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Door locks and Echo

James Peterson

By James Peterson
in Amazon Echo

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James Peterson Advanced

James Peterson

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According to the wiki:

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

* For Door locks only the following commands may be used:
   * Is Locked: "Alexa, is front door locked?"
   * Is Unlocked: "Alexa, is front door unlocked?"
   * Lock: "Alexa, lock the front door"
   * Please note that, for security reasons, Unlock is not supported

However these command never seem to work.  I have had to use the alternate syntax:  

Alexa, ask izzy if the front door is unlocked

or

Alexa, tell izzy to (un)lock the front door . <- unlock is the reason why I do not use these devices atm

According to the wiki unlock is not supported, but I can tell from experience that it does work.  Is the new update going to fix this? Or is this an anomaly? 

 

 

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bmercier Advanced

bmercier

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The commands listed there on the wiki are for the ISY Smart Home skill.

 

Some of these commands will only be live this coming Sunday. This includes locks support and some thermostat queries.

 

When you use tell izzy to, you are referring to the ISY custom skill. This already supports locks, and has been so from the beginning.

 

Starting sunday, the ISY custom skill will not be too relevant anymore, as most of the functionnality will now be available through the ISY smart home skill.

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James Peterson Advanced

James Peterson

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  • Author
Posted

The commands listed there on the wiki are for the ISY Smart Home skill.

 

Some of these commands will only be live this coming Sunday. This includes locks support and some thermostat queries.

 

When you use tell izzy to, you are referring to the ISY custom skill. This already supports locks, and has been so from the beginning.

 

Starting sunday, the ISY custom skill will not be too relevant anymore, as most of the functionnality will now be available through the ISY smart home skill.

 

Good to know.  Will the ability to unlock the door be removed from the custom skill?

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James Peterson Advanced

James Peterson

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We currently are not planning any change for the custom skill. IMHO, we should just remove it. It still has a few features that the smart home skill has, but they are hard to use, and having both causes confusion

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Unfortunately not removing the custom skill negates the security of not having the unlock enabled in the Alexa skill since locks can still be unlocked using the custom skill.

 

Is there anyway to disable the custom skills?

 

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

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James Peterson Advanced

James Peterson

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Yes, you can disable the custom skill.

 

In the web app (echo.amazon.com), click "skills" then "your skills" at the top right, select the ISY skill. Click Disable skill.

Great. I have been misinformed for a while then. I always assumed that the ISY skill had to be enabled for Alexa to to the ISY at all. Thx.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

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bmercier Advanced

bmercier

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I make frequent use of the "status" command as in "Alexa,ask ISY for status of front door." I get the reassuring response "Front door is locked." Are anticipated changes going to prevent this exchange?

The New ISY smart home skill will support that, starting tomorrow.

 

You will be able to ask:

Alexa, is front door locked?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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bmercier Advanced

bmercier

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Great. I have been misinformed for a while then. I always assumed that the ISY skill had to be enabled for Alexa to to the ISY at all. Thx.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

 

They are totally independant.

 

The only thing they share is the configuration UI in ISY Portal. They share the same set of spokens,

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bmercier Advanced

bmercier

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Now that the portal has been updated it should be noted that you need to re-discover your devices in order to access the locks/thermostats words in the Smarthome Skill.

True. But echo has an auto-discover that runs every 1-2 hours. So, most users should see those appear automatically.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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andyf0 Advanced

andyf0

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If you are running a 5.x firmware, this is a known bug.

 

5.0.9 will hopefully solve that. 

 

This is due to the fact that the REST API in 5.0.x does not properly return the temperature.

 

Benoit.

 

Yes, I am. Thanks for info. Sounds like lots of good stuff in 5.0.9.

That explains a lot. Why Dashboard doesn't display the current temperature and maybe why MobiLinc thermostat display is messed up.

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Tim McDermott Member

Tim McDermott

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Benoit,

 

Thanks for the response regarding the (new?) lock status query. Less specifically, can you speak to the future of the "Status" command in the skill. Will it be going away and will there be an equivalent  replacement? I find it useful to check up on important automations without having to resort to a GUI.

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Tim McDermott Member

Tim McDermott

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I frequently use the unlock command as my circumstances are not compromised with it, however, with the prospect of it going away, I must ask: is there currently, or are there plans for an unlock command whose prompt would include a PIN or the like? I

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bmercier Advanced

bmercier

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Hello Tim,

 

This is something we don't have control over. If Alexa ever supports it, then we could implement it. 

 

As stus pointed out, you could use a program, and trigger it with something like "Alexa, turn off front door lock", with front door lock being mapped to a program where the else clauses unlocks your door.

 

Benoit.

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