Interface with Amazon Echo?

[stusviews]

If some have trouble with alexa understanding you properly, you may want to use the voice training in the echo app. This is designed to help alexa understand you better.

 

I've been told by insiders at amazon that it's a good practice to follow the voice training once in a while.

 

See my post #274.

 

Using the Hub:

Me, "Alexa, turn on the living room light." The living room light turns on.

 

Using the ISY:

Me, "Alexa, tell izzy to turn on the living room light." Alexa, "I could not find device living room. Turn on which device." Me, "Living room light." Alexa, "Turn on which device? Turn on which device?"

[bmercier]

Thanks all for the feedback tonight. 

 

There is definitely a problem with some words being stripped under certain circumstances. I'm able to reproduce it.

 

Stay tuned.

 

Benoit.

[stusviews]

Not just certain words. I renamed the Living Room light to "light" or "main." I also changed the corresponding spoken name and refreshed devices each time. Nothing works-at all. The Echo does recognize "Izzy."

Edited December 11, 2015 by stusviews

[mwester]

Same problems noted above.

 

I observed that I'm not very original in my naming -- and theorized that perhaps Echo is getting confuzzled with all the similar names for devices and scenes.  So, I picked a test device and gave it a spoken name that can't conflict with any scenes, devices, or programs (I used "fungus" for the spoken name).  Still no luck - it correctly understood "fungus" but couldn't find it.

 

Some of the responses just made no sense contextually -- it was refreshing devices, and asking me if I wanted to wait, to which I would answer "Yes" -- and out of the blue it started offering help on devices (!??).  Then later on, as it was prompting for the device name, it claims to have heard the word "yes". Which doesn't sound anything at all like "fungus", which is why it seems strange.  It's as if it's a multithreaded app that's gotten threads confused somewhere...

[ahwman]

Has anyone gotten programs to run? I have tried everything I can think of using simple names like kitchen, test, etc. and each time it fails with "program ____ not found". This is frustrating and I'm sincerely hoping these bugs get worked out, otherwise I just see this being much more trouble than it's worth,

 

By the way, I have done multiple sessions of voice training and outside of the ISY skill, my speech is almost always recognized correctly. I sure hope for better results down the road...

[Michel Kohanim]

Hello everyone,

 

Thanks so very much for all the feedback. We have contacted Alexa team and debugging.

 

Stusviews, if nothing at all works for you, please send your topology to support@universal-devices.com.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[gregf]

Thanks all for the feedback tonight. 

 

There is definitely a problem with some words being stripped under certain circumstances. I'm able to reproduce it.

 

Stay tuned.

 

Benoit.

Benoit, Fantastic job on this in such a short period of time !

[gregf]

Has anyone gotten programs to run? I have tried everything I can think of using simple names like kitchen, test, etc. and each time it fails with "program ____ not found". This is frustrating and I'm sincerely hoping these bugs get worked out, otherwise I just see this being much more trouble than it's worth,

By the way, I have done multiple sessions of voice training and outside of the ISY skill, my speech is almost always recognized correctly. I sure hope for better results down the road...

I have not gotten a program to run either. Same result program not found.

[Barry R. Guzik]

Ok...quick question.   Should this Skill work with Scenes as well as devices?

 

Obviously, it is that time of the year...I have a Scene called "Christmas".

 

Izzy cannot seem to find device "Christmas" no matter what I do.   I've changed the scene name, I've changed the spoken name...all to no avail?

 

On the other hand, I've been able to get individual devices to work.   I only have 39 devices found, so not a whole lot.   But it is kind of important that Scenes would work too?

 

Thanks for any/all feedback and confirmation...

 

OK...experimented a bit...if I change "Christmas" to "Holiday" it appears to work.   Changed it back to "Christmas" and can't find the "device" again.

 

Would there be some reason why it wouldn't like the single word "Christmas"?   Don't want to be paranoid, but I certainly hope this isn't some kind of "politically correct" issue.

 

Alexa is definitely recognizing the word "Christmas" but Izzy cannot find the scene if either the Scene Name or Spoken command are called "Christmas".   Change it to "Holiday" and it works great...

Edited December 11, 2015 by bguzik

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi bguzik,

 

Yes, it should. We are working on a few anomalies and most point to the fact that Skills (unlike connected home) require predetermined utterances and, we have reached a limit on Amazon side. So, it seems that even though Alexa hears the correct utterance it has a hard time matching it with the skill's slot (these are all on Amazon side).

 

In the meantime, please do make sure you do:

Alexa tell izzy to refresh devices (after every change to your topology/spoken/names)

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[Barry R. Guzik]

Thanks Michel!   That makes perfect sense.   It is the predetermined list then....   I can work with that, by changing to "common" terms.   That makes sense why "Christmas" doesn't work and "Holiday" does work.    Also makes sense why some of my names like "kitchen counter" don't work.   

 

I can work with this on my side to get things going.

 

You were very helpful, and I REALLY appreciate it.   Love my ISY + Insteon!

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi bguzik,

 

Thanks SO very much for your kind words. It means a lot to us.

 

I am sure we'll find a solution and hopefully Amazon will help us along the way (they have been very good thus far).

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[ahwman]

Hi bguzik,Yes, it should. We are working on a few anomalies and most point to the fact that Skills (unlike connected home) require predetermined utterances and, we have reached a limit on Amazon side. So, it seems that even though Alexa hears the correct utterance it has a hard time matching it with the skill's slot (these are all on Amazon side).In the meantime, please do make sure you do:Alexa tell izzy to refresh devices (after every change to your topology/spoken/names)With kind regards,Michel

Based on my new understanding, this leaves me very concerned by the phrase "predetermined utterances" and the greater scope of its meaning. I have several custom programs which relate to my A/V equipment which use unique names such as "H2 Channel". Does this mean I'm basically out of luck since "H2" isn't a common utterance? The whole point of the skill from my standpoint was to have the ability to launch any device/scene/program from my ISY via the Echo. I'm crossing my fingers that this isn't the case...

 

Chuck

[ahwman]

Hi bguzik,Thanks SO very much for your kind words. It means a lot to us.I am sure we'll find a solution and hopefully Amazon will help us along the way (they have been very good thus far).With kind regards,Michel

Any idea when we might see the Connected Home integration or is that down the road?

 

Thanks for all you do,

Chuck

[Michel Kohanim]

Chuck,

 

At this juncture I am not sure what algorithm they use. This said, we are trying to reverse engineer and figure out the root cause. At the moment, our hypothesis is that we have so many utterances (about 170) that Amazon probably times out before calling us. We were going to add more but their tool hangs with anything above 170.

 

From my perspective, if Amazon has to depend on exact match, then it's pretty much useless. This said, I do not want to draw any conclusions till we have further proof.

 

Connected Home: just submitted our application. NAC has to get back to us with cost and time.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[ahwman]

Chuck,At this juncture I am not sure what algorithm they use. This said, we are trying to reverse engineer and figure out the root cause. At the moment, our hypothesis is that we have so many utterances (about 170) that Amazon probably times out before calling us. We were going to add more but their tool hangs with anything above 170.From my perspective, if Amazon has to depend on exact match, then it's pretty much useless. This said, I do not want to draw any conclusions till we have further proof.Connected Home: just submitted our application. NAC has to get back to us with cost and time.With kind regards,Michel

Thanks Michel for the info/update. I guess all we can do is hope for the best. At the end of the day, it may require me going a different route by using trigger commands via IFTTT/Maker Channel.

 

Chuck

[502ss]

First off, Thanks for getting this out there! I promptly went out and ordered the portal module. Also thank you for working through this, I can imagine its difficult sometimes to get all of this stuff working together!

 

I got everything setup and wanted to provide my feedback so it can help those working on debugging it!

 

As you already know it doesn't like the word "lights", maybe that's a protected word because it would be used with so many other skills?

 

I also found that it doesn't like three spoken words, it just seems to ignore the last word.

 

again, I think you guys know some of the issues but below are things I have tried and whether it worked or not, keep in mind. I was always working with one insteon device and always told alexa to refresh between changes to the spoken word

 

Spoken Word:          Worked(yes/no):      reason:

 

living lights                yes

living lights near        no                            dropped the word near from what was heard

living near                 no                            ignored the word near, only heard "living"

living fan big              no                           heard the correct phrase but returned with "could not find device called living fan"

living big                    no                           heard the correct phrase but returned with "could not find device called living"

living fan                    yes

living room near        no                            heard the correct phrase but returned with "could not find device called living room" 

living room                yes

living                         yes          

kitchen living             yes

kitchen room             no                            heard the correct phrase but returned with "could not find device called kitchen"

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi 502ss,

 

Thanks so very much for the invaluable feedback. We do know that Alexa has a very hard time with 3 words. This said, the main concern is with things such as "kitchen room".

 

We are working through these as we speak to figure out the algorithm used by Alexa and what's being sent to us.

 

Thank you all for your patience while we figure things out.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[Scottmichaelj]

Thanks Michel for the info/update. I guess all we can do is hope for the best. At the end of the day, it may require me going a different route by using trigger commands via IFTTT/Maker Channel.

 

Chuck

This is why it is so important that we get the SSL certs working on the ISY. As it stands now the IFTTT Maker channel requires SSL as it doesnt like sending the username and password in the url. When that is done you can use any commands you like with Alexa. This seems like the better choice honestly and skip Amazon all together.

[stusviews]

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.

[502ss]

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.

See my post above as I also had issues with the word light, seems to not like that word!

[jerlands]

Welcome to your Home. You can use the ISY skill to control your devices, locks, thermostats, or programs. How can I help you?

 

When I initially enabled the skill I wasn't receiving this introduction.  I've tried disabling the skill and adding it back but now am unable to escape it every time I address Issy (alexa, open issy, alexa, tell isy, alexa ask isy.)

 

Anyone else with this problem?  <-- OR NOT??

 

 

Jon...

Edited December 11, 2015 by jerlands

[imagamejunky]

Welcome to your Home. You can use the ISY skill to control your devices, locks, thermostats, or programs. How can I help you?

 

When I initially enabled the skill I wasn't receiving this introduction.  I've tried disabling the skill and adding it back but now am unable to escape it every time I address Issy (alexa, open issy, alexa, tell isy, alexa ask isy.)

 

Anyone else with this problem?  <-- OR NOT??

 

 

Jon...

Alexa said this to me this morning after I said alexa, open izzy.

She didn't repeat this any other time I spoke a command.

 

I only had a half hour to mess with this skill this morning before work however I can say that it didn't work AT ALL for me.  It found all 33 of my devices.  When I checked the app I saw that alexa was correctly hearing my commands.  Every time I gave a command she couldn't find my device.  I tried about 20 times.

Kitchen light, kitchen lights, kitchen lightswitch, bar lights, game room light, dining room lights, etc etc etc.  Alexa couldn't find anything.  Frustrating and disappointing.

If she can't understand the word light or lights then that is just F-ing ridiculous.

 

Junky

[randyth]

...Obviously, it is that time of the year...I have a Scene called "Christmas".

 

Izzy cannot seem to find device "Christmas" no matter what I do.   I've changed the scene name, I've changed the spoken name...all to no avail?

 

On the other hand, I've been able to get individual devices to work.   I only have 39 devices found, so not a whole lot.   But it is kind of important that Scenes would work too?

 

Thanks for any/all feedback and confirmation...

 

OK...experimented a bit...if I change "Christmas" to "Holiday" it appears to work.   Changed it back to "Christmas" and can't find the "device" again.

 

Would there be some reason why it wouldn't like the single word "Christmas"?   Don't want to be paranoid, but I certainly hope this isn't some kind of "politically correct" issue.

 

Alexa is definitely recognizing the word "Christmas" but Izzy cannot find the scene if either the Scene Name or Spoken command are called "Christmas".   Change it to "Holiday" and it works great...

 

Using a custom Echo app I wrote for myself, I can say that the Echo refuses to correctly match the word "Christmas" and pass it to my app.  So, this is clearly not a problem exclusive to the ISY app.  Like you, I finally resorted to using the word "Holiday."  I blame Amazon.

 

-Randy

[benbennett]

Suggestions for getting the Echo to work reliable . I am having no misses at this point. 

--UPDATE Note using the HA Bridge Method 

--UPDATE Guessing the connected home is doing some extra matching to make it more accurate.

 

*) Do not use the key word "near" , use "device name close" instead.

*) Use at least two words to identify the device. 

*) Use the the word "light" for ending 

*) Use  the ending " lights " for scene lights

*) Use the ending " door" for doors/ locks.

*) Use Television instead of TV

Example of the names I am using all have been working very well for me. 

 

Back House Lights

Backroom Light

Basement Light

Basement Lights

Bathroom Lights

Christmas Lights

Couch Light

Dining Light

Family Room Fan

Family Room Light

Family Room Lights

Fan Circulation

Front Door

Front Fans

Front House Lights

Front Porch Light

Front Television

Hall Bathroom Fan

Hall Light

Heating System

Kitchen Light

Kitchen Lights

Kitchen Sink Light

Living Room Fan

Living Room Lamp

Living Room Light

Living Room Lights

Master Bath Lights

Master Bedroom Lights

Master Ceiling Fan

Master Ceiling Light

Master Far Light

Master Close Light

Thermostat <-Key word I think in Alexa , no problem finding it. 

Edited December 12, 2015 by benbennett