Observations and questions

[starmanj]

Questions:  

 

1) On setup Wiki, it says to conform to list of "spoken utterances".  Where in the ISY admin program do you use this naming convention?  Do we rename the device name to this convention?  Also, the format is inconsistent.  Device category is sometimes a device, but usually a location.  Example:  Attic and Chandelier.  One is a location, the other a device.  And Post device is seem to be devices, such as flood or fan.  I'm confused...

 

2) I have two ISYs.  I'm trying to get Alexa to change ISYs but it only recognizes my first preferred ISY, not the second Alias.  Has this feature been tested?  Or is there a long delay before Alexa will recognize the newly registered ISY?

 

Starmanj

Edited May 25, 2016 by starmanj

[stusviews]

The ISY has a space for a spoken, but that's been superseded by the portal. Spokens are now added from the portal. Select Tool > Connectivity > Amazon Echo.

 

You need ISY version 5.0+ to be logged into two ISYs. I don't know if you'll need two portals.

[starmanj]

That's what I thought; no need for that convention then.

 

You do need two portals per Steve; I bought two.  5.0.3.

 

It is impossible to switch ISY's at this point.  There is no mechanism to switch ISYs in the portal, and Alexa just keeps asking "which izzy" over and over.

[stusviews]

Did you add the ISY skill? That's separate from setting up the portal. Log into the Alexa, select Skills, search for ISY.

[starmanj]

Thank you for helping I appreciate it.  Yes that's how I've been using izzy on my other ISY and how I know the izzy commands.  Alexa understands the izzy commands as I showed above, it sees my first ISY, it simply doesn't see a second one.  I may be the only one with two ISYs using the portal?

Edited May 26, 2016 by starmanj

[starmanj]

I believe this is a bug in the cloud system.  I purchased two portals but the second ISY cannot be used; it's impossible to switch commands to it.

 

Michel can you confirm this is a known problem?? Thanks

Edited May 28, 2016 by starmanj

[stusviews]

Do you also have a second Echo?

[starmanj]

I have eight echos/dots/taps, but why should that matter?  I only have one master account.

[stusviews]

I'm unsure why you have two ISYs and only one Echo account and also a need to switch between them. Have you exceeded the capacity of one ISY? BTW, I can switch between two accounts and one ISY.

[starmanj]

I think it is far better to have one amazon account (so you only pay one prime fee) and switch between two ISYs.  I have two homes.

 

I think I have clearly demonstrated to Michel this is a bug in the cloud software.  Alexa cannot understand multiple aliases, she keeps asking "which ISY" repeatedly.  In addition, even though Alexa responds that the local ISY is active, it only talks to my remote home ISY.  

 

I'm very likely the first to activate two ISY portals, so I'm pioneering issues/bugs like this...

[stusviews]

I think it is far better to have one amazon account (so you only pay one prime fee) ...

 

There is no requirement for each Amazon account to be a Prime account to work with the portal.

[starmanj]

Just to update on status-- I have been working with Michel on this issue.  We have found that for some reason Alexa only understands certain words for ISY aliases, and even then it is highly unreliable.  So...bottom line you can use more than one ISY but changing the ISY is very, very difficult and haphazard.  Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

 

It would be nice to have a command via the ISY portal to immediately change ISY's (I don't think changing "preferred" ISY is equivalent to that command).

 

Starmanj

[majorlance]

Michel helped me sort some things with the Portal to get two ISY's (I also have two homes) registered.  It's been a bear with (most likely) some of it me and some of it the Portal.  

 

At this point, I've given up on trying to get the second one to work with my beach house and the Echo I have there.  There's no way my wife will put up with switching ISY's or random performance issues.  

 

I also use Ecobee thermostats in both houses and both Echo's see the Thermostats and can be controlled from either house.  This is nice.  I wish the ISY portal worked this way.

 

I'd like to be able to use one Alexa app and Amazon account and have it recognize all of the commands on any number of ISY devices.  I can name the ISY programs or scenes (such as Beach Outside Lights) to be unique and represent where they are.  This would be very clean.

 

My two cents...

 

Lee

[starmanj]

Lee I agree.  I'm finding the Portal unusable for more than one ISY.

Starmanj

[Michel Kohanim]

Hello all,

 

There is a big distinction between Ecobee and ISY: Ecobee is only thermostats so you can have 10 thermostats and name them whatever you want. ISY is a collection of devices at different end points. So, it will become very difficult to manage 200 devices at different end points.

 

This said, we'll look into it.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[majorlance]

Michel,

 

Agreed.  And the Ecobee's have very limited functionality when it comes to the Echo.  We have unlimited flexibility with an ISY.

 

It may not be practical or possible to take the same approach... just an idea.  

 

Again, for me at least, having the Echo see one list of scenes, program, devices, etc. (even if there are multiple ISY devices) feels like it would simplify things.  Every time I add my second ISY (again thanks for the help in getting my account straightened out), the Echo recognizes the programs I've setup when I do a discovery but then tells me she can't find them with I ask to turn something on or off.

 

I need to do more trouble shooting.

 

Lee

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi Guys,

 

Good news from Benoit!

This will be available once Amazon certifies our V2 implementation. This is currently not in prod, this is the change that has to be put in prod as soon as it is certified, before users start using it.

 

This works as follow;

 

The device discovery works only with the preferred ISY. So, if one wants to have devices coming from 2 ISYs, he would have to set the preferred ISY to the first ISY, run a discovery, change the preferred ISY to the second one, then discover again.

 

Then, all devices from the 2 ISYs will be available. When a user turns on a device, the command sent to portal from echo will contain the original UUID the device belongs to, and the command will run against that ISY. Security is enforced; the UUID needs to still be in the account, and authorized.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[majorlance]

Wow!  Best of both worlds (or two ISY's in this case ).

 

Thanks!

 

Lee