Interface with Amazon Echo?

[Mgbringo]

I just want to submit my thanks and admiration for the way you two UDI people, Benoit and Michel, provide support and encouragement to all of us.

 

I retired a couple years ago after 42 years in IT. Many, many years of cutting code and testing.

 

You two have more patience than I ever did during my career and I commend you for it.

 

It is very difficult and frustrating testing a new app like this. You have communicated with users who know how to test and provide good feedback and then some others who have no patience for testing an app and just need to sit back and wait for the final product. You treated them all with respect. I am very impressed.

 

If I was still working managing a team of developers, I would be lobbying for you two to join my team.

 

Congratulations on being professional developers who will do very well in the future.

 

Please pass this on to your Managers.

 

Ron

[ahwman]

I just want to submit my thanks and admiration for the way you two UDI people, Benoit and Michel, provide support and encouragement to all of us.

I retired a couple years ago after 42 years in IT. Many, many years of cutting code and testing.

You two have more patience than I ever did during my career and I commend you for it.

It is very difficult and frustrating testing a new app like this. You have communicated with users who know how to test and provide good feedback and then some others who have no patience for testing an app and just need to sit back and wait for the final product. You treated them all with respect. I am very impressed.

If I was still working managing a team of developers, I would be lobbying for you two to join my team.

Congratulations on being professional developers who will do very well in the future.

Please pass this on to your Managers.

Ron

Well said Ron! I echo your sentiments...

 

Chuck

[barrygordon]

First, I make no money when someone buys an RPi. 

 

An RPi (model 2 with an enclosure Power supply and a wifi USB adapter costs about $40-$50. Just search for a RaspberryPi in yahoo or Google.

 

To start multiple instances of HA Bridge on a single RPi just start them with different port numbers, Database locations, and log file locations. This is from my rc.local file:

 

Note my ISY is at 192.168.1.229, the RPi is at 192.168.1.81

 

# Start first instance of HA Bridge

nohup java -jar -Dvera.address=192.168.1.229 -Dupnp.config.address=192.168.1.81 -Dserver.port=8081 -Dupnp.response.port=50001 -Dupnp.device.db=/home/pi/echobridge/data/device81.db  /home/pi/echobridge/current.jar > /home/pi/echobridge/logs/log81.txt 2>&1 &

 

# Start second instance of HA Bridge

nohup java -jar -Dvera.address=192.168.1.229 -Dupnp.config.address=192.168.1.81 -Dserver.port=8082 -Dupnp.response.port=50002 -Dupnp.device.db=/home/pi/echobridge/data/device82.db  /home/pi/echobridge/current.jar > /home/pi/echobridge/logs/log82.txt 2>&1 &

 

# Start third instance of HA Bridge

nohup java -jar -Dvera.address=192.168.1.229 -Dupnp.config.address=192.168.1.81 -Dserver.port=8083 -Dupnp.response.port=50003 -Dupnp.device.db=/home/pi/echobridge/data/device83.db  /home/pi/echobridge/current.jar > /home/pi/echobridge/logs/log83.txt 2>&1 &

 

# Start fourth instance of HA Bridge

nohup java -jar -Dvera.address=192.168.1.229 -Dupnp.config.address=192.168.1.81 -Dserver.port=8084 -Dupnp.response.port=50004 -Dupnp.device.db=/home/pi/echobridge/data/device84.db /home/pi/echobridge/current.jar > /home/pi/echobridge/logs/log84.txt 2>&1 &

 

Study the above just don't do it blindly and you will quickly see the differences

 

There are several variants of the rc.local file posted in the long 50 page thread but they end up all eventually doing the same thing. 

 

No searching for software is needed. All the software you need comes with the SD card that comes with your RPi if buy it with a NOOB SD card included.

If you want to install tightVNC There are instructions on the web to do so. 

Edited December 20, 2015 by barrygordon

[ahwman]

First, I make no money when someone buys an RPi.

 

An RPi (model 2 with an enclosure Power supply and a wifi USB adapter costs about $40-$50. Just search for a RaspberryPi in yahoo or Google.

 

To start multiple instances of HA Bridge on a single RPi just start them with different port numbers, Database locations, and log file locations. This is from my rc.local file:

 

Note my ISY is at 192.168.1.229, the RPi is at 192.168.1.81

 

# Start first instance of HA Bridge

nohup java -jar -Dvera.address=192.168.1.229 -Dupnp.config.address=192.168.1.81 -Dserver.port=8081 -Dupnp.response.port=50001 -Dupnp.device.db=/home/pi/echobridge/data/device81.db /home/pi/echobridge/current.jar > /home/pi/echobridge/logs/log81.txt 2>&1 &

 

# Start second instance of HA Bridge

nohup java -jar -Dvera.address=192.168.1.229 -Dupnp.config.address=192.168.1.81 -Dserver.port=8082 -Dupnp.response.port=50002 -Dupnp.device.db=/home/pi/echobridge/data/device82.db /home/pi/echobridge/current.jar > /home/pi/echobridge/logs/log82.txt 2>&1 &

 

# Start third instance of HA Bridge

nohup java -jar -Dvera.address=192.168.1.229 -Dupnp.config.address=192.168.1.81 -Dserver.port=8083 -Dupnp.response.port=50003 -Dupnp.device.db=/home/pi/echobridge/data/device83.db /home/pi/echobridge/current.jar > /home/pi/echobridge/logs/log83.txt 2>&1 &

 

# Start fourth instance of HA Bridge

nohup java -jar -Dvera.address=192.168.1.229 -Dupnp.config.address=192.168.1.81 -Dserver.port=8084 -Dupnp.response.port=50004 -Dupnp.device.db=/home/pi/echobridge/data/device84.db /home/pi/echobridge/current.jar > /home/pi/echobridge/logs/log84.txt 2>&1 &

 

Study the above just don't do it blindly and you will quickly see the differences

 

There are several variants of the rc.local file posted in the long 50 page thread but they end up all eventually doing the same thing.

 

No searching for software is needed. All the software you need comes with the SD card that comes with your RPi if buy it with a NOOB SD card included.

If you want to install tightVNC There are instructions on the web to do so.

 

Thanks for the info. I was able to find this package on Amazon which seems to include everything I would need, any thoughts?

 

http://www.amazon.com/CanaKit-Raspberry-Complete-Starter-WiFi/dp/B008XVAVAW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1450592602&sr=8-1&keywords=CanaKit+Raspberry+Pi+2+Complete+Starter+Kit+with+WiFi

 

Also, is a monitor required for set up or can it be done via remote?

 

Thanks again,

Chuck

Edited December 20, 2015 by ahwman

[Big517]

Chuck, that link above is exactly what I purchased. You need a monitor for initial setup, however afterwards it runs headless and you can use Putty to update your rc file, and WinSCP to update files, both softwares run from your windows pc.

 

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[Jimbo.Automates]

Or for a simple way on a RPi use ISYHelper http://forum.universal-devices.com/index.php?/topic/16787-ISYHelper:-Interface-older-foscam's,-Maker-IFTTT,-Amazon-Echo,-and-more#entry157558

 

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

[mwester]

I'm in your exact situation with a Windows 7 virtual machine running 24/7 and have spent several hours trying to get it working. I really don't want to invest in new hardware and another learning curve on a new platform if I can help it. Perhaps we can work together to figure this out?

 

Chuck

 

What type of host is the VM running on?  Might it be possible to just run the Hue Emulator on the host instead?

 

If you do need to run the emulator on the Windows VM, that should work as well - pretty easily.  Far more challenging may be getting the necessary ports opened on the Windows firewall and ensuring that you have the correct type of networking set up for the VM so that it can fully participate on your home's network, which varies by the type of VM software you're using -- but most refer to it as "bridging".

[ahwman]

What type of host is the VM running on?  Might it be possible to just run the Hue Emulator on the host instead?

 

If you do need to run the emulator on the Windows VM, that should work as well - pretty easily.  Far more challenging may be getting the necessary ports opened on the Windows firewall and ensuring that you have the correct type of networking set up for the VM so that it can fully participate on your home's network, which varies by the type of VM software you're using -- but most refer to it as "bridging".

I'm attempting to run it on a Windows VM via Parallels on an iMac. That said, Windows firewall is totally disabled since I run a hardware NAT/firewall. Also made sure my network is shared via bridges mode and I can ping the VM from the host machine. The emulator seems to be running now without errors, however I get an error 404 when running the mapper utility...

 

Chuck

[ahwman]

Chuck, that link above is exactly what I purchased. You need a monitor for initial setup, however afterwards it runs headless and you can use Putty to update your rc file, and WinSCP to update files, both softwares run from your windows pc.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

Thanks so much. I'm tired of messing around with getting this to work on my PC and may end up going this route...

[barrygordon]

I really prefer tightvnc to putty as a like the graphic interface of the Raspbian system.  I have the server edition of Regular VNC running on my main development PC and the client version on all other PC's. VNC server will talk to VNC Client and to tinyVNC on the Pi. All my Pi's run headless with just a power connection and an Ethernet connection.

 

To do the initial setup of the RPi you do need a monitor and IIRC a keyboard. Once I get TinyVNC up and running (just a few steps which are well documented on the web) I disconnect the Monitor and keyboard. 

[Scott847]

Chuck, that link above is exactly what I purchased. You need a monitor for initial setup, however afterwards it runs headless and you can use Putty to update your rc file, and WinSCP to update files, both softwares run from your windows pc.

 

There's a way to avoid the need for a monitor and keyboard completely. You're probably familiar with following key steps but for benefit of first-time RPi users:

1. Instead of using NOOBS to install Raspbian Linux, download the Raspbian image directly at https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/raspbian/
2. Write image to a micro SD card using Win32DiskImager and insert into your RPi
3. Connect RPi to your LAN using an Ethernet cable and plug in power - it will grab an IP address from your router with name "raspberry pi"
4. Connect to the RPi using PuTTY (SSH terminal emulator software) with host name "raspberry pi" (or you can log into your router to look up the IP address it assigned)
5. Log in with user "pi" password "raspberry"
6. Run "sudo raspi-config" to expand file system and other config tasks such as changing password, host name, locale, timezone, etc.
7. Run "sudo apt-get update" and "sudo apt-get upgrade" to update to latest software

There are some reliability issues with WiFi but if you want to move it from Ethernet attached to WiFi:

1. sudo nano /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

Add to bottom of wpa_supplicant.conf for each WiFi network, in order of priority with highest number being the first selected:

network={
    priority=90
    ssid="Your_SSID"
    psk="Your_wifi_password"
}

To power off RPi:

• sudo shutdown -h now

Or to reboot:

• sudo shutdown -r now

[Scottmichaelj]

Thanks so much. I'm tired of messing around with getting this to work on my PC and may end up going this route...

I tried to help @ahwman last night. The one thing I think could be the issue is he is using a Apple Time Capsule router. This router from what I can tell doesnt really support upnp. Could that be his issue? Is anyone using a TC with this setup? Even if he gets a Pi I suspect he may see the same issue as its a networking issue not hardware. Thoughts?

[barrygordon]

Try posting the issue of the apple time capsule router and allowing uPnP on an apple forum

 

 

Here is one link I found

 

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3041061?start=0

Edited December 20, 2015 by barrygordon

[Scottmichaelj]

Try posting the issue of the apple time capsule router and allowing uPnP on an apple forum

 

 

Here is one link I found

 

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3041061?start=0

Thanks Barry. Strange bc I would think "port mapping" would be for outside connections coming in.

 

Edit: "Stupid Apple Products"!

Edited December 20, 2015 by huddadudda

[barrygordon]

I am with you.  Port mapping is for outside devices coming in AFAIK.  There are options for a uPnP device to set up a port map on the router so external things (Web-based) can get to it. I disable that on my router, and if I want a port map I build it myself on the router.  I DO NOT want any program playing around and letting in things from the web I did not explicitly allow.

[barrygordon]

I just get this back from BWS systems.  the whole short conversion is here.

echo <-> HA Brdige communications

 

Brad,

Quite a few people are having a problem with the echo trying to discover devices on the HA Bridge. In my case (with two Echo's in the house, 4 instances of the HA Bridge operating on a RPi), it generally takes about 4 repetitions of start discovery in the Alexa app before all are discovered. I know that at one time you were working on this. The best it seems to do is discover one or two of the bridges I have running in a discovery pass.  I have never been able to get the discovery process to work with a single bridge with all of my 93 devices on it.

It is more a PIA than a real issue, but it would be nice if the device discovery process was more reliable. I am not even sure if it is a bridge problem.  My suspicion is a sensitivity to the specific network configuration and the devices that respond to uPnP searches, but it may also be an Echo code problem. Is there anything I can do to help if you choose to chase this down.

Barry

 

Barry,

 

It's the new software on the echo. People need to forget devices, turn off the echo (unplug), turn on the echo (plug in) and then rediscover and it may take a few tries.

 

Brad

 

****************************************************  end of conversation *********************************************************************

 

I have not done this as my Echo<->ISY communications are working fine.  

 

All that I have noticed and confirm is that if I stop requesting Alexa to do something with a particular device, that device eventually gets marked as off-line in the Alexa app. When I finally get around to telling Alexa to do something with that device, it happens and the device is marked on-line again in the Alexa app. 

[apnar]

I'm attempting to run it on a Windows VM via Parallels on an iMac. That said, Windows firewall is totally disabled since I run a hardware NAT/firewall. Also made sure my network is shared via bridges mode and I can ping the VM from the host machine. The emulator seems to be running now without errors, however I get an error 404 when running the mapper utility...

 

Chuck

You should be able to run the emulator directly on your iMac, no need to run it inside Windows VM.

[barrygordon]

The only thing the emulator needs to run is Java.it was written in Java to allow it to run on most OS's

I know it runs over Java 8, and I think it might also run over Java 7

[Scottmichaelj]

The only thing the emulator needs to run is Java.it was written in Java to allow it to run on most OS's

I know it runs over Java 8, and I think it might also run over Java 7

Yeah I was thinking have him run the emulator on his mac directly then use your web config to setup his devices.

[ahwman]

You should be able to run the emulator directly on your iMac, no need to run it inside Windows VM.[/quote

 

How would I launch it on my Mac? I assume I would need to run the config utility on Windows as I didn't see a Mac version?

 

Thanks,

Chuck

[Scottmichaelj]

You should be able to run the emulator directly on your iMac, no need to run it inside Windows VM.[/quote

 

How would I launch it on my Mac? I assume I would need to run the config utility on Windows as I didn't see a Mac version?

 

Thanks,

Chuck

 

Chuck just run the jar file via java on the mac and then use Barrys web config from safari

[barrygordon]

Sorry, My configuration system is not web based and only runs on a Windows system. I had not intended it to be around long as I knew UDI was working on an Echo solution for the ISY. I just wanted to make life easier for those using the Hue Emulator.

 

If I am in a hurry and do not plan to make a long lasting product, I generally code in Visual Basic, in fact in VB6.  I have a large library of VB6 code at my disposal, and it has excellent debugging facilities in the IDE.  If I felt it needed to withstand the ravages of time I would have coded it in Javascript (Node.js) but it is what it is.

 

You could run the configuration system in a VM running windows on the MAC.  In that case I would specify the IP addresses for the Emulator and the ISY  as I am not sure how well the uPnP searches would be through the VM down to the native OS. All the configurator needs is the ability to do TCP/IP. If you provide the necessary IP:port information in its ini file it will not even bother with uPnP.

Edited December 20, 2015 by barrygordon

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi Ron and Chuck,

 

Thanks so very much for your votes of confidence. It means a LOT and pretty much what we strive for. We'll get this figured out soon especially since Amazon has been excellent.

 

Thanks again and with kind regards,

Michel

[ahwman]

I was finally able to get the emulator running on my Windows VM thanks to my new friend huddadudda. What a kind man. He generously invested several hours/emails to help me out. Good karma for him ...

 

This is such a great community! Thanks to everyone for all of your help...

Chuck

[curmudgeon]

I'm obviously behind most of you in getting Echo to work with ISY.  Got portal setup (I think), but no matter what I ask Alexa to do, ie; "refresh devices",  I get a message back from Alexa, "ISY access is pending approval in admin console."

Am I doing something wrong?  How do I get admin console approval?

Thanks for any help and direction