for cool or heat - Increase/decrease setpoint for cool or heat Getting setpoints is done either for cool or heat, in 2 different calls. But that could be easily enhanced. Good suggestion. Benoit. Quote
bmercier Posted October 27, 2015 Posted October 27, 2015 From what I understand you will in fact be able to do as you wish. Remember that there are two layers to this. Alexa can understand basic lighting commands and pass them onto the ISY using natural language such as "Alexa, turn off kitchen lights", however when you wish to launch programs, you would then need to access the ISY skill which would require the additional wording such as "Alexa, tell home to run program xxxxx". At least this is my understanding... Chuck That's right, your understanding is correct. Benoit Quote
MWareman Posted October 27, 2015 Posted October 27, 2015 (edited) Just to clarify. There are going to be two integrations between ISY Portal and Alexa/Echo. 1) Connected Home API. Limited functionality to whatever Amazon allows (mainly lighting commands), but natural language. 2) Skill. Requires 'tell ISY to...', but functionality expandable by UDI to include things like querying devices, non-lighting control etc. My main concern/question... I'm assuming (and it is confirmed above) that the connected home method will allow on/off (and dimming?) controls of devices and/or scenes. However, if possible can we be able to assign a spoken element to a program and 'Alexa, Turn the xyz on' calls 'RunThen' and 'Alexa, Turn the xyz off' calls 'RunElse'? That would really expand the natural language capability if possible. Edited October 27, 2015 by MWareman Quote
ahwman Posted October 27, 2015 Posted October 27, 2015 (edited) Just to clarify. There are going to be two integrations between ISY Portal and Alexa/Echo. 1) Connected Home API. Limited functionality to whatever Amazon allows (mainly lighting commands), but natural language. 2) Skill. Requires 'tell ISY to...', but functionality expandable by UDI to include things like querying devices, non-lighting control etc. My main concern/question... I'm assuming (and it is confirmed above) that the connected home method will allow on/off (and dimming?) controls of devices and/or scenes. However, if possible can we be able to assign a spoken element to a program and 'Alexa, Turn the xyz on' calls 'RunThen' and 'Alexa, Turn the xyz off' calls 'RunElse'? That would really expand the natural language capability if possible. My gut tells me this won't be possible until the introduction of virtual devices in ISY. I hope I'm wrong... Edited October 27, 2015 by ahwman Quote
bmercier Posted October 27, 2015 Posted October 27, 2015 Just to clarify. There are going to be two integrations between ISY Portal and Alexa/Echo. 1) Connected Home API. Limited functionality to whatever Amazon allows (mainly lighting commands), but natural language. 2) Skill. Requires 'tell ISY to...', but functionality expandable by UDI to include things like querying devices, non-lighting control etc. My main concern/question... I'm assuming (and it is confirmed above) that the connected home method will allow on/off (and dimming?) controls of devices and/or scenes. However, if possible can we be able to assign a spoken element to a program and 'Alexa, Turn the xyz on' calls 'RunThen' and 'Alexa, Turn the xyz off' calls 'RunElse'? That would really expand the natural language capability if possible. Dimming ISY devices is supported on the Connected home API (And also the skill). In regards to programs, I have struggled to find a natural way of launching programs. All I could come up with is: Alexa, tell home to run ... Alexa, tell home to execute ... The problem with 'Alexa, Turn the xyz on' is that it can/will be confused with devices. FYI, programs do not have a spoken field associated to them. So, the skill will try to do a match with the program name, Benoit. Quote
robertdnewman Posted October 28, 2015 Posted October 28, 2015 UDI has written an Alexa skill and submitted it to Amazon for approval. No idea how long this process takes. In addition, there is a community project that already has Echo working with the ISY but it requires another machine in the middle like a Raspberry Pi or full time PC. See this long thread for details:http://forum.universal-devices.com/topic/14525-amazon-echo-and-isy/ -Xathros Do you need any beta testers for the new ISY Skill or Connected Home link? Quote
bmercier Posted October 28, 2015 Posted October 28, 2015 Do you need any beta testers for the new ISY Skill or Connected Home link? Hi Robert, Unfortunately, there is no easy way to give access without amazon publishing the skill or the connected home link. Benoit. Quote
ENrgStar Posted November 9, 2015 Posted November 9, 2015 Hey Michel and UDI, I didn't notice anyone say this yet, but Thank you for so quickly designing and submitting a Skill for Echo to improve the functionality of our ISYs. Buying my 994i a couple years ago was the best HA purchase I've made, and its really nice that you guys do such a great job supporting and improving your product. Quote
Michel Kohanim Posted November 10, 2015 Posted November 10, 2015 Hi ENrgStar, Thanks so very much for your kind words. Please know that it does mean A LOT to all of us. With kind regards, Michel Quote
ahwman Posted November 11, 2015 Posted November 11, 2015 I'm trying to understand the main differences between using the Hue Emualtor to link up with the ISY and Echo versus the ISY portal in terms of benefits vs drawbacks... I'm not too keen on the idea of another ongoing fee which would apply to the portal, however I also don't want to get caught up in a hacked together project requiring a lot of set up and programming. I'm just trying to do my homework before moving forward in either direction... Thanks, Chuck Quote
Michel Kohanim Posted November 11, 2015 Posted November 11, 2015 Hi Chuck, I do not use the emulator and therefore I really cannot give you any more information than what's already covered above. I think the best thing to do would be to try the emulator and, if it works well for you, then I really do not see any reason for moving to the portal. With kind regards, Michel Quote
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