Interface with Amazon Echo?

[MWareman]

'alexa, ask izzy to turn on kitchen'   works

'alexa, ask izzy to turn off kitchen'   works

'alexa, ask izzy to turn on kitchen island'   works

'alexa, ask izzy to turn off kitchen island'   works

'alexa, ask izzy to turn on kitchen'   works

 

'alexa, ask izzy to turn on dinette'  

    'turn on which device?'   'dinette' 'turn on which device?' etc..

 

I logged onto http://alexa.amazon.com/#settings/dialogs

It shows that Alexa is thinking I'm asking izzy to 'turn off doing that'...  :/  odd.  Then 'buy that'...  also odd..  

 

I have a IFTTT/Maker rule for 'Dinette' that calls an ISY program to toggle the light. 'Alexa, trigger dinette' works perfectly - every time.

 

Some words just don't work well I guess, or the IZZY lexicon is large enough that there is greater confusion.

 

I've been thru voice training and it still didn't help with this word. 

 

Otherwise - it's working well. 

[stusviews]

All names are the spoken word(s).

 

Kitchen Light scene worked (note past tense)!!! I renamed the scene Kitchen Lights. I renamed the load device Kitchen Light. Refreshed. Neither works. Alexa can't find the kitchen.

 

Renamed the scene back to Kitchen Light, removed name from load device. Refreshed. Neither works.

[MWareman]

In my case, the scene for my dinette light has had 'dinette' as the spoken work - all lower case (if that matters).

 

If an exact match is needed - is it case sensitive? In my case though, its not even close on 'dinette', while the Maker channel is spot on each time (this is not using the spoken name - its a command called 'dinette')

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi benbennett ,

 

Thanks so very much for invaluable feedback.

 

We heard back from Amazon ( I am still very impressed ). In addition to the input from Amazon, we worked with a customer whose echo didn't work with anything. In summation:

1. There's definitely a bug with Alexa whereby the utterance is considered as a Connected Home command. Every time you hear "... not found in ... profile", then the answer is coming from Connected Home not ISY's skill. To address this, Amazon recommended to use "switch on/off" instead of "turn on/off" which is used by Connected Home

2. When you use a Skill, you MUST use "ask/tell izzy TO " ... if Echo does not hear the "to" pronounced correctly, then it'll invoke Connected Home

3. Light(s) might have problems for the same reason as above

4. Alexa uses utterances for a good match and, if not found, then uses literal ... unfortunately we cannot add more utterances to the list because we can never come up with all the combination and permutations of all utterances. Furthermore, we cannot add more utterances since Amazon portal hangs above 170. So, what we are going to do is to fine tune these utterances to maximize understanding. This said, if we change anything, we will have to go back for certification

 

Thanks so very much for your patience!

 

With kind regards,

Michel​

[stusviews]

Back to nada. Also, each time I mention "switch" Alexa replies, "Welcome to your Home. You can use the ISY skill to control your devices, locks, thermostats, or programs. How can I help you?" I don't even have a chance to finish the statement.

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi stusviews,

 

Please do the following:

1. Open Echo app (http://echo.amazon.com)

2. Ask Alexa something and make sure it understands it in the card (under Home)

3. Make sure your sentences are structured as follows:

Alexa, ask (or tell) izzy TO switch on

 

Please note that both izzy and TO are very important.

 

Once that's done, please do let us know what you said and what Alexa thought you said.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[stusviews]

On to locks. That works, mostly. The locks (all) lock and unlock on command, but the count is incorrect. In particular the number that Alexa reports as successful is correct, but then reports that 5 (nonexistent) actions were unsuccessful. I've not yet tried individual locks.

[Tungsten]

'Alexa, tell izzy to switch ON master bedroom' works but 'Alexa, tell izzy to switch OFF master bedroom' just comes back with 'which device?' over & over. Checked in the Alexa app and its understanding the utterance correctly.

[stusviews]

Got something going. "Alexa, ask (or tell) Izzy to SWITCH on (off) anything" does not work, see post #305. "Alexa, ask (or tell) Izzy to turn on (off) THE anything" did not work. (Device not found.) Omitting THE seems to work, at least for me--so far.

[tandar]

Michel, can you give an example of what you are referring to as "utterances" on the list you submitted?

Thanks

Edited December 12, 2015 by tandar

[bmercier]

Changed Living Room Ceiling spoken scene to Living Room. That works, but Izzy can't change load device level, as expected. Changed spoken device to Living Light. Izzy can't find device "Living."

 

Weird, Living Room works--both words, Living Light does not work. Still testing, I need to ability to change light levels.

 

Currently, there is a limitation where scene levels can't be set. They can only be turned on and off.

 

This will be fixed soon.

 

Benoit.

[bmercier]

On to locks. That works, mostly. The locks (all) lock and unlock on command, but the count is incorrect. In particular the number that Alexa reports as successful is correct, but then reports that 5 (nonexistent) actions were unsuccessful. I've not yet tried individual locks.

 

Thanks for pointing in out. I investigated, and this is indeed a bug. Should be fixed this week-end.

 

Benoit.

[stusviews]

Changed spoken Kitchen from scene to load device (scene spoken blank), refreshed. No difficulty asking Izzy to change level of device (SwitchLinc)

 

Changed spoken Living Room from scene to load device (scene spoken blank), refreshed. Izzy can't change level of device (KPL load button). "I'm unable to change a setpoint for the regular device living room. Can I help you with anything else?"

[bmercier]

Changed spoken Kitchen from scene to load device (scene spoken blank), refreshed. No difficulty asking Izzy to change level of device (SwitchLinc)

 

Changed spoken Living Room from scene to load device (scene spoken blank), refreshed. Izzy can't change level of device (KPL load button). "I'm unable to change a setpoint for the regular device living room. Can I help you with anything else?"

 

Alexa understood that you wanted to change a thermostat setpoint.

 

The error message means that it found the device you spoke, but it is not a thermostat, but rather a "regular device".

 

Benoit.

[ahwman]

For those of us who wish to use IFTTT and the Maker channel, any idea when we might see the release of the new firmware which supports intermediate certs? The last I heard from Michel was that it is working well and they were stress testing it...

 

Thanks!

Chuck

Edited December 12, 2015 by ahwman

[mwester]

First - a big thank you to the UDI folks for letting us all play with this so early -- it takes a lot of corporate courage to take a brand new relatively-untested bit of technology and let the world find all the bugs and problems with it!  I've learned a lot about not just Amazon's echo but also about the challenges of dealing with spoken language.

 

And then, for what it might be worth, a data point that I found interesting...  I'm one of those who, thus far, have not had Alexa do *anything* right with the skill.  In exasperation, a short while ago, I instructed Alexa to "tell izzy to go jump in the lake".  Now I don't expect the skill to understand that statement, but I was certainly surprised when Alexa responded by asking me "get status for which device?"  Something is seriously awry with Amazon's speech processing if it interprets "jump in the lake" as a status request!  (And yes, I checked the echo.amazon.com page to confirm that it correctly heard me.)  

[MWareman]

Back to nada. Also, each time I mention "switch" Alexa replies, "Welcome to your Home. You can use the ISY skill to control your devices, locks, thermostats, or programs. How can I help you?" I don't even have a chance to finish the statement.

Mine is doing this as well with 'ask Izzy to switch ...'

 

Tell Izzy still doing as before...

[jerlands]

For those of us who wish to use IFTTT and the Maker channel, any idea when we might see the release of the new firmware which supports intermediate certs? The last I heard from Michel was that it is working well and they were stress testing it...

 

Thanks!

Chuck

 

I'm going thru the Portal with IFTTT and Maker Channel but find it can take from mere seconds to a full half minute to execute.  What I like about it though is anything I say is recognized

 

 

Jon...

[ahwman]

I'm going thru the Portal with IFTTT and Maker Channel but find it can take from mere seconds to a full half minute to execute.  What I like about it though is anything I say is recognized

 

 

Jon...

Jon,

 

How are you using the portal in conjunction with the Maker channel? I spent hours but never could get it to work since our portal user name is an email address and I couldn't figure out how to embed it in the URL address...

 

Chuck

[Scottmichaelj]

Jon,

 

How are you using the portal in conjunction with the Maker channel? I spent hours but never could get it to work since our portal user name is an email address and I couldn't figure out how to embed it in the URL address...

 

Chuck

+1 I also would love to know!

 

I think bc we were trying direct and he is using the portal, but would still like to play with it. I have never seen IFTTT take long to activate a macro on my RTI remote.

Edited December 12, 2015 by huddadudda

[jerlands]

Jon,

 

How are you using the portal in conjunction with the Maker channel? I spent hours but never could get it to work since our portal user name is an email address and I couldn't figure out how to embed it in the URL address...

 

Chuck

 

MWareman gave a good example in this post..  https://<user>:<password>@my.isy.io/isy/<security_token>/rest/vars/set/<var-type>/<var-id>/<value>

 

I used nodes and fiddled around until I found not to add the dot   The error log in the portal control helps a lot.

 

EDIT:  encode @ = %40 = xxxxxx%40yyy.com

 

 

Jon...

Edited December 12, 2015 by jerlands

[jerlands]

I don't know why but now triggering IFTTT the response is almost instantaneous, just follow the closing of "sending that to it:)  I guess when I initially set it up there was heavy traffic or something?

 

 

Jon...

[benbennett]

Hi benbennett ,

 

Thanks so very much for invaluable feedback.

 

We heard back from Amazon ( I am still very impressed ). In addition to the input from Amazon, we worked with a customer whose echo didn't work with anything. In summation:

1. There's definitely a bug with Alexa whereby the utterance is considered as a Connected Home command. Every time you hear "... not found in ... profile", then the answer is coming from Connected Home not ISY's skill. To address this, Amazon recommended to use "switch on/off" instead of "turn on/off" which is used by Connected Home

2. When you use a Skill, you MUST use "ask/tell izzy TO <do something>" ... if Echo does not hear the "to" pronounced correctly, then it'll invoke Connected Home

3. Light(s) might have problems for the same reason as above

4. Alexa uses utterances for a good match and, if not found, then uses literal ... unfortunately we cannot add more utterances to the list because we can never come up with all the combination and permutations of all utterances. Furthermore, we cannot add more utterances since Amazon portal hangs above 170. So, what we are going to do is to fine tune these utterances to maximize understanding. This said, if we change anything, we will have to go back for certification

 

Thanks so very much for your patience!

 

With kind regards,

Michel​

 

-I didn't make it is clear that I am using HA Bridge method . 

 

Really think amazon has special voice matching for the connected home functions to make it more accurate. 

[ahwman]

MWareman gave a good example in this post..  https://<user>:<password>@my.isy.io/isy/<security_token>/rest/vars/set/<var-type>/<var-id>/<value>

 

I used nodes and fiddled around until I found not to add the dot   The error log in the portal control helps a lot.

 

EDIT:  encode @ = %40 = xxxxxx%40yyy.com

 

 

Jon...

Thanks Jon,

 

Unfortunately I'm still getting the following error when running the trigger: Action skipped less than a minute ago

Unable to make web request: Error: ETIMEDOUT

 

Any ideas?

[ahwman]

Thanks Jon,

Unfortunately I'm still getting the following error when running the trigger: Action skipped less than a minute ago

Unable to make web request: Error: ETIMEDOUT

Any ideas?

UPDATE: Got it working!! I was putting the rest command into the body of the get request instead of appending it to the URL. It is literally instant and works flawlessly!

 

So happy, thanks for sharing....

Chuck