Alexa groups

[stusviews]

The ability being discussed is an Amazon Alexa device ability. That strongly suggests that the ISY skill (either v2 or v3) is not the enabler.

[Goose66]

I guess we'll have to wait and see when the v3 ISY Skill is available.

[stusviews]

Is it possible this only works with Echo Plus and 2nd gen Dots? Man, that would suck!

 

Using the same command in different rooms does not work with my several 2^nd generation Echo Dots. It does work using the original Echo devices and both the earliest and latest Dots as long as they're assigned to different accounts.

[asbril]

Although not nearly a quarter of a million, I have a relatively large budget and the ISY is still my choice.

It is not only a matter of money.  If money would be the concern (and I had a lot of money) I would have a professional install Control4.

We like ISY because it is cheaper and because we enjoy doing it ourselves.

[G W]

It is not only a matter of money. If money would be the concern (and I had a lot of money) I would have a professional install Control4.

We like ISY because it is cheaper and because we enjoy doing it ourselves.

If I had money I'd have a house full of little Vietnamese to handle this.

 

My wife's nieces and nephews all want to come to US for school.

 

Sent from my SM-G955U1 using Tapatalk

[asbril]

I find the new Alexa App very appealing. Because I have more than 40  (ZWave) devices, I look at my devices by Group.

The only negative is that the status does not show until you actually click on either ON or OFF. Other than this negative, this APP is as good as Mobilinc.

 

This being said, the update process includes several steps on 2 web sites and in 1 App :

 

1. ISY Portal, add devices in Connectivity, Amazon Echo, Device....
2. Alexa.Amazon.com, Discover
3. Alexa App, Add Device

But once done, very nice.

 

Mobilinc requires fewer steps, all in the App :

 

1. Settings
2. Lightning Controller
3. Tap to Synch with ISY
4. Update Only

Edited November 12, 2017 by asbril

[apnar]

So I never moved over to the ISY portal for Alexa integration, still use the hue emulator. This feature worked perfectly for me the first time. I created a group for every room I have an echo in, added that room’s echo and that room’s light device to the group. Nothing in my setup is called “lights” all have names like “Kitchen Lights”. In every room I simply say “Alexa turn on the lights” and it works as expected. Love it.

 

Sounds like the issue is device classification and the new V3 API will hopefully allow proper classification for portal devices. In the mean time you can fall back to old hue emulator if you can’t wait.

[ScottAvery]

So I never moved over to the ISY portal for Alexa integration, still use the hue emulator. This feature worked perfectly for me the first time. I created a group for every room I have an echo in, added that room’s echo and that room’s light device to the group. Nothing in my setup is called “lights” all have names like “Kitchen Lights”. In every room I simply say “Alexa turn on the lights” and it works as expected. Love it.

 

Sounds like the issue is device classification and the new V3 API will hopefully allow proper classification for portal devices. In the mean time you can fall back to old hue emulator if you can’t wait.

 

Makes sense, everything in Hue would be considered a light already.

[baabm]

I also could not make s SMART HOME GROUP work by simply saying “Alexa, turn on the lights” even though I had an Alexa device in the smart group.

 

I had to call Amazon on a separate issue tonight and asked them houw this is supposed to work. They explained that you must say the name of the smart home group. For instance, if your snart home group name is “Bedroom lights” and it consists of an Alexa device and one or more lights or light scenes, you must say “Alexa, turn on Bedroom lights”, you cannot just say “Alexa, turn on the lights”,

 

They asked me to send them where in their documentation a clarification is needed, which I did. I also explained that this feature is not really a feature at all. If I have to use the full name of the group to activate it, I can do that without including an Alexa device in the group.

[stusviews]

I added the ceiling light scene and device (connected to the load) to a group. I named the group "light." Neither the ceiling room scene not the device are named light. No problem saying, "Alexa, turn on the light," or ,"Alexa, turn the light on."

 

By using multiple account, I can issue the same in command in any of several rooms, and only the light in that room turns on.

 

Both the device and the scene are included in the group so that I can issue a %age, for example, "Alexa, set the light to 40%."

[baabm]

Thanks Stu,

I was trying to avoid setting up multiple accounts to accomplish this. Amazon’s documentation of the feature does not mention multiple accounts, so I assume they also expect it to work without going through that effort.

 

BTW: Besides all the extra work of creating email addresses, creating multi[ple Amazon accounts, moving devices out of the main account and into the sub accounts, are there any other downsides to doing that? And conversely, are there any other upsides to doing it (in addition to having each rooms alexa device having that simplified interface.

Thanks again.

[nathagt]

I also could not make s SMART HOME GROUP work by simply saying “Alexa, turn on the lights” even though I had an Alexa device in the smart group.

 

I had to call Amazon on a separate issue tonight and asked them houw this is supposed to work. They explained that you must say the name of the smart home group. For instance, if your snart home group name is “Bedroom lights” and it consists of an Alexa device and one or more lights or light scenes, you must say “Alexa, turn on Bedroom lights”, you cannot just say “Alexa, turn on the lights”,

 

They asked me to send them where in their documentation a clarification is needed, which I did. I also explained that this feature is not really a feature at all. If I have to use the full name of the group to activate it, I can do that without including an Alexa device in the group.

Are you using v3? Did you disable v2, forget all devices and rediscover? You shouldn’t need to say the name of the smart group if it is set up correctly. It will only work with devices that have lightbulb icons in the alexa app. If your lights don’t have the lightbulb icon then something isn’t set up right. Alexa doesn’t recognize scenes as lights so those won’t work with “turn on the lights” either.

[baabm]

Nathan,

Thanks for the response.

1) I am not using V3 yet. I saw a recent post of someone saying they went thru the steps (forgetting devices, deleting V2, installing V3, discovering) and it diidn’t work for them. I will track that down before I switch over. But again, this feature is an ALEXA feature, it should have nothing to do with the version of ISY interface.

 

And that leads to your next item. I couldn’t figure out what the 2 different symbols in the Alexa app meant. (And I’m still a little fuzzy.) looking at the Alexa app devices page, the only things that come up looking like light bulbs are my LIFX bulbs and strips. All the other devices on that page (that look like little houses) appear to be ISY scenes (although I am not 100% sure of that.) In the ISY I obviously have many devices (insteon switches and dimmers that control bulbs). And for the most I have created a scene for every single switch and some scenes that control multiple switche because somewhere on this forum, someone said its better to control things through scenes. Alexa seems to have pulled in some scenes, but not all.

 

Everything on the Alexa app scenes page appears to be a LIFX scene or a LUTRON scene - I don’t see any ISY scenes there.

 

And everything on the alexa app groups page are just groups I’ve created in the Alexa app.

 

So I don’t doubt your statement, “then something isn’t set up right.” I just don’t know what is wrong or how to fix it.

Thanks again.

[apnar]

Nathan,

Thanks for the response.

1) I am not using V3 yet. I saw a recent post of someone saying they went thru the steps (forgetting devices, deleting V2, installing V3, discovering) and it diidn’t work for them. I will track that down before I switch over. But again, this feature is an ALEXA feature, it should have nothing to do with the version of ISY interface.

 

And that leads to your next item. I couldn’t figure out what the 2 different symbols in the Alexa app meant. (And I’m still a little fuzzy.) looking at the Alexa app devices page, the only things that come up looking like light bulbs are my LIFX bulbs and strips. All the other devices on that page (that look like little houses) appear to be ISY scenes (although I am not 100% sure of that.) In the ISY I obviously have many devices (insteon switches and dimmers that control bulbs). And for the most I have created a scene for every single switch and some scenes that control multiple switche because somewhere on this forum, someone said its better to control things through scenes. Alexa seems to have pulled in some scenes, but not all.

 

Everything on the Alexa app scenes page appears to be a LIFX scene or a LUTRON scene - I don’t see any ISY scenes there.

 

And everything on the alexa app groups page are just groups I’ve created in the Alexa app.

 

So I don’t doubt your statement, “then something isn’t set up right.” I just don’t know what is wrong or how to fix it.

Thanks again.

The simple “turn on the lights” command will only work for devices Alexa knows are classified as lights. In v2 of the skill, nothing has that classification. In v3 my understanding is that lighting devices are classified as “lights” so can be added to Alexa groups and can then be controlled with the simple “turn lights on/off” commands.

 

There is no requirement for special naming, multiple accounts, or anything else. You just need to get a device that’s flagged as a light in the same group as an Alexa device and then it just works.

[baabm]

Thanks Apnar,

 

What you say seems to make sense and explains why we'd need V3 over V2. But in my frenzy to try to get this working, I forgot that I am not using the ISY portal, I am using the mobilinc portal - just another complicating factor. I sent a question off to Mobilinc to see why my ISY devices don't show up as devices in Alexa.

Thanks again,

Bob

[ScottAvery]

All the other devices on that page (that look like little houses) appear to be ISY scenes (although I am not 100% sure of that.) In the ISY I obviously have many devices (insteon switches and dimmers that control bulbs). And for the most I have created a scene for every single switch and some scenes that control multiple switche because somewhere on this forum, someone said its better to control things through scenes. Alexa seems to have pulled in some scenes, but not all.

 

Baabm may have discovered a problem here.  We have established that V3 is required for ISY-managed devices to be considered "Lights" but I think what we will really want is ISY scenes to be considered Lights, otherwise we will still have to group lights in Amazon's eco system, which would incur delays as devices are individually addressed.

Edited December 4, 2017 by ScottAvery

[Goose66]

Baabm may have discovered a problem here.  We have established that V3 is required for ISY-managed devices to be considered "Lights" but I think what we will really want is ISY scenes to be considered Lights, otherwise we will still have to group lights in Amazon's eco system, which would incur delays as devices are individually addressed.

 

This was fixed in the Portal update Sunday morning. You can now specify in the Portal how you want ISY devices and scenes to appear in the Amazon app (LIGHT, OUTLET, SWITCH, or SCENE)

[dbuss]

V3 gives you the option in the ISY portal to make scenes appear as lights. Make sure you have the scene added to your portal. Select the scene in the portal. Under select category you can select "light".

 

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

[baabm]

Well I am glad that I may have uncovered a problem, but I assure you, it was totally by accident. I find that as I get older, I am forgetting more and more things, so:

1) when V3 for the ISY portal was announced, with those new features, I forgot that I was using the mobilinc portal, so those changes didn’t really apply to me and

2) When I wasn’t sure why some (not all) of my scenes were being imported into Alexa, I forgot that in mobilinc, the only scenes that get imported into Alexa are the ones to which I have given a spoken.

 

I have since had an email exchange with Wes at Mobilinc and they are still evaluating the potential impacts to Mobilinc of V3 and will start working on interfacing to it in January. I’ll sit tight awaiting an announcement from Mobilinc saying they are V3 compatible.

Regards,

Bob

[ScottAvery]

This was fixed in the Portal update Sunday morning. You can now specify in the Portal how you want ISY devices and scenes to appear in the Amazon app (LIGHT, OUTLET, SWITCH, or SCENE)

 

 

V3 gives you the option in the ISY portal to make scenes appear as lights. Make sure you have the scene added to your portal. Select the scene in the portal. Under select category you can select "light".

 

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

 

Thanks to you both for the update.  I was out of town and missed it.  Glad to see it was addressed before I even needed it!