Can Both Portals Be Used At The Same Time?

[smokegrub]

I have separate Amazon Accounts and portals for two residences. Currently, I set the preferred portal for a residence; select the Amazon Account for that residence; forget devices; discover devices. Generally works well. Is it possible to use both portals simultaneously to control Alexa at both residences?

 As I see it now, I can use Alexa only at one residence at a time.

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi smokegrub,

Something like this: https://wiki.universal-devices.com/index.php?title=ISY_Portal_Amazon_Echo_Integration_V3#Instructions_for_using_Multiple_ISYs_with_one_Echo_Accout

With kind regards,

Michel

[smokegrub]

Thanks, Michel. I will check that out.

[smokegrub]

18 hours ago, Michel Kohanim said:

Hi smokegrub,

Something like this: https://wiki.universal-devices.com/index.php?title=ISY_Portal_Amazon_Echo_Integration_V3#Instructions_for_using_Multiple_ISYs_with_one_Echo_Accout

With kind regards,

Michel

Michel: I have read everything and I just want to make certain we have effectively communicated. When I finish will I be able to use spokens at one residence at the same time my wife is using spokens at the other residence?

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi @smokegrub,

I have asked @bmercier to chime in.

With kind regards,
Michel

[bmercier]

On 8/5/2018 at 6:46 PM, smokegrub said:

Michel: I have read everything and I just want to make certain we have effectively communicated. When I finish will I be able to use spokens at one residence at the same time my wife is using spokens at the other residence?

Absolutely.

Just to clarify, here's how things are linked together.

If both homes have their own Echo and their own ISY, you don't even need sub-accounts.

Echo A uses Amazon account A, which is linked to ISY Portal user A. This ISY Portal User A needs to have ISY A as his preferred ISY.

Echo B uses Amazon account B, which is linked to ISY Portal user B (Can be in same account as ISY Portal User A). This ISY Portal User B needs to have ISY B as his preferred ISY.

That's it.

Benoit.

[smokegrub]

20 hours ago, bmercier said:

Absolutely.

Just to clarify, here's how things are linked together.

If both homes have their own Echo and their own ISY, you don't even need sub-accounts.

Echo A uses Amazon account A, which is linked to ISY Portal user A. This ISY Portal User A needs to have ISY A as his preferred ISY.

Echo B uses Amazon account B, which is linked to ISY Portal user B (Can be in same account as ISY Portal User A). This ISY Portal User B needs to have ISY B as his preferred ISY.

That's it.

Benoit.

My ISY at my primary residence is Under My Profile linked to my primary residence email address. This accesses my first Amazon Account. My second ISY shows as linked to the same email address/Amazon account. I can find no way to change that address to the email address I used to set up and access the second Amazon account. If I unlink and relink it returns to its former email address. How do I change this?

Normally i select the portal where I happen do be, make that my preferred, log into Amazon on my Mac, tell the account its not me and then log into the other amazon account. Works, but it is a real pain. Moreover, if my wife stays in the other residence she cannot use Alexa.

Please help me solve this problem.

[bmercier]

2 hours ago, smokegrub said:

My second ISY shows as linked to the same email address/Amazon account.

What do you mean?

An ISY is not "linked" to anything.

An Amazon account links to an ISY Portal User profile, which is "linked" to an ISY (by specifying the preferred ISY).

If you are referring to the "Amazon account linked to" box under "My Profile", please disregard. It is no longer used when using the V3 skill.

If I unlink and relink it returns to its former email address. How do I change this?

Are you referring to the account linking when you enable the skill in the Alexa app?

Benoit

[smokegrub]

10 hours ago, bmercier said:

What do you mean?

An ISY is not "linked" to anything.

An Amazon account links to an ISY Portal User profile, which is "linked" to an ISY (by specifying the preferred ISY).

If you are referring to the "Amazon account linked to" box under "My Profile", please disregard. It is no longer used when using the V3 skill.

Are you referring to the account linking when you enable the skill in the Alexa app?

Benoit

I am referring to the latter.

It is clear that I am "in over my head" in setting my system up so I can use both portals to control my Alexa devices simultaneously in my separate residences. The portal for my primary residence is performing as it should now. In order to use Alexa at my secondary residence I have to change the preferred portal to that location, open the app in my Mac, tell the app I am not Donnie, log into the Amazon account for the secondary location, forget devices and discover. When I do that Alexa will work at th secondary residence but not at my primary residence. I need set-by-step instructions to set the portals up to enable me to use Alexa at both residences simultaneously. Any help will be appreciated.

[bmercier]

Just to be sure, are you using the same Amazon account for both echo? Or do you have a different one for both home? You need to have one per residence. 

Setting up a second residence is the same process as your primary one, but you have to have:

• Different echos for both homes (I assume you don't move them between houses)
• 2 Different Amazon accounts. One used for the primary residence, one used for the secondary residence.
• 2 Different ISY Portal user profiles. Each one must have the preferred ISY set to the appropriate ISY. They can both be in the same ISY Portal account.

Then, when you link, you have to login to alexa.amazon.com using the Amazon account related to the residence you want to configure, and link to the appropriate ISY Portal user profile. Doing this should not affect the other residence if it uses a different amazon account.

Benoit

 

[smokegrub]

Thanks, will try this next time we are both at separate residences, about 10 days.

[smokegrub]

I travelled to the remote ISY and did the following:

Perform the following steps in the order given:

1. Open the ISY Portal
• Select"My Profile" (top right on screen)
• Select "My Preferred ISY"
• Select the UUID of the ISY where the Amazon account is located (Chesapeake or Wolf Creek)
• Save

2. Select "Alexa" in the Mac's menu bar
• Select "Not D.?"
• Sign out
• Once signed out, sign in to the Amazon account where the ISY is located (use the name and password found in 1Password)
• Check the “Settings” in the account to ensure they are correct. If not, delete them and “Discover”. Check to ensure they are correct.

3. On the iPhone, select the Amazon Alexa App
• Check to ensure the account on the iPhone is the same as the account on the Mac. If not, select “I am not D. Wheeler” and install the correct account using the name and password found in 1Password.
• Check the “Settings” in the account to ensure they are correct. If not, scroll to the bottom of the screen.Select "Forget All Devices"
• Select "Discover Devices"
• Confirm that the devices those located at the desired location on the Mac and the iPhone.
• Test to ensure Spokens produce the desired results

Test failed. My wife can control her Echos. I can't unless I set up s ove, If I do that, I can control my devices but then my wife can't. Between this and trying to set an Americrest HD camera I find both abject failures. 

 

[bmercier]

5 hours ago, smokegrub said:

I travelled to the remote ISY and did the following:

Perform the following steps in the order given:

1. Open the ISY Portal
• Select"My Profile" (top right on screen)
• Select "My Preferred ISY"
• Select the UUID of the ISY where the Amazon account is located (Chesapeake or Wolf Creek)
• Save

2. Select "Alexa" in the Mac's menu bar
• Select "Not D.?"
• Sign out
• Once signed out, sign in to the Amazon account where the ISY is located (use the name and password found in 1Password)
• Check the “Settings” in the account to ensure they are correct. If not, delete them and “Discover”. Check to ensure they are correct.

3. On the iPhone, select the Amazon Alexa App
• Check to ensure the account on the iPhone is the same as the account on the Mac. If not, select “I am not D. Wheeler” and install the correct account using the name and password found in 1Password.
• Check the “Settings” in the account to ensure they are correct. If not, scroll to the bottom of the screen.Select "Forget All Devices"
• Select "Discover Devices"
• Confirm that the devices those located at the desired location on the Mac and the iPhone.
• Test to ensure Spokens produce the desired results

Test failed. My wife can control her Echos. I can't unless I set up s ove, If I do that, I can control my devices but then my wife can't. Between this and trying to set an Americrest HD camera I find both abject failures. 

 

At the end, when you say "I can't": What devices do you have?

Are your devices still there, but showing offline?

Have your devices disappeared, and they have been replaced by your wife's?

Benoit

 

 

[bmercier]

Could you also PM me your UUID, I'll take a look at the logs and see if I can find something.

Benoit

[smokegrub]

I did my best to follow the steps provided by Benoit. Did I do what I was supposed to? Obviously didn’t. Now, when I Select the Chesapeake UUID Tool-Connectivity-Amazon Echo the devices and spokens for Chesapeake appear correctly. Likewise, when I select Wolf Creek UUID Tool-Connectivity-Amazon Echo the devices and spokens for Wolf Creek appear correctly. Th e spokens that work, however, are defined by the Mac and Alexa Apps and the Amazon account selected. This results in only one location having  functioning spokens.

Could this be happening because I am using separate Amazon accounts for each location. If that is true there must be a way not evident to me.

 

 

 

[bmercier]

For the benefit of everyone, the initial issue he was having was due to the fact that a single ISY Portal User Profile was used. There has to be 2 ISY Portal User profile.

@smokegrub, I just looked at your account. I see that you now have 2 user profiles, which is good. But the problem is that both user profiles are pointing to the same ISY.
 

[Teken]

Donnie,

You're almost there so hang in just a little bit longer! 

 

[smokegrub]

1 hour ago, bmercier said:

For the benefit of everyone, the initial issue he was having was due to the fact that a single ISY Portal User Profile was used. There has to be 2 ISY Portal User profile.

@smokegrub, I just looked at your account. I see that you now have 2 user profiles, which is good. But the problem is that both user profiles are pointing to the same ISY.
 

Ok. How do I fix that? 

[bmercier]

Login to ISY portal

Click on "users"

You will see your 2 user profiles, showing the preferred ISY associated. Edit one of the two, and change the UUID.

 

Alternatively, you can login to ISY Portal with both user profiles one after the other, click on my profile, and edit the preferred ISY there. It has the exact same effect.

Benoit

[smokegrub]

11 hours ago, bmercier said:

Login to ISY portal

Click on "users"

You will see your 2 user profiles, showing the preferred ISY associated. Edit one of the two, and change the UUID.

 

Alternatively, you can login to ISY Portal with both user profiles one after the other, click on my profile, and edit the preferred ISY there. It has the exact same effect.

Benoit

I did this and it appears I am getting close. However, a problem has arisen. When I tried to access the Amazon account for Wolf Creek in my Mac app it opened the account for Chesapeake! How do I fix that? Thanks for your continuing help.

 

[bmercier]

6 minutes ago, smokegrub said:

I did this and it appears I am getting close. However, a problem has arisen. When I tried to access the Amazon account for Wolf Creek in my Mac app it opened the account for Chesapeake! How do I fix that? Thanks for your continuing help.

I don't use a Mac. There must be a logout button in the app somewhere. In the iOS App, it's the "Sign out" button under settings. It might be the same on the Mac.

Personally, instead of using the app, I would use the web version: https://alexa.amazon.com. 

In the web app, when you want to switch amazon account, you can logout by clicking the last option on the left.

[smokegrub]

52 minutes ago, bmercier said:

I don't use a Mac. There must be a logout button in the app somewhere. In the iOS App, it's the "Sign out" button under settings. It might be the same on the Mac.

Personally, instead of using the app, I would use the web version: https://alexa.amazon.com. 

In the web app, when you want to switch amazon account, you can logout by clicking the last option on the left.

I tried logging out of the Mac app and Alexa on the iPhone. At Wolf Creek Alexa would say a spoken was being executed but it wasn't. I called Chesapeake and found upstairs devices responded to spokens; downstairs did not! I then opened the Mac app and logged into the Chesapeake account. All devices displayed properly by only the upstairs devices responded to spokens! At Wolf Creek Alexa said she was doing something but the device did not respond. I am going to check the portals and see what devices are in each portal. I completed that task and each account displays the proper devices  under Connectivity.

Edited August 23, 2018 by smokegrub

[bmercier]

Something is mixed up.

We need to check that:

• Echo A uses Amazon account A, which is linked to ISY Portal user A, which has its preferred ISY set to ISY A.
• Echo B uses Amazon account B, which is linked to ISY Portal user B, which has its preferred ISY set to ISY B.

Please write down for both locations:

• The Amazon account
• The ISY Portal user profile
• The UUID

Instructions:

1. Login to ISY Portal using either user profile. Go to "Users". Make sure that each user profile is mapped to the correct location's UUID.
2. For both locations: Login to the echo app (https://alexa.amazon.com) using the location's Amazon account
   1. Go to Settings. Make sure that you see the current location's Echo device. Not the other location's echo.
   2. Go to Smart Home | Devices, click Forget all (At the bottom right)
   3. Go to Skills, find the "ISY Optimized for Smart Home V3". Click Disable, then Enable.
   4. When linking with ISY Portal, make sure to use the ISY Portal user profile for that location.
   5. When you discover devices, you should be getting the devices from the ISY related to the Portal user profile you just linked to.

Tips for testing:

• In addition to testing with the echo itself, you can test using the Alexa app (iOS version, and possibly Mac as well).
• Go to Smart Home, find your device, and turn it on/off using the app.

Benoit

 

[smokegrub]

2 hours ago, bmercier said:

Something is mixed up.

We need to check that:

• Echo A uses Amazon account A, which is linked to ISY Portal user A, which has its preferred ISY set to ISY A.
• Echo B uses Amazon account B, which is linked to ISY Portal user B, which has its preferred ISY set to ISY B.

Please write down for both locations:

• The Amazon account
• The ISY Portal user profile
• The UUID

Instructions:

1. Login to ISY Portal using either user profile. Go to "Users". Make sure that each user profile is mapped to the correct location's UUID.
2. For both locations: Login to the echo app (https://alexa.amazon.com) using the location's Amazon account
   1. Go to Settings. Make sure that you see the current location's Echo device. Not the other location's echo.
   2. Go to Smart Home | Devices, click Forget all (At the bottom right)
   3. Go to Skills, find the "ISY Optimized for Smart Home V3". Click Disable, then Enable.
   4. When linking with ISY Portal, make sure to use the ISY Portal user profile for that location.
   5. When you discover devices, you should be getting the devices from the ISY related to the Portal user profile you just linked to.

Tips for testing:

• In addition to testing with the echo itself, you can test using the Alexa app (iOS version, and possibly Mac as well).
• Go to Smart Home, find your device, and turn it on/off using the app.

Benoit

Before I do all this something may be wrong in the profile view which does not indicate indicate linked Amazon Accounts.

 

 

 

[bmercier]

1 minute ago, smokegrub said:

Before I do all this something may be wrong in the profile view which does not indicate indicate linked Amazon Accounts.

Don't worry with it. It is not relevant to the issue here. This is used only with earlier versions of the skill (V1 & V2).

Benoit