Two Echos in two different homes with two different ISY

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi Gerry,

 

I just realized that you can create a new account under your account for ISY. Each account can have its own Amazon Account and Preferred ISY. The only drawback is that you would need TWO usernames: one for each account and the new user must be Admin for the second account.

 

In the Admin Console, you need to approve the new account as you would the old account.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[dywicked]

Hi Gerry,

 

I just realized that you can create a new account under your account for ISY. Each account can have its own Amazon Account and Preferred ISY. The only drawback is that you would need TWO usernames: one for each account and the new user must be Admin for the second account.

 

In the Admin Console, you need to approve the new account as you would the old account.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

Hi Michel,

 

Does this mean that in the Portal, I can add a second user with the same preferred ISY, but link this user with a different Amazon account / Echo and maintain a separate Spoken table?

 

Regards,

 

-David

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi David,

 

Yes BUT you have to create a new sub account (under your account), assign ISY and the new user to it, and make sure you approve the request in the Admin Console.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[mapeter]

Hi David,

 

Yes BUT you have to create a new sub account (under your account), assign ISY and the new user to it, and make sure you approve the request in the Admin Console.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

 

Has anyone tested this? I have an Echo in my master suite and in the ISY Portal I have mapped the phrase "Sink Light" to the device "Master Sink Light".  I want to put another Echo in the kitchen and in the ISY Portal I want to map the same "Sink Light" phrase to the device "Kitchen Sink Light".

--Andy

Edited February 12, 2016 by mapeter

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi Andy,

 

I don't think it can be done:

1. Both Echos are on the same account

2. There's only one ISY

3. The names have to be unique

 

With kind regads,

Michel

[stusviews]

Although I haven't tested it, the latest portal update seems to allow up to five aliases for the same device.

[fryfrog]

So I finally got around to doing this myself and it worked great!

I have two houses, each with an ISY. A month or so ago, I added an Echo and got the ISY Portal working on our vacation home while we were there for a long stay. Came back a week or two ago and ordered an Echo for it too. Thought I might have to do some crazy stuff to get it all working, but nope. Just paid for the portal on the other ISY, added the Echo to my amazon account and then "Alexa, switch IZZY to <name of ISY in portal>." and it worked great. It *did* take me a few tries to figure that out, so I think it was turning the kitchen lights on and off in our other house to start with.

 

Edit: I spoke too soon, I'm having trouble w/ the one at our vacation house now. I can't get it to switch to the right ISY. :/

Edited March 3, 2016 by fryfrog

[fryfrog]

Using two Amazon accounts to solve this is really bugging me.

 

It means that I'll have to log out of the app every time I'm at another house and log in again. Also, some of the account sharing doesn't work, right? Like music? It also looks like you can only have two "adult" accounts in your Amazon household? :/

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi fryfrog,

 

Agreed. We already provided this feedback to Amazon and they mentioned that they would work on it. This said, we have not really heard back from Amazon for over 3 weeks now. This is a little troubling since we were on their V2 API list and cannot test it.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[Guitartexan01]

Have any of you seen the new Echo Dot?

 

Introducing Echo Dot

 

Echo Dot uses the same far-field voice recognition as Echo and is a convenient addition to any room of the house. Directly connect Echo Dot to speakers with an audio cable or via Bluetooth, and add voice-control to your home stereo system. With its built-in speaker, you can place Dot in the bedroom and use it as a smart alarm clock that can also turn off your lights, or use Dot in the kitchen to easily set timers and add items to your shopping list using just your voice. Learn more about Echo Dot.

 

Echo Dot is available for $89.99 in limited quantities exclusively for Prime members through Alexa Voice Shopping. Limit 1 per order, 2 per customer. To order your Echo Dot, just ask:

 

I will be buying 2 and let you know how my home echo network expansion works out.

 

 

GT

[Guitartexan01]

If these dots can call up a screen connection on the Nucleus, we are really on to something.

 

 

GT

[PalChgo]

Hi,

 

I have a home in the western burbs and a small condo in the city.  Each has an ISY, both running beta 5.0.2, both have access to the portal. I have an Echo and an echo dot at the house and I have Alexa working fairly well.  I bought an echo dot for the condo.  It took me hours to finally get things working but I have them working separately at both locations.  What I have found is that you need at a minimum a primary amazon account and then create a secondary account on the original prime account using a different email address and password to log into amazon (You must deregister the new echo from the primary account and then set it up on your secondary amazon account).  I then created a separate user on the portal under my main account and then linked the condo isy to the email address I used for the second amazon account on the portal.  The trick I've found is in the profile it will come up and tell you that there is no isy listed in the sub account.  You have to click on the link that sends you to amazon to login to the portal using your amazon account (which is the second one I setup).  This was the hardest part to get to.  There were times when the "link" just was not there for me to click to get to the amazon authentication link from the portal pages (remember to use the amazon secondary account email address and password).  Once I finally was able to get the condo ISY registered as the primary ISY under the second user id, I was then able to get it working.  Very confusing but it can be done.  One other thing to note, you must remember to "switch accounts" on your second echo so you can control the isy at the second location and discover the devices or you'll be rediscovering the devices from the original location.  I worked on this so long my explanation may be a bit off but just confirming it does indeed work with 1 amazon prime account and a sub account.  Lastly I am on the version 2 of the isy skill in the Alexa app.  Hope this helps anyone struggling with this.

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi PalChgo,

 

With the introduction of Amazon V2 APIs, you don't need two accounts/switch accounts anymore. Please checkout:

http://wiki.universal-devices.com/index.php?title=ISY_Portal_Amazon_Echo_Integration#Instructions_for_using_Multiple_ISYs_with_one_Echo_Accout

 

If you want to try, please do make sure you migrate to V2 first:

http://wiki.universal-devices.com/index.php?title=ISY_Portal_Amazon_Echo_Integration#Instructions_for_Migrating_from_V1_to_V2

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[BJB2757]

This is working pretty well for me.  I have one ISY, one ISY portal with a sub-account, and two Echoes.  I can say "Alexa turn off the lights" downstairs, and the downstairs lights turn off.  I can say the same exact phrase when I'm upstairs, and the upstairs lights turn off.  It's beautiful!

 

It's just a bit of a bummer that this functionality requires two Amazon.com accounts.  You can connect two Amazon accounts to each other, which gives you some goodness, for example both accounts share the same "to do" list, and the same shopping list.  But one account cannot play the other account's Amazon music collection.  And you can play Amazon Prime music only if that particular account pays the $100/year for Prime.

 

You can tell Alexa to switch accounts, which does let you play the "other" account's music...BUT when you switch accounts ALL voice account switch, i.e. if I'm downstairs and say "Alexa turn on the TV"...the upstairs TV turns on:(

 

With the success of the Echo products, hopefully Amazon will enable different contexts for multiple Echoes on the same Amazon account!  That is the only clean solution to this.

 

-Barry

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi Barry,

 

Thanks so very much for the feedback. We have provided the same to Amazon and they were going to look at it.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[giomania]

I received my second echo today, and am unable to get this to work.  I am having problems with the Amazon account linking, as I am now only able to link one Amazon account, which is the secondary account; I can no longer choose the Amazon account.  It seems as if the "My Profile" in the ISY Portal is only for the account you used to log in, and is not applicable to the various user accounts.  The original echo is now unlinked from my primary Amazon account, and has no devices now; Argh!  I followed the instructions on the Wiki, but ran into issues with the two parts in bold.  Help!

Instructions for using Multiple Echos Smart Home

• Have your echos tied to 2 different amazon accounts.
• In the ISY Portal:
  • Create a sub-account
  • Add your ISY to this sub-account, and approve access to it in the admin console.
  • Create a user profile in this sub-account for the second echo
  • Link this user profile with your second echo's amazon account.
  • To edit spokens for your second echo, switch to your sub-account first
  • To edit spokens for your first echo, switch to your root account first

Of course, you can have as many echo as you want, with each their own sub-account, user profile and set of spokens.

[stusviews]

Delete all portal accounts.Go to Settings. Deregister each Echo. Quit and restart the Alexa app. Register the Echo that you want to be the main  Echo. Follow the instructions to create an ISY portal account (do you need that?). After that's working, create a second Amazon account. (if you haven't already done so). Log into the portal to create a sub-account within the Main account. Register the second Echo to the second account.

 

You can have as any Echos as you want. But you are limited to five accounts including the Main account.

[giomania]

Thanks for the reply.  I would like to clarify your instructions and I have questions (see items in bold below).  I question why some of these steps are necessary, but perhaps it is because you don't know how bad I screwed things up, and this process mitigates most issues? 

 

Delete all ISY Portal accounts.  Not sure if this is necessary, especially because I suspect the problem is that the Amazon account linking is not working as it should.  when I click on "My Profile" in the ISY Portal, the "Email address" cannot be changed, the "My preferred ISY" can be changed, and the "Link this profile to an Amazon account" cannot be changed.  I really think this is where the issue is, because this does not seem to behave like it should?  

 

In the Amazon Alexa app, go to Settings, Alexa Devices, and deregister each Echo. 

 

Quit and restart the Alexa app.

 

In the Amazon Alexa app, register the Echo that you want to be the main  Echo. I assume I would need to log into the Alexa app using the Amazon account for the "main Echo", since the Echo's are tied to two different Amazon accounts?

 

Follow the instructions to create an ISY portal account (do you need that?)  I am pretty sure you need this, but maybe if I re-create the same ISY Portal account credentials, then the approval process in the ISY Admin console would not be necessary, as noted in the Wiki (included below)?

  ISY Portal Account Setup

There are three steps for having ISY communicate through ISY Portal:

1. Creating an account on " ISY Portal if one does not exist (click on the Create new account link). If one already exists, simply login

2. Registering ISY with your account in ISY Portal using ISY's UUID (Help | About - also included in your invoice). To do this click on the Add ISY button and copy/paste the UUID from your invoice or order notification

3. Giving permission to ISY to communicate with ISY Portal

• Login to the Admin Console
• Click Configuration | Portals tab
• You will see a request for access from your account in ISY Portal
• Approve it

 

Add a device(s) in the ISY Portal to the Amazon Echo.

 

Run the device discovery in the Amazon Echo.

 

Test the device(s) added via the Amazon Echo.

 

After that's working, create a second Amazon account. (if you haven't already done so). I do have the second Amazon account already.

 

Log into the ISY Portal to create a sub-account within the Main account.  Is there some trick to this, as maybe that is where I went astray before?  In looking at the ISY Portal, perhaps this should say:

 

In the ISY Portal, click on the "Users" tab, select the drop-down "Main Account", then click on "Add user"

 

Register the second Echo to the second account.  I experienced difficulty with this process, as when I click on "My Profile" in the ISY Portal, the "Email address" cannot be changed, the "My preferred ISY" can be changed, and the "Link this profile to an Amazon account" cannot be changed.  I really think this is where the issue is, because this does not seem to behave like it should?  Could this be a browser issue?  I am using Chrome, if that matters.

 

Thanks for any input.

 

Mark

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi Mark,

 

Do you see unlink in My Profile?

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[G W]

Hi Mark,

 

Do you see unlink in My Profile?

 

With kind regards,

Michel

Michel,

 

Has Amazon given ANY indication that this issue may be addressed in the future? I think I read that someone suggested that each Echo/Dot/Tap be given am ID that it could use and report.

 

Best regards,

Gary Funk

[giomania]

Hi Mark,

 

Do you see unlink in My Profile?

 

With kind regards,

Michel

Hi Michel,

 

Yes, I do see "Unlink this Amazon account" in My Profile, and have used it several times.  The issue is that I am unable to specify a different Amazon account after one has already been linked.  Perhaps it is my password manager that is preventing this, so I will try turning that off when I try again tonight.  

 

I also linked my two Amazon accounts using Prime Family or something like that, so maybe that is an issue?  The result of this linking is that when I log into the Alexa app with either Amazon account, I see both Echo's listed.  I logged into my secondary Amazon account on the Alexa app when I set up the second echo, so that was set up correctly.  

 

Any other thoughts on what may be causing this inability to link two separate Amazon accounts?

 

Thanks.

 

Mark

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi Mark,

 

Got it. The issue is the Cache in your browser. Please close all your browsers and, if possible, use a different browser (say, if you were using Chrome, now try IE or Safari and vice versa). In short, you have to make sure that when you unlink from Amazon, it stays unlinked till you go through the whole registration process again.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[giomania]

Thanks Michel, Would it also work if I clear the cache after I register the first Echo?  Then perhaps the "Amazon account linked to:" box would be blank, and I would be allowed to enter the secondary Amazon account email when linking the ISY Portal sub-account profile.  I believe some of the steps in the original instructions posted earlier to be unnecessary, so please let me know if this modified course of action makes sense, given my situation: 

 

Log into the ISY Portal to create a sub-account within the Main account.  

In the ISY Portal, click on the "Users" tab, select the drop-down "Main Account", then click on "Add user"

Create the sub-account.

 

Registering the ISY to the new sub-account as per the instructions in the Wiki.

 

In the ISY Portal, register the first Echo to the first Amazon account.

Either in the "ISY" or "Users" tab, ensure the "[Main Account]" is selected in the drop-down box.

Click on "My Profile" and then click "Link this profile to an Amazon account". 

In the "Sign in to ISY Portal using your Amazon account" box that pops up, enter the first Amazon account email and password.

 

Clear Browser Cache

 

In the ISY Portal, register the second Echo to the second Amazon account.

Either in the "ISY" or "Users" tab, ensure the sub-account is selected in the drop-down box.

Click on "My Profile" and then click "Link this profile to an Amazon account".

In the "Sign in to ISY Portal using your Amazon account" box that pops up, enter the second Amazon account email and password. 

 

Thanks.

 

Mark

[giomania]

I got this to work successfully, but clearing the browser cache or two separate browsers were not the solution.  

 

The solution was to log into my ISY Portal sub-account (vice the main account).  When I did that, I clicked on "My Profile", and successfully linked my second Amazon account.  I guess this makes sense, as the ISY Portal "My Profile" section is tied to the account to which you logged in.  After linking the second Amazon account to my sub-account, I logged out, and then back into my ISY Portal main account, and set up my two separate devices as noted in the Wiki.

 

Thanks to everyone for their input.

 

Mark

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi Mark,

 

Thanks so very much for the update. I should have been more explicit and I do apologize: you MUST login to each account separately.

 

With kind regards,

Michel