Amazon Echo - Connected Home Feature!

[Teken]

Not sure if the portal is being serviced right this moment but these pop up error message are showing up. They have occurred on January 26, 2016 at 3:17 PM CST and moving forward.

 

 

[barrygordon]

Instead of turn off I often say shut as in Alexa, shut the kitchen lights.  That seems to always work, but for me turn off works as well

[jerlands]

Not sure if the portal is being serviced right this moment but these pop up error message are showing up. They have occurred on January 26, 2016 at 3:17 PM CST and moving forward.

 

Just logged in and no problem accessing device list.  You might try going back to DHCP with reserve and see if that makes a difference.

 

 

Jon...

[bmercier]

Not sure if the portal is being serviced right this moment but these pop up error message are showing up. They have occurred on January 26, 2016 at 3:17 PM CST and moving forward.

 

No it's not.

 

I quickly checked the logs, and I saw that you ISY disconnected from portal for about 6 minutes.

 

Benoit

 

[stusviews]

I found that using all lower case letters for the "spoken" helped--sometimes.

[Teken]

Instead of turn off I often say shut as in Alexa, shut the kitchen lights.  That seems to always work, but for me turn off works as well

 

Barry,

 

I will try this approach and see how the Echo reacts to this phrase.

 

Just logged in and no problem accessing device list.  You might try going back to DHCP with reserve and see if that makes a difference.

 

 

Jon...

 

The system has always been set to DHCP with a reserved IP from the router. I could toggle over to a static IP address to see if there is any differences seen but prefer to leave it the other way for obvious reasons.

 

 

No it's not.

 

I quickly checked the logs, and I saw that you ISY disconnected from portal for about 6 minutes.

 

Benoit

 

 

 

Hello Benoit,

 

Yes, not sure what the root cause is for such a thing to happen. But know with a high level of confidence its not my network or ISP.

 

As I have several network appliances that monitor all traffic and network health. Any guidance or areas to focus on is greatly appreciated and will dig deeper into other logs to see if I can narrow down any pattern.

 

 

I found that using all lower case letters for the "spoken" helped--sometimes.

 

You know I read that in another thread and don't recall off the top of my head what the answer was. Why does the system care if the spoken word is upper / lower case?

 

If this resolves some of the odd behavior for sure this is something that can easily be changed. I will move forward and change some of the problem scenes and see if the lower case makes a difference.

 

I will also use Barry's suggestion and use the shut command instead of off in case it doesn't understand tree hugger Canukian.

 

LOL . . .

[jerlands]

You know I read that in another thread and don't recall off the top of my head what the answer was. Why does the system care if the spoken word is upper / lower case?

 

No matter if the phrase was created using upper case... once added for me it has always recorded in lower case.

 

 

Jon...

[Teken]

No matter if the phrase was created using upper case... once added for me it has always recorded in lower case.

 

 

Jon...

 

Yes, in the App it shows its in lower case yet in the portal it shows in upper case? Still not sure what the distinction there would be to a voice activated device. As its not like you're entering a password but then again the Echo uses Linux. Unless I am mistaken and in such cases it does make a difference in basic command structure. 

[jerlands]

Yes, in the App it shows its in lower case yet in the portal it shows in upper case? Still not sure what the distinction there would be to a voice activated device. As its not like you're entering a password but then again the Echo uses Linux. Unless I am mistaken and in such cases it does make a difference in basic command structure. 

 

Where in the portal are you seeing upper case for the spoken phrase?  My device names remain as they are defined on ISY however all spoken word phrases are lower case and I assume are added that way intentionally by the program.

(Select Tools >Amazon Echo)

 

Jon...

[Teken]

Where in the portal are you seeing upper case for the spoken phrase?  My device names remain as they are defined on ISY however all spoken word phrases are lower case and I assume are added that way intentionally by the program.

(Select Tools >Amazon Echo)

 

Jon...

 

There must have been a problem on the server because this morning all of the spoken words all showed every phrase I entered exactly as I typed it.

 

For example the spoken word: Kitchen Table, now going back into the portal you're correct all of the words are lower case.

[barrygordon]

In the overall process case should not matter.  The voice does not reflect case, the ear or an audio pickup (microphone) does not know case. Speech recognition does not reflect case unless you perform some grammatical inference. In Linux as in many programming languages text comparisons are case sensitive. In some languages you can specify if text compares (the comparison of strings of text) are to be done case insensitive or case sensitive. The only variability in the overall process of "Speech" to Action" are the speech recognition phase, a possible timing problem or a programming error. If there is a case sensitivity then there has to be a programming error.  In fact you should be able to use homonyms (homophones) with no effect on the recognition process. For example "Alexa turn off the pier lights" and "Alexa turn off the peer lights" should achieve the exact same interpretation via speech recognition. 

 

After the speech is sent to the Amazon cloud, the recognition process will hopefully use the words entered into the portal for matching.  This better be case insensitive.  When a match occurs the associated text will be whatever you typed into the portal resulted in being stored. My experience has been that no matter what I typed in as the spoken word(s) the portal always stored them as lower case. It is possible the process when it records what it "heard" will apply a little logic and convert "kitchen lights" to "Kitchen lights".

 

In theory, theory and practice are very close; in practice, theory and practice may not be.

Edited January 26, 2016 by barrygordon

[BamBamF16]

 

The system has always been set to DHCP with a reserved IP from the router. I could toggle over to a static IP address to see if there is any differences seen but prefer to leave it the other way for obvious reasons.

 

What are the obvious reasons? I guess I don't understand.

 

Jeff

[BamBamF16]

 

The system has always been set to DHCP with a reserved IP from the router. I could toggle over to a static IP address to see if there is any differences seen but prefer to leave it the other way for obvious reasons.

 

What are the obvious reasons? I guess I don't understand.

 

Jeff

 

The system has always been set to DHCP with a reserved IP from the router. I could toggle over to a static IP address to see if there is any differences seen but prefer to leave it the other way for obvious reasons.

 

What are the obvious reasons? I guess I don't understand.

 

Jeff

[Teken]

 

The system has always been set to DHCP with a reserved IP from the router. I could toggle over to a static IP address to see if there is any differences seen but prefer to leave it the other way for obvious reasons.

 

What are the obvious reasons? I guess I don't understand.

 

Jeff

 

Hello Jeff,

 

As to why leaving the controller in DHCP mode is the preferred choice? From a IT perspective depending upon environment its best practices. As leaving a device in DHCP mode will allow that device to always obtain the latest network configurations should it change.

 

This allows any device that goes off line to release the IP address back to the pool. When you reserve the IP address via MAC reservation you have the benefit of a static IP that the router has assigned and the ability to push any network parameters that may change along the way.

 

Whether that be the ISP changed your public facing IP address to DNS redirects etc. In a ideal world if an appliance is assigned a static IP address its always known to the end user which is good. But you get the same effect by reserving the address via MAC reservation.

 

Everyday in the IT world there is something that can't or won't connect due to the famous: IP Conflict

 

Meaning nothing stops a person from assigning a static IP address to an appliance besides for knowledge. When that person isn't on the ball this causes other devices to literally drop off the network. 

[Scottmichaelj]

I dont think the answer relies in if its set for DHCP or Static I think there is something that is causing the Portal not to see the ISY until the IP on the ISY changes. My ISY was static not issues connecting ever and I couldnt get the portal to connect until I switched the ISY to DHCP - once connected I switched back to the original static IP and still works. So the question is why?

 

I suggest anyone having issues connecting the portal to the ISY - if your using DHCP switch to static IP to see if the portal connects to the ISY - if so switch back to DHCP with reservation or whatever.

[stusviews]

I've been successfully using static IPs for my ISYs for quite some time. I attempt to be cognizant of which devices have which addresses. If I'm unsure, then I verify the address, I never guess.

[Scottmichaelj]

I've been successfully using static IPs for my ISYs for quite some time. I attempt to be cognizant of which devices have which addresses. If I'm unsure, then I verify the address, I never guess.

Stus I think your missing my point? I been using the same static IP for years with no issues, mobilinc etc. like you I didnt have any issues until trying to use the portal. Changing the ISY as someone else suggested to DHCP all of a sudden the portal connected and I didnt do anything else. Switched the IP back to static and the ISY portal still works. Seems this is a issue for more people than just me.

[KeithL]

Okay people I have read all 57 pages of the first post and all 16 pages of this post (as of 01/27/2016 6:55am).  What has been done is AMAZING. Now I am not a programmer, but have been in and around computers (both hardware and software) all my adult life, thirty some odd years.  The instructions from point A to point B are mostly in the 73 pages of these 2 posts. This is my attempt to put this in very layman’s terms. 

 

First assuming a person already has an ISY setup a running with either devices, scenes or programs or all of them. And an Amazon account, oh yeah and a Amazon Echo.  Also to be able to log into your Administrative Console of your ISY. Make sure the computer you are using to do all this has the last version of Java and your ISY Firmware is up to date.  I tried some of this from my iphone and had trouble.  I would suggest do all this from a computer.

 

Open your Administrative Console click on Help and then Purchase Modules.  This will take you to a UDI page to purchase modules.  You have to purchase the ISY Portal. After the purchase go back to your Administrative Console it may ask you do you want to install new module, you do.  If it don’t ask, go back to Help then click Manage Modules, it should ask you then to install, install it. After it installs click back on Help, then About write down your UUID number you will need this later, it will look like 00:01:02:03:04:05 probably with some letters mixed in there somewhere. Close Administrative Console.

 

Now go to https//my.isy.io/index.htm create account and log in. Click ADD ISY and add your ISY information.  You should see a yellow dot appear, it is waiting on authorization, log out.  Log back into your Administrative Console, click Configuration, click Portals. You should see a request, authorize it. Close Administrative Console. Log back into my.iso.io. Your yellow dot should be green now. In the upper right corner click My Profile.  You need to input the information to link your Amazon account.  Click save and then logout

 

Go to alexa.amazon.com, create an account if you haven’t, and log in. Click on settings, then Connected Home. If you don’t see ISY under Device Links, click here. You may have to log out then back in, but it should appear. Now on the left, click Skills, up at the top search for ISY, it should come up, click Enable. It should take you to your my.isy.io log in page and then log in.  Close that page and back in your alexa.amazon.com page click settings, then Connected Home, under Device Links you should see ISY and it should be connected. On the right it should say Unlink from ISY. Log out.

 

Now go back to my.isy.io/index.htm, log in. Click Select tools, then Amazon Echo. If you get a ISY skill error. Continue here, if you don’t go to next paragraph. Close all your logins.  Log back into alexa.amazon.com, then Skills, search for ISY and disable and log out. Wait about 60 seconds and log back and Enable the ISY Skill again.  You might have to repeat this if you keep getting the Skill error message. Log back into my.isy.io

 

If you don’t get the error, be thankful.  You are ready to start adding your items, click device or scene or program whichever you are adding. Click the drop down menu, choose your item, enter the Spoken name, ie: kitchen lights. You can do several or one then test.

 

Tell your echo to find new devices, “ Alexa find new devices” or whichever name you use.  She should report back how many devices she found.  You are ready to Rock-N-Roll.

 

Somebody please tweak this.  I may have forgot something or got something out of order. This would have saved me about 8 hours of my life.  Maybe it will help someone else. 

 

I have only had one problem with one scene, my foyer.  I’ll say, “Alexa turn on foyer”, she says okay but don’t come on.  I’ll say it again and they come on.  Not all the time, she is really finicky on how I say foyer I guess.

 

Barry you are correct it is slower than how we started out.  But understanding the hops it has to make after the command is given it is truly remarkable. So I can live with an extra second or two.

 

Again Super Huge Kudos to all that had a hand in this. This is my first post and if this should not be posted here my apologies.

 

Best Regards,

Keith

[Xathros]

Very nice job Keith.  Welcome to the UDI forums.

 

Maybe Michel could add a link to this post into post #1 of this thread to make this easier to find.

 

-Xathros

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi Keith,

 

Fantastic, thanks so very much!

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[jerlands]

Okay people I have read all 57 pages of the first post and all 16 pages of this post (as of 01/27/2016 6:55am).  What has been done is AMAZING. Now I am not a programmer, but have been in and around computers (both hardware and software) all my adult life, thirty some odd years.  The instructions from point A to point B are mostly in the 73 pages of these 2 posts. This is my attempt to put this in very layman’s terms. 

 

Hey Keith,

 

You might post this into a new thread so it's easier to find.  I also recall receiving email confirmation when I purchased the portal.

 

 

Jon...

[KeithL]

Thanks, Xathros.

 

Thanks, Michel.

 

Jon, I'm good with someone else copying and pasting and changing for that matter if they think it's accurate enough.   

 

Thanks,

Keith

[KeithL]

Jon, I'm not being lazy just not sure how. 

 

-Keith

[stusviews]

Jon, I'm not being lazy just not sure how. 

 

-Keith

 

Use cut and paste into a new topic.

[Scottmichaelj]

Hi Keith,

 

Fantastic, thanks so very much!

 

With kind regards,

Michel

Michel can you do what was asked by Xathros and pin this and make it read only and editable by Keith or certain others so this info can be found quickly?!