ISY Portal Maintenance - 02-25-2018

[bmercier]

Hello everyone,

We will have a maintenance this Sunday 02-25-2018 at 5:00 AM PDT which will last 2 hours, with downtime.

We recently encountered stability issues with our AWS servers. We have worked with Amazon to identify the issue, and it was due to the instance type that we are using (m5.large) that are running on new hardware. As per Amazon's recommendation, we will be switching all of our servers to another instance type with runs on different hardware.

In addition, we will have a fix for Alexa routines using ISY scenes exposed as devices.

With kind regards,

Benoit

[MWareman]

Ahhh, yes. M5.large. Affecting enterprises everywhere....

Good luck with the changes! We’ve also hit issues with this issue stance type over the last few weeks and got advised to move away from them...

[bmercier]

Hello everyone,

The maintenance is completed!

Benoit

[toflaherty]

23 hours ago, bmercier said:

Hello everyone,

We will have a maintenance this Sunday 02-25-2018 at 5:00 AM PDT which will last 2 hours, with downtime.

We recently encountered stability issues with our AWS servers. We have worked with Amazon to identify the issue, and it was due to the instance type that we are using (m5.large) that are running on new hardware. As per Amazon's recommendation, we will be switching all of our servers to another instance type with runs on different hardware.

In addition, we will have a fix for Alexa routines using ISY scenes exposed as devices.

With kind regards,

Benoit

Can you please provide more information on the "fix for Alexa routines using ISY scenes exposed as devices?"

I currently have an issue where I can't turn a scene exposed as a device on through a routine.  I have to have the routine turn a program off, where the program turns my scene on.

[bmercier]

38 minutes ago, toflaherty said:

Can you please provide more information on the "fix for Alexa routines using ISY scenes exposed as devices?"

I currently have an issue where I can't turn a scene exposed as a device on through a routine.  I have to have the routine turn a program off, where the program turns my scene on.

Scenes exposed as devices have the capability to be turned on/off (PowerController) and to be brightened/dimmed (BrightnessController).

When a device is added to a routine, somehow, Alexa will use the BrightnessController/SetBrightness to the value specified in the mobile app, and use the PowerController/TurnOff if the value is 0.

The issue was that BrightnessController/SetBrightness was not implemented for scenes (or scenes exposed as devices). As you know, ISY scenes can be brightened/dimmed, but they can't be set to an absolute level. So the fix was to enable that functionnality. Now if BrightnessController/SetBrightness is called for a scene with an on level > 0%, then the scene is turned on.

You can try it by asking, Alexa, turn on <your scene> to 50%. That will turn on the scene if the requested level > 0%.

Now, during my testing, I noticed that sometimes, Alexa simply did not make the API call when triggering the routine. No matter what I tried, it would not work. After searching online, the solution was to completely delete the Alexa App, reinstall, and create a new routine. I also had an issue when I created a routine named "bed time". When I triggered manually the routine using the app, it would work, but when asking "Alexa, Bed time", Alexa did not trigger the routine and only responded with "Have a good night, sleep well". Looks like some names can't be used.

Hope that helps.

Benoit

[stusviews]

Some known statements can't be used. For example, I'm unable to use, "let the sun shine in," or, "here comes the sun," to open the bedroom window coverings.

[toflaherty]

On 2/25/2018 at 12:26 PM, bmercier said:

Scenes exposed as devices have the capability to be turned on/off (PowerController) and to be brightened/dimmed (BrightnessController).

When a device is added to a routine, somehow, Alexa will use the BrightnessController/SetBrightness to the value specified in the mobile app, and use the PowerController/TurnOff if the value is 0.

The issue was that BrightnessController/SetBrightness was not implemented for scenes (or scenes exposed as devices). As you know, ISY scenes can be brightened/dimmed, but they can't be set to an absolute level. So the fix was to enable that functionnality. Now if BrightnessController/SetBrightness is called for a scene with an on level > 0%, then the scene is turned on.

You can try it by asking, Alexa, turn on <your scene> to 50%. That will turn on the scene if the requested level > 0%.

Now, during my testing, I noticed that sometimes, Alexa simply did not make the API call when triggering the routine. No matter what I tried, it would not work. After searching online, the solution was to completely delete the Alexa App, reinstall, and create a new routine. I also had an issue when I created a routine named "bed time". When I triggered manually the routine using the app, it would work, but when asking "Alexa, Bed time", Alexa did not trigger the routine and only responded with "Have a good night, sleep well". Looks like some names can't be used.

Hope that helps.

Benoit

Benoit, I wanted to let you know that I finally got a chance to test this today.  Although thanks to how extremely universal the isy is, I had a workaround, but this is now significantly more straightforward and user friendly.  Instead of the requirement to have an alexa routine turn a program OFF, where the else in the program was to turn a scene ON, I can directly turn on a scene through a routine now (with isy scene exposed as a light).  I set it to turn on to 100% brightness and it worked great.  Thanks for the update.