Stupid Question 101 - Subscribing to ISY Portal

[stusviews]

From the Echo app, go to Settings, Connected Home. Link with ISY. For scenes and devices, you won't need to ask Izzy at all. All spokens are created using the portal first, then from the Echo/Alexa app, select Discover devices. You'll still need to invoke Izzy to control thermostats and locks and the run the If section of a program.

[SteinyD]

From the Echo app, go to Settings, Connected Home. Link with ISY. For scenes and devices, you won't need to ask Izzy at all. All spokens are created using the portal first, then from the Echo/Alexa app, select Discover devices. You'll still need to invoke Izzy to control thermostats and locks and the run the If section of a program.

 

Thanks. It is already linked to the ISY. I unlinked and relinked, etc.  Again, all the devices are appearing in the Portal. However, when clicking on Amazon Echo in the portal it first prompts and tells me the skill isn't enabled and linked to my profile.  I did rescan after providing spoken words to my test devices. It did pick them up. Thanks for that heads up. AH, that also made Echo work much better with commands! Thank you! I thought Izzy needed to be invoked for everything.

 

UPDATE - the skill message in the ISY Portal eventually stopped appearing. Thanks Stu for your tips, the interaction with Echo is now great. 

 

I've sent Michel more error logs and provided him additional details. Though everything eventually worked, it was a bit painful and would be good to know in the end what 'clicked'.  It could be that we need to wait quite a bit longer between the cloud service and our devices to communicated and I was being VERY impatient.

Edited January 27, 2016 by SteinyD

[Scottmichaelj]

This is the same damn issues Teken and I had last night and posted in the other thread. Is no one listening to us Teken? Seems we are being disregarded!? /end rant

 

Amazon Echo - Connected Home Feature! http://forum.universal-devices.com/index.php?/topic/17861-Amazon-Echo---Connected-Home-Feature%21

Edited January 27, 2016 by huddadudda

[SteinyD]

I read many of the other threads. I didn't see anything specific to my list of issues tonight that I hadn't already tried. It seemed to suddenly work with nothing done that I hadn't already tried. Unless Michel says otherwise, I think it's a matter of giving the communication between the cloud service and our ISYs time to occur.

Edited January 27, 2016 by SteinyD

[Teken]

This is the same damn issues Teken and I had last night and posted in the other thread. Is no one listening to us Teken? Seems we are being disregarded!? /end rant

 

Amazon Echo - Connected Home Feature! http://forum.universal-devices.com/index.php?/topic/17861-Amazon-Echo---Connected-Home-Feature%21

 

You should be much more relaxed after watching Star Wars!

 

Bo Bo Fet didn't make you feel all warm and fuzzy? 

 

LOL . . .

[Scottmichaelj]

You should be much more relaxed after watching Star Wars!

 

Bo Bo Fet didn't make you feel all warm and fuzzy?

 

LOL . . .

It made me grumpier as the movie sucked.

 

I seriously cant handle this anymore! Its like we have spoon feed all this testing to UDI yet no one reads it or anyone is doing anything about it. We both went through this exact issue last night! But I don't blame anyone for not wanting to scroll through 50 freaking pages of a thread just to find answers! It should be right on the first page, the first thread and in the first post!

 

If new customers coming to the ISY are having this much trouble to setup the Echo think about the perceived "hassle" and "hoops to jump through" on their first experience with the ISY. The only thing good that comes out of it is that users like us help other people out quickly on their forums.

 

Why is it so damn hard to put a sticky on the first post of the Amazon Echo section with clear instructions and troubleshooting help? What the hell is UDI doing all day that they cant cut and paste some of what all of us here on the forums have given them to help make this easier! Hell none of the UDI chimed in on our posted except for when you posted your screenshots - otherwise or posts were never acknowledged.

[SteinyD]

Why don't you guys summarize your tips and tricks, ask Michel to pin it to the top along with a link to the wiki Michel just pointed me to. Make it easy to find.

I'm happy to add a few notes to it from my process.

Edited January 27, 2016 by SteinyD

[Michel Kohanim]

huddadudda,

 

What you said is outrageous and I am not going to dignify it with an answer.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[Scottmichaelj]

huddadudda,

 

What you said is outrageous and I am not going to dignify it with an answer.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

Oh yeah outrageous - your not going to dignify it with an answer but isnt responding an answer? And what is so outrageous about my post? That you do something?

[SteinyD]

Dude - don't you think you could have a respectful conversation and provide constructive suggestions rather than taking the approach you are? Nothing positive will come out of it.

Edited January 28, 2016 by SteinyD

[Scottmichaelj]

Dude - don't you think you could have a respectful conversation and provide constructive suggestions rather than taking the approach you are? Nothing positive will come out of it.

First please dont call me dude. Second what was it that I said that was not constructive? I am saying the same thing other people of said millions of times before me. I just have the balls to stick up for myself and say it.

[SteinyD]

Sorry huddadudda - that does sound better . It isn't what you say but how you say it. If you want to make some suggestions and offer content to help others, do that. But much of what you said was quite condensending.

 

I'm not replying to this anymore. The thread I started looking for help (and appreciate everyone's suggestions and direction) is now derailed.

 

Michel and his team have always been very helpful over the years I've owned their products. I've had calls from steve in Saturdays, Michel responding quickly. They don't need my defending them.

 

Your suggestions were good. Approach was bad.

Edited January 28, 2016 by SteinyD

[Scottmichaelj]

Sorry huddadudda - that does sound better . It isn't what you say but how you say it. If you want to make some suggestions and offer content to help others, do that. But much of what you said was quite condensending.

 

I'm not replying to this anymore. The thread I started looking for help (and appreciate everyone's suggestions and direction) is now derailed.

Yeah no disrespect to you but you probably best to stay out of it unless you have something constructive to say about something I specifically said and disagree with. I am just echoing peoples comments that have been said. Nothing in my post I think is wrong. Maybe I could have sugar coated it but if you read each part and think about what I say you may actually agree with me and understand I am actually trying to help, not only UDI/Michel but other using the ISY. If you had the echo info handy you wouldnt have even had to post your question if there was a better way right? Thats my point.

 

BTW I even tried to help you solve your problem.

Edited January 28, 2016 by huddadudda

[Scottmichaelj]

Sorry huddadudda - that does sound better . It isn't what you say but how you say it. If you want to make some suggestions and offer content to help others, do that. But much of what you said was quite condensending.

 

I'm not replying to this anymore. The thread I started looking for help (and appreciate everyone's suggestions and direction) is now derailed.

 

Michel and his team have always been very helpful over the years I've owned their products. I've had calls from steve in Saturdays, Michel responding quickly. They don't need my defending them.

 

Your suggestions were good. Approach was bad.

Not to berade this further, but I guess I am. I was actually trying to help you with what sounded like the exact problem I had the day before and spent hours on trying to resolve. If you look at this thread http://forum.universal-devices.com/topic/17861-amazon-echo-connected-home-feature/page-1you will see other people have had this issues and also asked to have this info pinned/sticky to help users like you quickly find the info to help. I don't blame you or anyone else for not wanting to search and read every post in 17+ pages! Hell I have better things to do too! I was just frustrated by the fact that its been asked so many times by members to post the instructions and troubleshooting but it hasn't been done all to try and help members like you. I don't benefit from it, but for whatever reason the requests are being ignored and it pains me to see UDI just not doing anything about it to help their customers. Maybe I care too much and it got the best of me. So if I offended you specifically I apologize. However I do not regret what I posted or apologize to Michel, as I stand behind my post.

 

FWIW if you care, take a look at my post #10 here we talk about the same problem and people have asked what I spoke out about - http://forum.universal-devices.com/topic/18000-can-isy-use-amazon-echo-as-an-alert-device/- If I didn't care about UDI and the ISY I wouldnt be so vocal about things. Would you rather have a passionate person try and help the forum and members or someone who sits in the back and doesn't do anything. I can't sit by quietly and watch people struggle with the same thing over and over when it could be resolved with something as simple as pining the instructions and troubleshooting as things come up. I would even go so far to say this is a customer service thing. If this means I am outrageous then so be it.

[SteinyD]

Huddadudda - let's start here. I opened this thread because I was having trouble implementing the ISY Portal Services. This is even before I can consider enabling the Amazon Echo integration. The thread I started was an attempt to find any anomalies or something I didn't already do as part of my setup. If you read back to the beginning of the thread and response to most all of the suggestions, I had already followed and completed the steps that were provided by UDI. I saw those one I first started.  The end solution is not known to me. It all suddenly started to work.  In the meantime, I created a support ticket to UDI. I received a prompt response from Michel and began feeding logs and other information to him. I am still working with him today to help identify what might have gone wrong.

 

I read many other threads already on the forum. Did I read them all? Probably not. Regardless, I'm not aware of the concerns you and others have raised previously.  This is not to say they are or are not valid concerns. However, you redirected this thread I initiated to make a statement about something you didn't feel was being handled properly by UDI. This was not the right place to do it.  If it were me and had the information from prior discussions, I might have started a separate thread, engaged Michel, summarized findings and worked with him to update or provide a pinned post where necessary if Michel felt it was appropriate.  I do see that he and Steve have been posts in various forums.  

 

My point is, you started banging your drums in a thread that wasn't for this purpose. Even though you think I may have benefited from your prior concerns, it wasn't the place to do this and you did it in such a way that if I were Michel, I would have ignored you as well.  My point to you still stands. Consider how you engage people with intention of having a meaningful dialog that derives positive results.  Don't rant every chance you get, in every thread and forum possible, in a derogatory way. It will never get you a positive outcome.

 

To your point, I am aware of the steps provided to setup the ISY Portal. I followed those steps before I came to the forum. I still had issues. I'm working with Michel to help identify those. The outcome may be a bug, it may be additional documentation that is needed, it may be user error. Regardless, it is working for me now but not from lack or knowledge of existing information.

[Scottmichaelj]

Huddadudda - let's start here. I opened this thread because I was having trouble implementing the ISY Portal Services. This is even before I can consider enabling the Amazon Echo integration. The thread I started was an attempt to find any anomalies or something I didn't already do as part of my setup. If you read back to the beginning of the thread and response to most all of the suggestions, I had already followed and completed the steps that were provided by UDI. I saw those one I first started. The end solution is not known to me. It all suddenly started to work. In the meantime, I created a support ticket to UDI. I received a prompt response from Michel and began feeding logs and other information to him. I am still working with him today to help identify what might have gone wrong.

 

I read many other threads already on the forum. Did I read them all? Probably not. Regardless, I'm not aware of the concerns you and others have raised previously. This is not to say they are or are not valid concerns. However, you redirected this thread I initiated to make a statement about something you didn't feel was being handled properly by UDI. This was not the right place to do it. If it were me and had the information from prior discussions, I might have started a separate thread, engaged Michel, summarized findings and worked with him to update or provide a pinned post where necessary if Michel felt it was appropriate. I do see that he and Steve have been posts in various forums.

 

My point is, you started banging your drums in a thread that wasn't for this purpose. Even though you think I may have benefited from your prior concerns, it wasn't the place to do this and you did it in such a way that if I were Michel, I would have ignored you as well. My point to you still stands. Consider how you engage people with intention of having a meaningful dialog that derives positive results. Don't rant every chance you get, in every thread and forum possible, in a derogatory way. It will never get you a positive outcome.

 

To your point, I am aware of the steps provided to setup the ISY Portal. I followed those steps before I came to the forum. I still had issues. I'm working with Michel to help identify those. The outcome may be a bug, it may be additional documentation that is needed, it may be user error. Regardless, it is working for me now but not from lack or knowledge of existing information.

Due to my NDA with UDI I am unable to comment with more details. There is absolutely no benefit for me to continue to discuss this so I agreed with Michel I would stop since its in both our interests not to continue to waste our time.

 

That being said all I was trying to do is help members like you find the info faster. I only want the best for the forum, its members and UDI. I feel my posts distracted from that and apologize. All further posts by me will be specific to the topic and only if I can add something new to the discussion. /end

[Bob P.]

I appreciate (from experience) that this stuff can be frustrating to work with. That being said, you'd be hard-pressed to find a forum with better support than UDI provides. It's easy to take for granted the outstanding responsiveness and support from these guys.

 

I guess if there were 27 hours in a day, they could use the last two hours to compile their best advice into sticky notes.

 

Keep up the good work!

[rlanza1054]

Hi,

 

I read a little about ISY Portal and the new IFTTT that can be used if you want access and are not using the Amazon Echo.

 

I did most of the setup ok. Created the IFTTT account, registered the ISY Portal and activated it in the admin console.

 

Everything seems to be set correctly.

 

In my.isy under tools, i select tool 'connectivity' I choose IFTTT and then I get a dialog box that is saying something to the effect of: ISY skill not link to your echo profile. And when I close that error message I am getting a window titled 'IFTTT inbound events'

 

So to me I think I've gotten pretty far in getting it to work.

I clicked on the ? for help and its saying that I need to use the 'Maker Channel'.

 

So where do I learn about doing that function.

 

I'm actually posting this message to request that some simple video instructions be made for us that are not as trained in doing this.

 

Can some of you that already got this working make some instructional or tutorial videos on how to make this work and get it posted to YouTube?

 

Or maybe a webinar can be setup for lessons?

 

Thank you.

 

Rob

 

PS I haven't been in the forum for a few months which is a good thing, it means I've gotten all my ISY stuff to work. I actually have boxes of some modules that I haven't gotten to install yet. I was going to play around with the photo electric module. But I broke ,my ankle and wrist on the right side, slipping on black ice while walking Dylan my dog in the park a few days after it snowed at the end of January.  They just took off the casts and put me in a soft boot but its so painful to walk, that I spend my days on the couch. Luckily I still have a Home Aid come in a few days a week. And to top everything off, the day I fell on the ice my car was parked in Costco parking lot next to the park. When my friends went to move it back to my house for me (I was in the hospital and then in rehab for about 3 weeks), the car would not move, the transmission had gone. It was the second transmission in my 16year old car that only hand 87000 miles on it. I ended up having it towed out of Costco 2 months after the accident. Costco was nice enough to let me leave it there and not tow it away. Thankfully, my Mom is giving me her car, but its in West Palm Beac FL. So I have to figure out how to best get it to NY. Or wait until I can drive again. But I hate making that trip. Sorry guys for talking about personal stuff.

[jerlands]

In my.isy under tools, i select tool 'connectivity' I choose IFTTT and then I get a dialog box that is saying something to the effect of: ISY skill not link to your echo profile. And when I close that error message I am getting a window titled 'IFTTT inbound events'

 

So to me I think I've gotten pretty far in getting it to work.

I clicked on the ? for help and its saying that I need to use the 'Maker Channel'.

 

So where do I learn about doing that function.

 

Hey Rob,

 

Sorry to hear about your series of unfortunate events.  Hope things get better for you!

 

Anyway...  First issue... ISY Skill not lined to Echo Profile... If you follow the Wiki instructions (bottom of page) and ensure your account is properly linked.

 

Second issue.. IFTTT... again, Wiki instructions will guide you to creation of Event Name and how to implement Maker Channel in IFTTT

 

A picture is worth a thousand words...  I agree video tutorial would be helpful.

 

Post back further questions.

 

 

 

Jon...