ISY Portal Maintenance - 01-21-2018

[bmercier]

Hello everyone,

We will have a small maintenance on Sunday 01-21-2018 at 5:00 AM PDT which will last a few minutes. No downtime is planned.

Enhancements:
- Amazon Echo V3 usage through the mobile app will work better; The device status will be shown, and there will no longer be "There was a problem". This will work for all device types, except for scenes due to the status which can't be retrieved.

 

With kind regards,

 

Benoit

[cyberk]

Thanks Benoit!

 

Any chance you can make it so that the default on function for a fanlinc motor is “high”. If I tell Alexa to turn on the motor on a fanlinc, she replies without an error, but nothing happens to the motor. If I tell her to set it to 100%, it goes high.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[bmercier]

The maintenance is complete.

 

Benoit

[bmercier]

Thanks Benoit!

 

Any chance you can make it so that the default on function for a fanlinc motor is “high”. If I tell Alexa to turn on the motor on a fanlinc, she replies without an error, but nothing happens to the motor. If I tell her to set it to 100%, it goes high.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll see with Michel if/how we can do this.

[toflaherty]

Hello everyone,

 

We will have a small maintenance on Sunday 01-21-2018 at 5:00 AM PDT which will last a few minutes. No downtime is planned.

 

Enhancements:

- Amazon Echo V3 usage through the mobile app will work better; The device status will be shown, and there will no longer be "There was a problem". This will work for all device types, except for scenes due to the status which can't be retrieved.

With kind regards,

Benoit

Is there anything I have to do if I'm still getting the error message in the alexa app?

 

Sent from my LG-H915 using Tapatalk

[bmercier]

Is there anything I have to do if I'm still getting the error message in the alexa app?

 

Sent from my LG-H915 using Tapatalk

 

I see 2 possible reasons:

- A discovery has not run yet (A discovery is required, and Amazon runs that automatically every 1-2 hours)

- The device is a scene (Scenes exposed as a device will still have that error message).

 

Benoit

[toflaherty]

I see 2 possible reasons:

- A discovery has not run yet (A discovery is required, and Amazon runs that automatically every 1-2 hours)

- The device is a scene (Scenes exposed as a device will still have that error message).

 

Benoit

That's it. Sorry I overlooked that detail. None of my devices are by themselves in alexa, so they are all scenes exposed as lights. I'm probably stuck with this alexa problem because I like to keep my kpl status buttons synced with my lights.

 

Sent from my LG-H915 using Tapatalk

[bmercier]

That's it. Sorry I overlooked that detail. None of my devices are by themselves in alexa, so they are all scenes exposed as lights. I'm probably stuck with this alexa problem because I like to keep my kpl status buttons synced with my lights.

 

Sent from my LG-H915 using Tapatalk

 

Let me share some technical details.

 

Device statuses are sent to Amazon either:

- Proactively (proactivelyReported=true)

- Retrieved by Amazon on request. (retrievable=true)

 

These are properties of a device returned during discovery.

 

When looking at a device in the echo app, there is a status request sent to ISY Portal and to your ISY about every 2 seconds. That's if retrievable=true.

 

The error message in the Alexa app is a bug. Whenever the retrievable=false, the error message appears, even if proactivelyReported=true. It should not, this is a known problem at Amazon.

 

Now, in the case of a scene, there are no status available. Both proactivelyReported and retrievable must be set to false. That will not help you.

 

You could use a work-around though. It's tedious, but what you could do is use a program to turn on/off your scenes, and expose your program to Alexa, instead of the actual scenes. Programs do have a status. If you need dimming for your scenes, there's no easy way. You could use a state variable to hold the dimming level, but then, you can't really set the dim level of a scene.

 

Benoit

[bmercier]

You could use a work-around though. It's tedious, but what you could do is use a program to turn on/off your scenes, and expose your program to Alexa, instead of the actual scenes. Programs do have a status. If you need dimming for your scenes, there's no easy way. You could use a state variable to hold the dimming level, but then, you can't really set the dim level of a scene.

 

For this to work, you also need to run the program then/else whenever the status of the scene changes; you could monitor the kpl button or any other device in the scene.

[toflaherty]

Let me share some technical details.

 

Device statuses are sent to Amazon either:

- Proactively (proactivelyReported=true)

- Retrieved by Amazon on request. (retrievable=true)

 

These are properties of a device returned during discovery.

 

When looking at a device in the echo app, there is a status request sent to ISY Portal and to your ISY about every 2 seconds. That's if retrievable=true.

 

The error message in the Alexa app is a bug. Whenever the retrievable=false, the error message appears, even if proactivelyReported=true. It should not, this is a known problem at Amazon.

 

Now, in the case of a scene, there are no status available. Both proactivelyReported and retrievable must be set to false. That will not help you.

 

You could use a work-around though. It's tedious, but what you could do is use a program to turn on/off your scenes, and expose your program to Alexa, instead of the actual scenes. Programs do have a status. If you need dimming for your scenes, there's no easy way. You could use a state variable to hold the dimming level, but then, you can't really set the dim level of a scene.

 

Benoit

I really don't use dimming very much. That's a good idea, thanks.

 

While I have you engaged here, are you aware of the alexa routine problem where a routine is incapable of turning anything on? It will only turn something off, so I had to write a program where the else is to turn my scene on. Now the routine turns off the program which turns my scene on. This required exposing the program as a device/light and giving it a spoken, of which I just made the spoken some garbage to not accidentally trigger it that way.

 

This also seems like an alexa problem, but could be the portal, i don't know. The isy event viewer sees nothing with the on command from a routine.

 

I believe I saw a thread on the forum here somewhere about this and the program workaround was suggested.

 

Sent from my LG-H915 using Tapatalk

[bmercier]

While I have you engaged here, are you aware of the alexa routine problem where a routine is incapable of turning anything on? It will only turn something off, so I had to write a program where the else is to turn my scene on. Now the routine turns off the program which turns my scene on. This required exposing the program as a device/light and giving it a spoken, of which I just made the spoken some garbage to not accidentally trigger it that way.

 

This also seems like an alexa problem, but could be the portal, i don't know. The isy event viewer sees nothing with the on command from a routine.

 

If the device can be turned on/off using regular vocal commands, then this must be an Alexa problem. There is nothing specific to routines in the Alexa API. It simply uses the same APIs.

 

I have not played much with routines yet.

[pjjameso]

Sorry to cross post, but seems to be same topic.  For the life of me cannot get Alexa to recognize ISY scene as a scene, always a device. The portal shows isy and Alexa as scene type. Yet Alexa discovers as device each time.

 

Thoughts?

[bmercier]

Sorry to cross post, but seems to be same topic.  For the life of me cannot get Alexa to recognize ISY scene as a scene, always a device. The portal shows isy and Alexa as scene type. Yet Alexa discovers as device each time.

 

Thoughts?

 

My guess is that you are using the V2 skill.

 

Please upgrade to the V3 skill:

- Disable V2

- Forget all devices

- Enable V3

 

Benoit

[pjjameso]

nope, been using v3 for quite some time.  my programs come across as scenes no problem, its just this one true isy scene that i cannot get to come across.  Always as a discovered as a device.

[pjjameso]

Okay, making progress... deleted skill v3, deleted all devices and scenes.  Now scene comes across and is in Alexa scene tab.  Of course when I try to create a routine and and select the curtain scene, NONE of the ISY scenes are presented.  Although all show up in both the devices tab and scene tab in the Alexa App.

 

Ugh..

[OCMacGyver]

My guess is that you are using the V2 skill.

 

Please upgrade to the V3 skill:

- Disable V2

- Forget all devices

- Enable V3

 

Benoit

How would one Forget all devices?

[bmercier]

How would one Forget all devices?

 

In the echo app, in the web version, here:

https://alexa.amazon.com/spa/index.html#smart-home

 

Go to Smart Home / devices, scroll to the bottom.

 

Forget all is there, unless you have no devices.

 

Benoit

[TheFallenAngel]

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll see with Michel if/how we can do this.

When you look into it tho - the low, medd, high as default must be a choice. I mostly have my fans on MEd, and one can't even be handled at high.. And I am sure there will be people to prefer low as default too..

 

Sent from my SM-G935W8 using Tapatalk

[bmercier]

When you look into it tho - the low, medd, high as default must be a choice. I mostly have my fans on MEd, and one can't even be handled at high.. And I am sure there will be people to prefer low as default too..

 

Sent from my SM-G935W8 using Tapatalk

 

Good suggestion. Thanks,

 

Benoit