Interface with Amazon Echo?

[jerlands]

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

 

Good to hear!  I was about to suggest the entire string goes in the URL Field

 

 

Jon...

[ahwman]

Good to hear!  I was about to suggest the entire string goes in the URL Field

 

 

Jon...

So happy! I guess I know what I'll be doing tomorrow...

[imagamejunky]

Hi guys.

 

I had some time to play around with the echo and the isy admin console tonight.  All of my devices and scenes were blank in the spoken word field. This is why I couldn't get any lights to work this morning when I tried.  After lots of fiddling around I was able to get almost every device and scene to work tonight.  Here are some things that worked and didn't work FOR ME..

 

Alexa doesn't work with the following words at all: LIGHT, LIGHTS (huge bummer), LIVING ROOM, LAMP, BAR, NOOK, KITCHENETTE, MASTER, BEDROOM, AWNING, LANDSCAPE, CHRISTMAS, XMAS, GAMEROOM, GAME, FANLIGHT.

 

Words/Phrases that worked for me, but are NOT ideal:

-  A few times while trying to turn on my Bar Lights Alexa mistakenly heard me say BARN.  So I used BARN in the spoken field for the Bar Lights and it works now. Funny how she works with Barn but not Bar!

-  Alexa doesn't understand christmas tree but she does understand TREE by itself.  And I'm sure as hell not going to use holiday tree.  It's not a damn holiday tree, it's a christmas tree Amazon!!

-  Instead of Awning I am using PATIO.

-  I have a ceiling fan in my gameroom.  Instead of Gameroom or Fanlight I'm having to just use FAN.  This sucks.

 

 

Other tidbits.

-By making a scene for a single device with a different spoken name than the device itself I have been able to get Alexa to recognize more than one word/phrase for the same device.  Example- The dining room chandelier.  I can successfully call it both Dining Room and Dining.  Same for Entry Way and Entry.  Same for Upstairs and Hall.

-Alexa works great with turn on and off.  I haven't had to use switch on and off

-Many times when Alexa doesn't understand me I repeat the command and I over annunciation the word IZZY. If she doesn't hear the word IZZY perfectly then she is apparently looking for connected home devices (that I don't have)

 

 

Hope this helps someone else.

 

Junky

[stusviews]

Alexa heard, "Is she the live in room 50%." Connected Home makes no such error, same device, same name.

 

After many tries, I can set the on-level of a SwitchLinc, but not the load button of a KPL when using the Skill. No problem using Connected Home.

Edited December 12, 2015 by stusviews

[jerlands]

So happy! I guess I know what I'll be doing tomorrow...

 

An easy way to make recipes is to run Topology in ISY, open a created recipe in Maker, edit then publish with the new title and changes.

 

Edit: be sure to delete the published recipes for those containing sensitive info.

 

Jon...

Edited December 12, 2015 by jerlands

[ronbo]

I am having a lot of fun with the ECHO and Izzy...

I am able to use kitchen, but not kitchen sink, kitchen counter, or kitchen fan. They all default to kitchen.

Also having issues trying to run programs. Must it be in a top folder.

 

[ahwman]

An easy way to make recipes is to run Topology in ISY, open a created recipe in Maker, edit then publish with the new title and changes.

 

Edit: be sure to delete the published recipes for those containing sensitive info.

 

Jon...

I'm not sure I understand Jon what this accomplishes? Does it just make it faster to create recipes? I was hoping there was a way to copy recipes instead of having to create them from scratch..

 

Chuck

[imagamejunky]

Hi guys.

 

I had some time to play around with the echo and the isy admin console tonight.  All of my devices and scenes were blank in the spoken word field. This is why I couldn't get any lights to work this morning when I tried.  After lots of fiddling around I was able to get almost every device and scene to work tonight.  Here are some things that worked and didn't work FOR ME..

 

Alexa doesn't work with the following words at all: LIGHT, LIGHTS (huge bummer), LIVING ROOM, LAMP, BAR, NOOK, KITCHENETTE, MASTER, BEDROOM, AWNING, LANDSCAPE, CHRISTMAS, XMAS, GAMEROOM, GAME, FANLIGHT.

 

Words/Phrases that worked for me, but are NOT ideal:

-  A few times while trying to turn on my Bar Lights Alexa mistakenly heard me say BARN.  So I used BARN in the spoken field for the Bar Lights and it works now. Funny how she works with Barn but not Bar!

-  Alexa doesn't understand christmas tree but she does understand TREE by itself.  And I'm sure as hell not going to use holiday tree.  It's not a damn holiday tree, it's a christmas tree Amazon!!

-  Instead of Awning I am using PATIO.

-  I have a ceiling fan in my gameroom.  Instead of Gameroom or Fanlight I'm having to just use FAN.  This sucks.

 

 

Other tidbits.

-By making a scene for a single device with a different spoken name than the device itself I have been able to get Alexa to recognize more than one word/phrase for the same device.  Example- The dining room chandelier.  I can successfully call it both Dining Room and Dining.  Same for Entry Way and Entry.  Same for Upstairs and Hall.

-Alexa works great with turn on and off.  I haven't had to use switch on and off

-Many times when Alexa doesn't understand me I repeat the command and I over annunciation the word IZZY. If she doesn't hear the word IZZY perfectly then she is apparently looking for connected home devices (that I don't have)

 

 

Hope this helps someone else.

 

Junky

Something changed overnight with my system.  Today I can now use the words LIGHT, LIGHTS, and LIVING ROOM.  I can't use these words in the spoken words space, but I can direct Alexa (& izzy) to control devices with these words.  For example, I can say "Alexa, tell Izzy to turn on the Entry Lights" and the insteon switch with the spoken name "Entry" will correctly turn on.  This did not work yesterday.  I couldn't control anything if i said Light or Lights in the command.

 

Junky

[bmercier]

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

 

Tell Izzy still doing as before...

 

I read several report of this problem. However, I'm not able to reproduce it.

 

When you hear "Welcome to your home.. etc", this means that the skill was started with no "intent" (An intent is an actual request like turn on or turn off).

 

"Open izzy" for instance launches the skill with no intent.

 

When we say something like 'ask Izzy to switch ...', if it launches the skill with no intent, it must be that Alexa did not understand correctly.

 

If you experience this, please post me what Alexa understood from the echo app. We need to resolve this.

 

Thanks,

 

Benoit.

[bmercier]

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')

 

It should not be case sensitive.

 

Whatever is entered in the device name or spoken field is stored in lowercase when we refresh devices.

 

When amazon does it's speech recognition, it's normally always in lowercase.

 

HOWEVER, I found a case where Alexa does not do in in lowercase: Christmas (capital C)

 

I just made a fix where when I lookup in the database, the device alexa heard is now put in lowercase before searching. This is not live yet though.

 

Benoit.

[bmercier]

Hi guys.

 

I had some time to play around with the echo and the isy admin console tonight.  All of my devices and scenes were blank in the spoken word field. This is why I couldn't get any lights to work this morning when I tried.  After lots of fiddling around I was able to get almost every device and scene to work tonight.  Here are some things that worked and didn't work FOR ME..

 

Alexa doesn't work with the following words at all: LIGHT, LIGHTS (huge bummer), LIVING ROOM, LAMP, BAR, NOOK, KITCHENETTE, MASTER, BEDROOM, AWNING, LANDSCAPE, CHRISTMAS, XMAS, GAMEROOM, GAME, FANLIGHT.

 

Words/Phrases that worked for me, but are NOT ideal:

-  A few times while trying to turn on my Bar Lights Alexa mistakenly heard me say BARN.  So I used BARN in the spoken field for the Bar Lights and it works now. Funny how she works with Barn but not Bar!

-  Alexa doesn't understand christmas tree but she does understand TREE by itself.  And I'm sure as hell not going to use holiday tree.  It's not a damn holiday tree, it's a christmas tree Amazon!!

-  Instead of Awning I am using PATIO.

-  I have a ceiling fan in my gameroom.  Instead of Gameroom or Fanlight I'm having to just use FAN.  This sucks.

 

 

Other tidbits.

-By making a scene for a single device with a different spoken name than the device itself I have been able to get Alexa to recognize more than one word/phrase for the same device.  Example- The dining room chandelier.  I can successfully call it both Dining Room and Dining.  Same for Entry Way and Entry.  Same for Upstairs and Hall.

-Alexa works great with turn on and off.  I haven't had to use switch on and off

-Many times when Alexa doesn't understand me I repeat the command and I over annunciation the word IZZY. If she doesn't hear the word IZZY perfectly then she is apparently looking for connected home devices (that I don't have)

 

 

Hope this helps someone else.

 

Junky

 

Thanks for the feedback, that will help me enhance the skill.

 

FYI, you may want to try again with "living room". This one should be recognized fairly easily.

 

Benoit.

[barrygordon]

I suspect that the ISY team is working diligently to improve the IZZY  skill and as they make changes the way the Echo/ISY responds will change.  I am not sure what their development cycle is and if they can just make chanegs to the skill without re-certification, but if the way the system is responding differetnly implies things are changing.  It can also be Amazon improving the speech recognition. 

 

As I understand it Amazon cloud code handles all speech from the Echo. It then uses the utterance file and intents of the desiganted skill (IZZY) to parse the speech and fill "Slots" with the result of the parse.  The slots are then passed to the skills endpoint (in the cloud or on a LAN somewhere) to be processed. 

 

This chain is not trivial and there are many places for things to go badly. I have developed my own private skill as some others have done so I know the construction of the processing chain fairly well. My skill's endpoint is on my LAN with an RPi handling the SSL issues and tunneling them to the endpoint which then allows me to write the code for "Clear" data.  Since this is a test skill I do not require certification.

 

At this time I mainly use the HUE emulator under the connected home and am able to control all my lights and on/off devices (e.g. a water circulator controlled by a micro module) and my fans (using a fanlinc). My accuracy rate is over 90% so I am fairly complacent.

Edited December 12, 2015 by barrygordon

[ahwman]

Is anyone having success setting a thermostat using the ISY skill? I named the spoken word "thermostat" for this devices. When I ask "Alexa, tell Izzy to set thermostat", she responds "set point for which device", again, I say "thermostat", Alexa responds, "set point for which mode, heating or cooling", I respond with "heating", she then responds with "what temperature" and I respond with "72 degrees" and her last response is "error processing your request".

 

Pretty disappointing...

Chuck

[bmercier]

Is anyone having success setting a thermostat using the ISY skill? I named the spoken word "thermostat" for this devices. When I ask "Alexa, tell Izzy to set thermostat", she responds "set point for which device", again, I say "thermostat", Alexa responds, "set point for which mode, heating or cooling", I respond with "heating", she then responds with "what temperature" and I respond with "72 degrees" and her last response is "error processing your request".

 

Pretty disappointing...

Chuck

 

Hello ahwman,

 

Try with a device name other than thermostat. Something like "second floor" or "living room".

 

"thermostat" is not a good name for a thermostat, as it gets confused with all of those sentences you can speak with the word thermostat in it.

 

Benoit.

[MWareman]

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

I posted how in a different thread. I'll try to find it.

 

Michael.

[MWareman]

I read several report of this problem. However, I'm not able to reproduce it.

 

When you hear "Welcome to your home.. etc", this means that the skill was started with no "intent" (An intent is an actual request like turn on or turn off).

 

"Open izzy" for instance launches the skill with no intent.

 

When we say something like 'ask Izzy to switch ...', if it launches the skill with no intent, it must be that Alexa did not understand correctly.

 

If you experience this, please post me what Alexa understood from the echo app. We need to resolve this.

 

Thanks,

 

Benoit.

 

This morning, I tried 'Alexa, ask izzy to switch dinette on'. According to app - she heard 'Ask izzy to switch dinosaur'

 

She responded 'For which ISY? Please tell me the alias used in UDI portal.'. I responded 'Home' and she said that the ISY had been switched.  Not what I wanted indeed. She should have at least responded that there was no device named 'dinosaur'.

 

Using 'Switch' seems to cause the Alexa to interpret that we want to change to a different ISY (at least in my case). I only have one in my portal account.

 

Michael.

Edited December 12, 2015 by MWareman

[bmercier]

This morning, I tried 'Alexa, ask izzy to switch dinette on'. According to app - she heard 'Ask izzy to switch dinosaur'

 

She responded 'For which ISY? Please tell me the alias used in UDI portal.'. I responded 'Home' and she said that the ISY had been switched.  Not what I wanted indeed. She should have at least responded that there was no device named 'dinosaur'.

 

Using 'Switch' seems to cause the Alexa to interpret that we want to change to a different ISY (at least in my case). I only have one in my portal account.

 

Michael.

 

Hi Michael,

 

Instead of saying "switch <device> on", try instead "switch on <device>"

 

The reason for what you heard is because there is a command "switch TO... " that allows to select which ISY to control from your account, so  it just got confused.

 

Benoit.

[stusviews]

I named the Living Room thermostat, "Main Thermostat," because I used Living Room for the lights. My request was, "Alexa, tell Izzy to set the main thermostat to cool." Alexa heard, "tell izzy to set the name their respect to cool." Playing back my voice command clearly indicated that I spoke the correct words, not what Alexa heard.

 

Even though what Alexa heard was not correct, it's response was, "Set thermostat mode for which device?" Neither "Main Thermostat" nor "Main" worked.

[pjt588]

Got everyting setup with ISY portal.  Recognized 308 devices, but no commands working.  From Amazon log "ask izzy to turn on the breakfast cans" which is correct, but Alexa's response is "Turn on which device"? 

 

Also tried "switch on" versus "turn on" and for that Alexa only hears "tell izzy to switch on" but doesn't record the device name.  Of course Alexa asks "Turn on which device"?  From this thread it sounds like the skill isn't getting the device name, but Alexa clearly hears it.....

 

All my devices are in folders ie - 1st Floor Kitchen (folder), then Breakfast Cans (device).  Do my devices all need to be at the root or does this somehow work?  So close, yet so far away.

[bmercier]

All my devices are in folders ie - 1st Floor Kitchen (folder), then Breakfast Cans (device).  Do my devices all need to be at the root or does this somehow work?  So close, yet so far away.

 

No, they do not.

[imagamejunky]

Got everyting setup with ISY portal.  Recognized 308 devices, but no commands working.  From Amazon log "ask izzy to turn on the breakfast cans" which is correct, but Alexa's response is "Turn on which device"? 

 

Also tried "switch on" versus "turn on" and for that Alexa only hears "tell izzy to switch on" but doesn't record the device name.  Of course Alexa asks "Turn on which device"?  From this thread it sounds like the skill isn't getting the device name, but Alexa clearly hears it.....

 

All my devices are in folders ie - 1st Floor Kitchen (folder), then Breakfast Cans (device).  Do my devices all need to be at the root or does this somehow work?  So close, yet so far away.

I couldn't get anything working until I added names into the spoken name box in the admin console

 

Junky

[stusviews]

HOWEVER, I found a case where Alexa does not do in in lowercase: Christmas (capital C)

 

Alexa also uses a capital for Hanukkah (capital H).

[bmercier]

Alexa also uses a capital for Hanukkah (capital H).

 

Is it that you want a Hanukkah tree?

[stusviews]

That'd be nice, but a bush is preferred

[stusviews]

"Tell Izzy" or "Ask Izzy" can be shortened to just, "Izzy."

 

The KPL load button On-level works today, although it didn't yesterday. The only thing that changed is the date.

 

Still no success setting a thermostat even though I change the name from Main Thermostat to Main Weather. Alexa seems to recognize that it's a thermostat, the reply is always, "Set thermostat mode for which device?"