Amazon Echo - Connected Home Feature!

[Teken]

Argh The HUE emulator seemed less work than this "easier" way. I deleted everything and still only Insteon, Wink and SmartThings are shown in the connected home amazon app.

 

You have anything under the "Requested Services" on the ISY Admin Portal page?

 

I'm going to write out a huge step by step of what needs to be done to first get the Amazon Echo for those in Canada working. Next the steps to have a smoother experience connecting the Echo to the ISY Controller.

 

At the moment I am documenting all the bugs and issues that are seen in doing the current set up. Its strange there must be a time lag from when certain steps or processes are complete.

 

Its no great surprise this is seen in a cloud hosted service vs a local emulator that Barry G has created. Regardless, the fact it all works at all once the system has been set up is a testament of the Internet.

 

To your question about the *Requested Service* up above I indicated the system would not respect the validation button press. It would just pop up a message like *Bad Response* or something like that.

 

I should have captured it but was so frustrated at that point I decided to walk away fro a few moments. It goes with out saying that is one of many important steps that must be done in sequence because the portal seems to allow a person to do things out of step regardless of if the system is operational?

 

I am sure lots of this will be ironed out as the service becomes more developed. Thus far this is another excellent stepping stone for the entire team who have worked so hard to make it public ready.

[Scottmichaelj]

ISY also shows up in the 'Connected Home' page of the Amazon app - but only if you clicked the activation link Michel posted in the instructions while previously being logged into your Amazon account.

 

If its not showing, you haven't clicked the correct link yet to activate it (and Amazon haven't taken the 'beta' lock off yet)

So this morning I woke up and read your comment. I went back to the "beta" link and clicked it. I got the result that "Amazon Echo is now connected to your ISY" and then went back into the app and wa-la it showed the ISY in the connected home section. FINALLY! Not sure since it was there before via the beta why it disappeared and I had to click the weblink again. Whatever, time to play. Thanks everyone for the help and suggestions.

[Teken]

So this morning I woke up and read your comment. I went back to the "beta" link and clicked it. I got the result that "Amazon Echo is now connected to your ISY" and then went back into the app and wa-la it showed the ISY in the connected home section. FINALLY! Not sure since it was there before via the beta why it disappeared and I had to click the weblink again. Whatever, time to play. Thanks everyone for the help and suggestions.

 

Yup, like I said that link Michel references must be used and not from any other source. Because the system will show you in a general nature most of the elements are present when in fact they are not. 

 

Also note if you some where started to add in devices, scenes, in the UDI portal and it discovered them in the Connected Home you best delete them because at some point the Echo will either gray them out or say over and over its not found.

 

Don't ask me how I know . . .

[Scottmichaelj]

Yup, like I said that link Michel references must be used and not from any other source. Because the system will show you in a general nature most of the elements are present when in fact they are not. 

 

Also note if you some where started to add in devices, scenes, in the UDI portal and it discovered them in the Connected Home you best delete them because at some point the Echo will either gray them out or say over and over its not found.

 

Don't ask me how I know . . .

I made sure all the devices were deleted. I still get the error the skill is not enabled in the portal though when choosing Amazon Echo in the drop down. Is that normal? I did add my office lights for a quick test, it worked and I am able to have to set to specific brightness levels which is really nice, which was not available on the emulator.

[barrygordon]

Teken et al,

 

Just a point of clarification as I am a stickler about attribution and giving credit where credit is due.  

 

The HA Bridge (Hue Emulator) was developed by Brad at BWS Systems based on earlier work by another developer. It was written specifically for the Casa Verde Home Automation hub.

 

My Contribution was in assisting Brad in expanding the HA Bridge to handle the ISY and then writing the user interface program that allowed a simple graphic interface to the HA Bridge for ISY users.

 

At the current time I am not using the HA Bridge just the ISY connected home skill adapter.  I do not use the skill (IZZY) as I have no devices that needs its control capability.

 

I believe the current rash of ISY connected home issues as documented in the prior 15 or so posts has to do with the transition from beta to full availability and is only transient. I have not had any issues but have not been to the ISY portal lately as my system just keeps on ticking. I even did an upgrade to ISY 5.0.2 with no issues. I agree that an ISY soft (warm) boot and an ISY hard (cold) boot are quite different. After a firmware upgrade I must do a hard boot before the ISY starts to behave correctly.

[Teken]

I made sure all the devices were deleted. I still get the error the skill is not enabled in the portal though when choosing Amazon Echo in the drop down. Is that normal? I did add my office lights for a quick test, it worked and I am able to have to set to specific brightness levels which is really nice, which was not available on the emulator.

 

No offence but I am so glad you're seeing the exact same things I saw and endured last night! This is what I did several times once I got the ISY to show up on the Connected Home via the smart App. You need to enable / disable the skill a few times and you will know its properly finalized when the App brings you to a new page to plugin your Amazon account information.

 

Again, no one calls this out or even has any image captures of what to expect. Super frustrating to those literally in the dark but like I said with persistence I hung on until the whole thing finalized.

 

Now, the next step is to have others explain why the following bugs appear or have been allowed to happen: 

[Teken]

Teken et al,

 

Just a point of clarification as I am a stickler about attribution and giving credit where credit is due.  

 

The HA Bridge (Hue Emulator) was developed by Brad at BWS Systems based on earlier work by another developer. It was written specifically for the Casa Verde Home Automation hub.

 

My Contribution was in assisting Brad in expanding the HA Bridge to handle the ISY and then writing the user interface program that allowed a simple graphic interface to the HA Bridge for ISY users.

 

At the current time I am not using the HA Bridge just the ISY connected home skill adapter.  I do not use the skill (IZZY) as I have no devices that needs its control capability.

 

I believe the current rash of ISY connected home issues as documented in the prior 15 or so posts has to do with the transition from beta to full availability and is only transient. I have not had any issues but have not been to the ISY portal lately as my system just keeps on ticking. I even did an upgrade to ISY 5.0.2 with no issues. I agree that an ISY soft (warm) boot and an ISY hard (cold) boot are quite different. After a firmware upgrade I must do a hard boot before the ISY starts to behave correctly.

 

Barry,

 

As always your insight, contributions, and endless support is greatly appreciated! So glad I am not the only one seeing there is a difference in a soft / hard boot.

 

Not take this thread too left field but the above booting was never an issue in 4.1.X releases but seems to be ever present in later firmware. The reason I call this out is because with service such as the UDI Portal the system doesn't seem to allow all network elements to operate fully.

 

I will document this in another thread as its taking away from the main intention of this one.

[Scottmichaelj]

No offence but I am so glad you're seeing the exact same things I saw and endured last night! This is what I did several times once I got the ISY to show up on the Connected Home via the smart App. You need to enable / disable the skill a few times and you will know its properly finalized when the App brings you to a new page to plugin your Amazon account information.

 

Again, no one calls this out or even has any image captures of what to expect. Super frustrating to those literally in the dark but like I said with persistence I hung on until the whole thing finalized.

 

Now, the next step is to have others explain why the following bugs appear or have been allowed to happen:

So are you still thinking I am not 100% setup since I am getting the ISY skill error? I added 5 devices to test and amazon connected home shows them in the app and they do work. It also shows in my profile the isy UDID and my account being linked to amazon.

 

Should I unlink my account again from the profile and then link it back to see if that works or should I leave things alone? Are you saying I should do a full outlet off and then back on reboot too?

[Teken]

So are you still thinking I am not 100% setup since I am getting the ISY skill error? I added 5 devices to test and amazon connected home shows them in the app and they do work. It also shows in my profile the isy UDID and my account being linked to amazon.

 

Should I unlink my account again from the profile and then link it back to see if that works or should I leave things alone? Are you saying I should do a full outlet off and then back on reboot too?

 

Specifically, in the Skill tab disable the ISY skill. Log out of the Amazon App all together then wait about ten seconds. Log back into the Amazon App. Go back to the Skill tab and enable the ISY skill. If the system is operating correctly it will move you to another web page where it will ask you for your Amazon account information.

 

When I first did this literally 10 freaking times I was never asked to provide creds to my Amazon account. The system just showed it was connected but I already knew that was B.S.

 

It goes with out saying there are lots of moving parts in this whole set up. The Amazon App is a little buggy too as it will sometimes log you out or flash its screen and show you random things?

 

So if that portion doesn't work no matter what you're trying to do in the other related sections like the connected home or skill. You are just going to relive ground hog day over and over again until you pull the last thread of hair in your head.

 

I wasn't going to let a stupid App stop me so went and smoked a big phatty LOL 

[Teken]

So here is a perfect example of the system doing things it's not supposed to.

Can anyone guess what is wrong with this set up?




In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

[Michel Kohanim]

Teken,

 

I am not sure I understand the issue. What is the issue?

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[Teken]

Teken,

 

I am not sure I understand the issue. What is the issue?

 

With kind regards,

Michel

 

Hello Michel,

 

In the image capture you will note there is a Microwave and Office load defined. When I initially set it up the appropriate scenes that control the loads were selected. When I used the Echo to activate the scenes the Microwave scene did not operate and I was greeted by the Echo that the device was not found or similar.

 

Later when I instructed Echo to turn on the office lights the microwave came on? When I looked in the Amazon App it was apparent the scenes were assigned to something else. The system also added in extra words as you can see the duplicate MicrowaveMicrowave in the App.

 

Going into the UDI Portal showed the portal appended the scenes to the wrong loads and also added the above extra phrase of Microwave.

 

The fix was quite simple as deleting the device from the App and also correcting the UDI Portal entry a second time.

[Scottmichaelj]

Specifically, in the Skill tab disable the ISY skill. Log out of the Amazon App all together then wait about ten seconds. Log back into the Amazon App. Go back to the Skill tab and enable the ISY skill. If the system is operating correctly it will move you to another web page where it will ask you for your Amazon account information.

 

When I first did this literally 10 freaking times I was never asked to provide creds to my Amazon account. The system just showed it was connected but I already knew that was B.S.

 

It goes with out saying there are lots of moving parts in this whole set up. The Amazon App is a little buggy too as it will sometimes log you out or flash its screen and show you random things?

 

So if that portion doesn't work no matter what you're trying to do in the other related sections like the connected home or skill. You are just going to relive ground hog day over and over again until you pull the last thread of hair in your head.

 

I wasn't going to let a stupid App stop me so went and smoked a big phatty LOL

Teken- your right. The skill was disabled in my app so I enabled it. I logged out of the app, waited 30 secs, logged back into the app, checked the skill was enabled, went to the portal, clicked on amazon echo, no error complaining about the skill, I went back into the app, disabled the skill, logged out of the portal, logged back into the portal, went to the amazon echo drop down, no more complaining about the skill even though its disabled on the amazon app. Asked Alexa to discover devices, she found them and responded found "X" "Connected home devices, and they show under the connected home section and work fine.

 

Very finicky. Question now is whats the desired result here, "should there be an error or not when the skill is disabled if your using the connected home?"

[bmercier]

Hello Michel,

 

In the image capture you will note there is a Microwave and Office load defined. When I initially set it up the appropriate scenes that control the loads were selected. When I used the Echo to activate the scenes the Microwave scene did not operate and I was greeted by the Echo that the device was not found or similar.

 

Later when I instructed Echo to turn on the office lights the microwave came on? When I looked in the Amazon App it was apparent the scenes were assigned to something else. The system also added in extra words as you can see the duplicate MicrowaveMicrowave in the App.

 

Going into the UDI Portal showed the portal appended the scenes to the wrong loads and also added the above extra phrase of Microwave.

 

The fix was quite simple as deleting the device from the App and also correcting the UDI Portal entry a second time.

 

Hello Teken,

 

Thanks for reporting the problem, this is very weird. I will investigate that.

 

Especially the "MicrowaveMicrowave / 2330423304". If you recall the sequence of events to get this, please let me know.

 

Thanks,

 

Benoit.

[Teken]

Hello Teken,

 

Thanks for reporting the problem, this is very weird. I will investigate that.

 

Especially the "MicrowaveMicrowave / 2330423304". If you recall the sequence of events to get this, please let me know.

 

Thanks,

 

Benoit.

 

Hello Benoit,

 

As I indicated above the system did in fact accept the entries and the scenes as I defined them. Along with the speaking phrase I wanted to use. 

 

The problem(s) may have very well occurred as I saw lots of http error 500 at some point when trying to add devices. I also saw the portal slow in launching the pop up option to select the devices, scenes at several points. As a lay person it appeared to me like the server was busy doing other tasks and later when resources were available the commands were accepted.

 

Here is a snap shot of one of several 500 errors showing up. 

[bmercier]

Hello Benoit,

 

As I indicated above the system did in fact accept the entries and the scenes as I defined them. Along with the speaking phrase I wanted to use. 

 

The problem(s) may have very well occurred as I saw lots of http error 500 at some point when trying to add devices. I also saw the portal slow in launching the pop up option to select the devices, scenes at several points. As a lay person it appeared to me like the server was busy doing other tasks and later when resources were available the commands were accepted.

 

Here is a snap shot of one of several 500 errors showing up. 

 

Would you know when you had these 500, I just need the date and approximate time, so I can search for these errors in the logs.

 

FYI, when you open up the spoken table, in the background, it's requesting /rest/nodes and /rest/programs?subfolder=true from your ISY. Then, if you press one of the add button quickly, and those requests are not completed yet, you will have a delay until they are.

 

Benoit.

[Teken]

Teken- your right. The skill was disabled in my app so I enabled it. I logged out of the app, waited 30 secs, logged back into the app, checked the skill was enabled, went to the portal, clicked on amazon echo, no error complaining about the skill, I went back into the app, disabled the skill, logged out of the portal, logged back into the portal, went to the amazon echo drop down, no more complaining about the skill even though its disabled on the amazon app. Asked Alexa to discover devices, she found them and responded found "X" "Connected home devices, and they show under the connected home section and work fine.

 

Very finicky. Question now is whats the desired result here, "should there be an error or not when the skill is disabled if your using the connected home?"

 

I won't lie having gone through almost 18 hours trying to figure this all out left me with more questions. Technically any system should call out something that is associated or linked has been lost. That is the only way a lay person would ever figure out where to focus their attention and resources on.

 

Lets all be clear here, its not lost on me there are many dependencies and links to various hardware / software platforms. The fact once its all set up and it works as intended is pure magic in itself. 

 

There is no doubt in my mind the global team will resolve lots of these issues. As more people find bugs like I listed above it will only serve to make the product better!

 

For me this was a good exercise in critical thinking and trouble shooting. Don't get me wrong at hour 12 I was past annoyed and really needed to unplug.

 

LOL . . .

[Teken]

Would you know when you had these 500, I just need the date and approximate time, so I can search for these errors in the logs.

 

FYI, when you open up the spoken table, in the background, it's requesting /rest/nodes and /rest/programs?subfolder=true from your ISY. Then, if you press one of the add button quickly, and those requests are not completed yet, you will have a delay until they are.

 

Benoit.

 

Hello Benoit,

 

These errors were seen today (January 26, 2016) at about 9-11:00 AM CST. Yes, I could see in the back ground when the 500 errors were declared the rest requests were failing to complete.

 

To me there just seemed to be a bottleneck in the service which to be fair I've seen the same thing with the Echo. Meaning I will ask her to do something and she will spin around and just think about it.

 

When that happens sometimes she doesn't even reply back . . .

 

I also found it odd certain scenes could be commanded to come on yet using the exact same phrase Echo would not turn that scene off?

 

I saw this with my dishwasher, microwave, and some other device. Keeping in mind they operate just fine via the Admin Console and from a manual control at all times. Any programs that reference these devices also have no problem turning them on/off.

 

Not sure how it can turn on a microwave in one command and not do so later? Asking her in a different way like *turn off the microwave vs microwave off didn't seem to make a difference. 

[barrygordon]

I am writing this to help clarify what goes on behind the scenes with the Echo/ISY Connected Home" capability. In particular why there is a difference in responsiveness (time from the end of a spoken command e.g. "Alexa, turn off the kitchen lights" to the instant the lights actually go off) between the HUE Emulator and the ISY connected home skill .The following is the meat of a discussion between myself and Brad of BWS Systems.

 

With all the new Connected Home (CoHo) skills out there, there is another server that handles the request from amazon after the trigger word is said. This means there are 2 cloud services handling the request instead of just one server, Amazon's service.

 

The HUE Emulator is completely local and is called by the Echo using the HUE API, no internet needed for that to happen as the Echo and the Emulator are on the same LAN. The Emulator is discovered by the Echo via uPnP at which time the Echo believes it will be talking to a Phillips HUE hub. This is in addition to any other connected home skill that has been enabled for that Echo. It appears that the Amazon Lighting API, the foundation lighting skill inherently knows about the Philips HUE hub.  All other hub devices or cloud connected devices require a secondary process, what Amazon calls a "Skill Adapter"

 

Path diagram for HA-Bridge (HUE Emulator):

1- Speaker says "Alexa, turn on kitchen Light" --->> Amazon Echo: records what it heard and sends it to the Amazon server via the Internet (first internet traverse)

2- Amazon server decodes message and sends back to the Echo a synopsis of what was understood; basicly the command, and a device ID via the Internet (second Internet traverse)  

3- Echo sends the information (command, ID) to the HUE Emulator via the LAN

4- HUE Emulator sends RESTful command to UDI ISY Via the LAN

5- UDI ISY turns on the kitchen light

Note: The above required two traverses of the Internet

 

Path diagram for a skill Adapter in Echo Connected Home (The ISY entry in the connected home is a skill adapter):

1- Speaker says "Alexa, turn on kitchen light" --->> Amazon Echo: records what it heard and sends it to the Amazon server via the Internet (first Internet traverse) 

2- Amazon server decodes message and sends message to UDI ISY ASK (Alexa Skill Kit) Server via the internet (second Internet traverse)

3-UDI ISY ASK server parses message and sends information back to the registered UDI ISY via the Internet (third Internet Traverse)

4- UDI ISY turns on the kitchen light

Note: The above required three traverses of the Internet. 

 

The additional Internet traversal is what proably takes the additional time causing the difference in responsivenes between the two systems. I do not believe this will be changing since it is how Amazon makes some of its money, providing the hosting environment for a Skill Adapter in the cloud. In fact I suspect Amazon may delete direct support for the HUE API since it allows the overall process to run without using the cloud a second time reducing their income. As they say in forensic accounting "Follow the money".

 

The following is a reference to the Amazon lighting API.  I am not sure if you need to be an Amazon developer to see the material, but the reference is in the public domain on the Github. The term skill adapter is used for those skills that work off of the Amazon Lighting api.

 

https://developer.amazon.com/public/binaries/content/assets/html/alexa-lighting-api.html

[jerlands]

 

I am writing this to help clarify what goes on behind the scenes with the Echo/ISY Connected Home" capability. In particular why there is a difference in responsiveness (time from the end of a spoken command e.g. "Alexa, turn off the kitchen lights" to the instant the lights actually go off) between the HUE Emulator and the ISY connected home skill .The following is the meat of a discussion between myself and Brad of BWS Systems.

 

With all the new Connected Home (CoHo) skills out there, there is another server that handles the request from amazon after the trigger word is said. This means there are 2 cloud services handling the request instead of just one server, Amazon's service.

Path diagram for a skill Adapter in Echo Connected Home (The ISY entry in the connected home is a skill adapter):

1- Speaker says "Alexa, turn on kitchen light" --->> Amazon Echo: records what it heard and sends it to the Amazon server via the Internet (first Internet traverse) 

2- Amazon server decodes message and sends message to UDI ISY ASK (Alexa Skill Kit) Server via the internet (second Internet traverse)

3-UDI ISY ASK server parses message and sends information back to the registered UDI ISY via the Internet (third Internet Traverse)

4- UDI ISY turns on the kitchen light

Note: The above required three traverses of the Internet. 

 

The additional Internet traversal is what proably takes the additional time causing the difference in responsivenes between the two systems. I do not believe this will be changing since it is how Amazon makes some of its money, providing the hosting environment for a Skill Adapter in the cloud. In fact I suspect Amazon may delete direct support for the HUE API since it allows the overall process to run without using the cloud a second time reducing their income. As they say in forensic accounting "Follow the money".

 

Interesting.. that makes sense in that a hop is added whenever a connected home skill adapter is utilized (second internet transverse.)  Your path though doesn't include the Portal which probably also adds to the delay.

 

 

Jon...

[jerlands]

Hello Michel,

 

In the image capture you will note there is a Microwave and Office load defined. When I initially set it up the appropriate scenes that control the loads were selected. When I used the Echo to activate the scenes the Microwave scene did not operate and I was greeted by the Echo that the device was not found or similar.

 

Later when I instructed Echo to turn on the office lights the microwave came on? When I looked in the Amazon App it was apparent the scenes were assigned to something else. The system also added in extra words as you can see the duplicate MicrowaveMicrowave in the App.

 

Going into the UDI Portal showed the portal appended the scenes to the wrong loads and also added the above extra phrase of Microwave.

 

The fix was quite simple as deleting the device from the App and also correcting the UDI Portal entry a second time.

 

Whenever a spoken phrase is defined or edited in the Portal interface it needs to be "rediscovered" in the amazon app, connected home page.

 

 

Jon...

[Teken]

Whenever a spoken phrase is defined or edited in the Portal interface it needs to be "rediscovered" in the amazon app, connected home page.

 

 

Jon...

 

Yup, saw that from another forum member and followed those steps. Still can't explain why the Echo will turn on various appliances with out issue but won't turn them off?!?!

 

As I read from other people maybe I just need to come up with another word. But don't believe calling my dishwasher / microwave something like *Grunts Oven / Girl Friend Replacement* is the best choice right now.

 

Ha . . .

[bmercier]

Yup, saw that from another forum member and followed those steps. Still can't explain why the Echo will turn on various appliances with out issue but won't turn them off?!?!

 

As I read from other people maybe I just need to come up with another word. But don't believe calling my dishwasher / microwave something like *Grunts Oven / Girl Friend Replacement* is the best choice right now.

 

Ha . . .

 

One possibility is that Alexa understands "on" instead of "off".

 

On some occasions, I asked to turn off something, but it stayed on. But what really happened is that it had understood on, it sent a on to the device, but because it was already on, no change was seen. So it looked like it did nothing.

 

So make sure you pronounce "off".

 

Benoit.

[jerlands]

For me connected home is working well... I've found I don't need to say "turn on/off kitchen sink light" but simply "kitchen sink light on/off"

 

 

Jon...

[Teken]

One possibility is that Alexa understands "on" instead of "off".

 

On some occasions, I asked to turn off something, but it stayed on. But what really happened is that it had understood on, it sent a on to the device, but because it was already on, no change was seen. So it looked like it did nothing.

 

So make sure you pronounce "off".

 

Benoit.

 

Hello Benoit,

 

Yes this is something I did see also.

 

Not sure why Echo would confuse the two words of on vs off. As a simple test to eliminate ambient noise, distance, pronunciation, and speaking cadence.

 

I placed the Echo in a isolated room which is void of any sound reverberation. In audiophile terms its called a dead room because the sounds in that room simply drop hard in the air. Meaning if I say hello a person in the same room can hear every word due to the active / passive elements in that safe room.

 

It made no difference to the Echo besides me sounding really pissed off.

 

LOL . . .