What is "Live Update" and "Smart Home Skill v3"

[gdntx]

I was out on my ISY portal updating a couple of switches I replaced in my Echo.    There is a button I don't recall "Live Update" it says that when it is enabled and using the V3 skill the device status will be sent in real-time to your echo app.

 

I can't find any reference to a skill with that name - not linked to ISY anyway.

 

Thanks.

[Rob]

I was out on my ISY portal updating a couple of switches I replaced in my Echo.    There is a button I don't recall "Live Update" it says that when it is enabled and using the V3 skill the device status will be sent in real-time to your echo app.

 

I can't find any reference to a skill with that name - not linked to ISY anyway.

 

Thanks.

 

The v3 skill is coming soon from what I understand. The button appeared after an update to the portal last month in preparation for the new skill.

[bmercier]

The v3 skill is coming soon from what I understand. The button appeared after an update to the portal last month in preparation for the new skill.

 

Exactly.

 

This is developed and we are currently getting into the certification process.

 

If you look carefully, you will also see a new "A/V" Button. This is also a V3 feature. This can give you a good idea of this upcoming feature.

 

Benoit

[Paulk8]

Is there a list of the new features somewhere?

[Rob]

Is there a list of the new features somewhere?

 

Presumably it'll support the Alexa entertainment skill which will allow for things like "pause the tv" or "change input to the media player". I'm also hoping for support of the new groupings in Alexa. Assign an Alexa device to a room and you can say "turn on the lights" instead of "living room lights" or "kitchen lights". Assuming you are closer to one or the other Alexa device, the appropriate lights will turn on. At least that's my understanding after reading the announcement a few weeks ago.

[G W]

 

 

also hoping for support of the new groupings in Alexa. Assign an Alexa device to a room and you can say "turn on the lights" instead of "living room lights" or "kitchen lights"

We have been waiting in this for a year. I'll actually start using Alexa for other than paper weights.

 

 

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

[Paulk8]

How will the the entertainment skill work. Will it work with any smart tv or only models that support it?

[G W]

How will the the entertainment skill work. Will it work with any smart tv or only models that support it?

That's the $64000 question. I think it will greatly depend on the equipment. You can't pause a TV but you can have a DVR start recording.

 

There have been a lot of improvements this year and it's getting better for us.

 

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

[bmercier]

How will the the entertainment skill work. Will it work with any smart tv or only models that support it?

It will support any A/V device that you can control from ISY. If you look in ISY Portal, Select tool, Amazon Echo, add A/V, you can see how the mapping works.

 

For every Alexa A/V commands, you can map to a network resource, state var, or program.

 

Benoit

 

 

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[larryllix]

I wonder if this will improve the multiple SSID problems with multiple Echoes completing tasks if more than one hears the commands.

 

I found my Echoes can't arbitrate which one will respond if they don't live on the same router SSID. Perhaps with absolute enrollment ID it may get around that problem and stop multiple voices..

 

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[bmercier]

Is there a list of the new features somewhere?

Other than using the new Smart Home V3 API, the main features are:

1 - Proactive state update; this will allow to see the state of your devices on the echo mobile app, in real-time. This requires the live update to be active.

2 - A/V Support

3 - Color bulb support (Aeotec, Fibaro)

4 - Thermostat an be turned on (to the previous heat/cool/auto mode)

5 - Slow devices like lock will no longer return an error, unless it's very long.

6 - Locks will tell you if the lock is Jammed, or if the battery is low.

 

Benoit

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[bmercier]

I'm also hoping for support of the new groupings in Alexa. Assign an Alexa device to a room and you can say "turn on the lights" instead of "living room lights" or "kitchen lights". Assuming you are closer to one or the other Alexa device, the appropriate lights will turn on. At least that's my understanding after reading the announcement a few weeks ago.

 

I did not notice the announcement, but I can tell you that at the API level, there is nothing related to rooms or grouping.

 

Grouping can be done, but it will result in multiple independent API calls, just like it is now. This means that every lights will turn on or off in sequence, and it can take a while if there are many.

 

The only difference with V3 regarding groups is that in V2, this triggered alerts as the response to each API calls were taking too long. This is why it was not recommended.

 

In V3, there is a concept of deferred responses which helps handle such use case. There will be no more errors. On the end-user side, the experience will be almost identical, in other words, it will still work.

 

Benoit

[Rob]

Here's an article on the Alexa announcements from a couple of weeks ago:

 

https://www.cepro.com/article/new_amazon_echo_plus_zigbee_home_automation_alexa/news

 

"The ability to issue non-specific commands is supported through the smart home Groups feature (not ESP). With Groups, customers can place an Echo and smart devices into smart home groups, which enables Alexa to act intelligently on your request. For example, if you create a “kitchen” group that includes an Echo and counter lights, you can just say “Alexa, turn on the lights” rather than “Alexa, turn on the kitchen overhead lighting.”

 

​It's being rolled out this month and judging from the description it likely doesn't need anything special from UDI's end. The new Routines feature sounds pretty good too (also mentioned in the above link).

[stusviews]

You can't pause a TV but you can have a DVR start recording.

 

Virtually every TV provider (e.g., DirectTV, Dish, AppleTV, FireTV, Roku, etc.) allows pausing and resuming "live" TV.

[G W]

Virtually every TV provider (e.g., DirectTV, Dish, AppleTV, FireTV, Roku, etc.) allows pausing and resuming "live" TV.

Those are content providers and that only works if the STB contains a DVR.

 

TV providers would be Sony, Samsung, Visio, etc.

 

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

[Paulk8]

Here's an article on the Alexa announcements from a couple of weeks ago:

 

https://www.cepro.com/article/new_amazon_echo_plus_zigbee_home_automation_alexa/news

 

"The ability to issue non-specific commands is supported through the smart home Groups feature (not ESP). With Groups, customers can place an Echo and smart devices into smart home groups, which enables Alexa to act intelligently on your request. For example, if you create a “kitchen” group that includes an Echo and counter lights, you can just say “Alexa, turn on the lights” rather than “Alexa, turn on the kitchen overhead lighting.”

 

​It's being rolled out this month and judging from the description it likely doesn't need anything special from UDI's end. The new Routines feature sounds pretty good too (also mentioned in the above link).

That’s great. This will make things much better.

[ScottAvery]

Here's an article on the Alexa announcements from a couple of weeks ago:

 

https://www.cepro.com/article/new_amazon_echo_plus_zigbee_home_automation_alexa/news

 

"The ability to issue non-specific commands is supported through the smart home Groups feature (not ESP). With Groups, customers can place an Echo and smart devices into smart home groups, which enables Alexa to act intelligently on your request. For example, if you create a “kitchen” group that includes an Echo and counter lights, you can just say “Alexa, turn on the lights” rather than “Alexa, turn on the kitchen overhead lighting.”

 

​It's being rolled out this month and judging from the description it likely doesn't need anything special from UDI's end. The new Routines feature sounds pretty good too (also mentioned in the above link).

This is great, but it keeps the information inside Amazon's environment.  I would still love to see them pass the device identifier information to 3rd party systems through the API.  We could group each echo with a program or variable, I suppose, but if they can only be grouped once, you'd lose the native light control option.  I look forward to tinkering.

[nathagt]

When can we expect to see v3 rolled out? I'm very excited for these features! 

[Goose66]

I too hoped that the Room function was going to be something passed through the API - we already have Room setup in the portal, so just needed the Echo to supply it.

 

Also in the announcement, if I recall, was the ability of Alexa to do complex tasks when i say "Goodnight." Is that in the API or is that going to be something done through the Alexa app like the room groups? Again, here's hoping it's in the API.

[bmercier]

When can we expect to see v3 rolled out? I'm very excited for these features! 

 

The new Smart Home skill is developed.

 

At this point, we are entirely dependent on Amazon. It may take a while still.

 

Benoit

[bmercier]

I too hoped that the Room function was going to be something passed through the API - we already have Room setup in the portal, so just needed the Echo to supply it.

 

Also in the announcement, if I recall, was the ability of Alexa to do complex tasks when i say "Goodnight." Is that in the API or is that going to be something done through the Alexa app like the room groups? Again, here's hoping it's in the API.

 

There is no notion of rooms in the smart home API. That was initially developed for Google Home, when the same UI handled both Echo and Google Home. This was left only for convenience or organizing the spokens.

 

Amazon can handle rooms using groups. Using groups in V2 was not recommended. In V3, it's slighty better. It's still multiple API calls for as many devices as there are in the group. But the API now allows for "aysnchronous responses", and our implementation is able to detect the use of groups and handle delays properly which prevents triggering alerts. But still, turning off 30 lights at bedtime will take time to complete. A program or scene would be much faster.

 

Benoit

[stusviews]

There is no notion of rooms in the smart home API. That was initially developed for Google Home, when the same UI handled both Echo and Google Home. This was left only for convenience or organizing the spokens.

 

Amazon can handle rooms using groups. Using groups in V2 was not recommended. In V3, it's slighty better. It's still multiple API calls for as many devices as there are in the group. But the API now allows for "aysnchronous responses", and our implementation is able to detect the use of groups and handle delays properly which prevents triggering alerts. But still, turning off 30 lights at bedtime will take time to complete. A program or scene would be much faster.

 

Benoit

 

Benoit,

 

I'm relieved. All my groups have only one load device so I can set the brightness by voice. Any scene with multiple loads uses scenes or programs as you recommend. Thanks for the info.

 

Respectfully,

Stu

[larryllix]

My V2 is getting almost to the point of uselessness with delays.

 

Alexa just goes away a lot and most of the correct responses take 20 to 30 seconds.

At times devices are done their slow dimming before verbal responses.

 

I previously deleted all my other skills as I can never remember the language syntax to operate any of them. Good for demo time but then mostly useless so they got deleted and that sped things up to like new speeds again.

 

I have not intentionally added any skills to Alexa so I don't know why it is so slow again. The walk across the room to the light switch has become faster and more reliable lately.

 

I saw a Google Home a few days ago and it is starting to look a lot better for smoothness of operation, understanding of vocals, intelligence, and much, much better sound than my muffled Echo and squawky Dots. It could be blasting out music and hear itself addressed by a quiet voice across the room with her back turned.

[stusviews]

I'm not having that experience with my Echo devices except that responses to commands usually precedes the acknowledgement, so it's actually faster now--mostly. I wonder why your system is so slow and why the Alexa app goes away at all.

[bmercier]

My V2 is getting almost to the point of uselessness with delays.

 

Alexa just goes away a lot and most of the correct responses take 20 to 30 seconds.

At times devices are done their slow dimming before verbal responses.

 

I previously deleted all my other skills as I can never remember the language syntax to operate any of them. Good for demo time but then mostly useless so they got deleted and that sped things up to like new speeds again.

 

I have not intentionally added any skills to Alexa so I don't know why it is so slow again. The walk across the room to the light switch has become faster and more reliable lately.

 

I saw a Google Home a few days ago and it is starting to look a lot better for smoothness of operation, understanding of vocals, intelligence, and much, much better sound than my muffled Echo and squawky Dots. It could be blasting out music and hear itself addressed by a quiet voice across the room with her back turned.

 

I'm not sure why it would be slow. 

 

FYI, I have both an echo and Google Home. My personal opinion, if it matters, is that they are fairly equivalent in terms of speech recognition. Except when I call google "Alexa" and vice-versa

 

Both have their strength and weaknesses, but I would say that Alexa currently has an edge over Google Home, at least in the smart home space. And especially with V3. So, I think it's a better idea to troubleshoot this issue than switch, especially given the investments that you had in echo. This is my personal opinion. 

 

I think the issue may lie at the network level. Do you have high ping? packet loss? It could be at Amazon too. If you want, if you open a ticket, I could check if I see something in the logs. I will need your uuid.

 

Or you may want to wait for V3 too. It may help.

 

Benoit