Alexa not that simple . . .

[sanders2222]

I have years of successful experience setting up two houses, ELK & DSC security systems,  100s of Insteon devices  AND GOOGLE HOME, I can not figure out this Alexa thing.  I even read a thread on setting one up.  NADA!

I can not tell what account Alexa is linked to even though it is connected to my WiFi.  so much for "plug-n-play" AND I do not see how I can manually link the Echo Dot (3rd gen) to my ISY Portal account, which has to be why ALEXA seems to do very little!  GH set up seems more logical & straight forward to me!  AND on top of that, if Alexa's volume is turned down to conversation level, she seems to have a mouth full of cotton.  YUK!

[larryllix]

Are you using a more recent mobile phone with Andoid 5 or later or an iPhone with necessary version?

 

The Alexa app runs under windows but much is missing or doesn't function.

 

You don't connect devices to ISY Portal. You connect the Alexa app to the UDI v2 skill that has a link to your ISY Portal account.

 

This account security is getting stupid. When they ask for the password they don't specify Amazon account, alexa account, ISY Portal account, ISY device account, router account, WiFi account, or Admin Console account.

 

Most just guess until one works but they have already given out all their security credentials to some snoop app they don't even know functions as stated.

 

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[sanders2222]

59 minutes ago, larryllix said:

Are you using a more recent mobile phone with Andoid 5 or later or an iPhone with necessary version?

        Using my Samsung Galaxy s7 Edge running on System Update 29 (?) Hopefully, that is equivalent to Android 5.

You don't connect devices to ISY Portal. You connect the Alexa app to the UDI v2 skill that has a link to your ISY Portal account.

        It's not clear to me how Alexa links to the ISY Portal. In windows my Alexa setting shows "UDI Optimized for Smart home V3" (listed as  enabled and linked account ????).  But when I  click on the link, the next UDI window gives me an Enabled button.  Clicking on it apparently does nothing (see Image).  I assume V3 as something to do with the 3rd Generation Echo Dot.

This account security is getting stupid. When they ask for the password they don't specify Amazon account, Alexa account, ISY Portal account, ISY device account, router account, WiFi account, or Admin Console account.

        Agreed. Stupid!  It appears my install doesn't get this far despite being able to log into my ISY Portal, Amazon, Alexa, router WiFi & Admin Console accounts.

 

[larryllix]

The S7 runs Android 8 IIRC? I have one and it definitely is capable.

Don't know what else to suggest except to disconnect the account and start again. My GH would never connect for over a year and google couldn't help.

After connecting the account to UDI Smart Home V3 skill did you ask "Alexa. Discover"? Alexa must scrape the connection for all your ISY elements you defined in  ISY Portal.

Edited June 18, 2019 by larryllix

[sanders2222]

1 hour ago, larryllix said:

The S7 runs Android 8 IIRC? I have one and it definitely is capable.

Don't know what else to suggest except to disconnect the account and start again. My GH would never connect for over a year and google couldn't help.

After connecting the account to UDI Smart Home V3 skill did you ask "Alexa. Discover"? Alexa must scrape the connection for all your ISY elements you defined in  ISY Portal.

Thanks Larry for you suggestions.  When I ask Alexa to 'Discover' she comes back 'No devices found'. I did a reset, but will see if I can go through the steps again and see if that helps. I hope my problems are not because my ISY is running on v.4.7.3 or that I have devices from two separate households saved in my ISY Portal.

[larryllix]

30 minutes ago, sanders2222 said:

Thanks Larry for you suggestions.  When I ask Alexa to 'Discover' she comes back 'No devices found'. I did a reset, but will see if I can go through the steps again and see if that helps. I hope my problems are not because my ISY is running on v.4.7.3 or that I have devices from two separate households saved in my ISY Portal.

I am not sure if v4.7.3 is compatible with ISY Portal!!

Why not upgrade to v5?

 

Can you see all your devices in the ISY Portal Aexa vocal bridging table?

Edited June 18, 2019 by larryllix

[lilyoyo1]

The first thing to do is start from the beginning. Get your Isy set up on your portal with the home you are in. No point in adding complications with other homes etc. before you get your primary place settled. 

Choose the isy for that home, go to connections and pick Amazon. Once there choose whether you want to use devices, scenes, or programs and set those up. Once done, you can log into your Alexa app, enable to isy V3 skill and then sign into your portal account. Once that is done ask Alexa to discover. 

[sanders2222]

13 hours ago, larryllix said:

I am not sure if v4.7.3 is compatible with ISY Portal!!

Why not upgrade to v5?

     V5: I'm chicken. Some threads indicate there are all sorts of complications upgrading. That said, the GH house is v5 (see image). If this is my issue, I may need to make the leap!

13 hours ago, larryllix said:

Can you see all your devices in the ISY Portal Alexa vocal bridging table?

    Yes. All devices, scenes & programs appear in the tabbed pull down lists.

13 hours ago, lilyoyo1 said:

The first thing to do is start from the beginning. Get your Isy set up on your portal with the home you are in. No point in adding complications with other homes etc. before you get your primary place settled. 

Choose the isy for that home, go to connections and pick Amazon. Once there choose whether you want to use devices, scenes, or programs and set those up. Once done, you can log into your Alexa app, enable to isy V3 skill and then sign into your portal account. Once that is done ask Alexa to discover. 

     So you suggest opening a separate ISY Portal account for each home instead of using the option in the portal to "add homes"?  Seems people at U-D set up the portal to reduce need for multiple accounts. I think I'd pull a ticket before doing that. 

In my portal account, I set up a 2nd house (Beaver Lake) with Connectivity pointed to Alexa. There I only set up a few devices with 'spokens' for testing.  However, Alexa fails to discover anything when asked, even though, using my phone app, the skill has been enabled.

[lilyoyo1]

1 hour ago, sanders2222 said:

     V5: I'm chicken. Some threads indicate there are all sorts of complications upgrading. That said, the GH house is v5 (see image). If this is my issue, I may need to make the leap!

    Yes. All devices, scenes & programs appear in the tabbed pull down lists.

     So you suggest opening a separate ISY Portal account for each home instead of using the option in the portal to "add homes"?  Seems people at U-D set up the portal to reduce need for multiple accounts. I think I'd pull a ticket before doing that. 

In my portal account, I set up a 2nd house (Beaver Lake) with Connectivity pointed to Alexa. There I only set up a few devices with 'spokens' for testing.  However, Alexa fails to discover anything when asked, even though, using my phone app, the skill has been enabled.

No, I'm saying you should focus on 1 single home and ensure that's the only thing you're accessing

[sanders2222]

30 minutes ago, lilyoyo1 said:

No, I'm saying you should focus on 1 single home and ensure that's the only thing you're accessing

That is just what I am doing. In the portal I set up my Beaver Lake Home ISY Mac address.  Then under tools I selected Alexa under the Connectivity option. There I added a few scenes and devices for testing.    I also added my Echo Dot to the Beaver Lake WiFi and linked to my Amazon Prime account.  When I ask to Alexa to discover devices, she gives me a muffled response she can't find any. I just does not work!

Edit: One surprise is under tools there is a "ISY Web Access" option.  WOW! Now this provides me an option to access the ISY at either home without need to set up port forwarding and IP domain name to do that.  Plus when I had the ISY plugged into a second router, I was not successful passing the port through 2 routers.  Just one log in and password required for both ISY's. Now that's cool!

Edited June 18, 2019 by sanders2222
New Discovery

[lilyoyo1]

In the Amazon app did you add ISY V3 and then login with your portal address

[nathagt]

First, is your Alexa app up to date? I ask because the screenshot you posted showing the ISY Optimized for v3 looks dated. I'm also running Android on a Samsung device. Second, if you click on the "ISY Optimized for v3" skill in the Alexa app, you should see two buttons: Settings and Disable Skill. If you don't see that, then the skill is not enabled. Even if the skill is enabled, it needs to be linked to your ISY Account. Click on settings and it should say "Account Linking | Linked". If you don't see that, then you need to link it by clicking whatever it says there and entering your ISY portal login, not your Amazon login. 

v3 means the third generation of the skill. The echo device has nothing to do with that. You don't even need an echo to make any of this work. As long as the skill is enabled in the Alexa app and properly linked with your ISY Portal account then you should be good to go. You'll only use the echo to discover devices (although you can also do that in the app). 

[sanders2222]

1 hour ago, lilyoyo1 said:

In the Amazon app did you add ISY V3 and then login with your portal address

This may be my problem.  I do not recall ever being asked to login to my ISY Portal account.  But from my screen shots, it appears I'm linked to something.

[nathagt]

That all looks correct. You could disable and re-enable the skill if you're not sure what you're linked to. I've had to do that in the past and it won't mess anything up. But this makes me think your problem is in the portal. Can you provide a screenshot of what you see under Connectivity > Amazon Echo in the ISY Portal? 

[sanders2222]

8 minutes ago, nathagt said:

Can you provide a screenshot of what you see under Connectivity > Amazon Echo in the ISY Portal? 

Here it is:

[nathagt]

I'd say disable the ISY v3 skill and re-enable it on the Alexa App. Then go to that Settings page and log in with your ISY Portal. Maybe there is an extra step there because you have two ISYs? I don't see anything wrong but I'd try re-linking to the Portal. 

[nathagt]

One other thing to check, what is the preferred ISY set to on your account?

 

[sanders2222]

4 minutes ago, nathagt said:

One other thing to check, what is the preferred ISY set to on your account?

You're GENIUS! (hope you don't mind being called that!)  That was the piece of the puzzle I was missing.  I am not too sure how to set "USERS" so I'm using same Gmail account for both houses in the portal.  Updating the MAC address to the house I am in allowed Alexa to discover the devices.  WALA.

Thank you for walking me through this connectivity issue.  PROBLEM SOLVED!

Jim

[nathagt]

Glad to hear it! Enjoy! 

[smokegrub]

It is my understanding when setting up a scene in the portal it must be set up as a light to work. Perhaps my memory is wrong. Please chime in.

[sanders2222]

4 minutes ago, smokegrub said:

It is my understanding when setting up a scene in the portal it must be set up as a light to work. Perhaps my memory is wrong. Please chime in.

 Alexa controls my lighting scenes as defined above.  I say "Alexa, turn on the kitchen lights" and both switches  (& lights) in the scene respond.

[smokegrub]

Thanks for the feedback. Perhaps I was mistaken or perhaps that is from an earlier era.

 

[nathagt]

Thanks for the feedback. Perhaps I was mistaken or perhaps that is from an earlier era.

 

Scenes work for on/off commands but if you want to set a light to a specific percentage then it needs to be defined as a light in the portal. There are also some difference in what you can do with scenes in the Alexa app for routines.

 

EDIT: I was thinking of brighten/dim, set to percentage won't work for ISY scenes regardless. You'll need to use the actual device for that or a state variable.

 

https://forum.universal-device...-be-brighteneddimmed/?do=embed

 

 

[sanders2222]

5 minutes ago, nathagt said:

There are also some difference in what you can do with scenes in the Alexa app for routines.

What about programs? I added a program to the portal that is called by my remote control & it's labeled a scene for Alexa.  The program dims lights to specified levels for movie watching.  However when I use the spoken "watch movie" Alexa responds "I can't find any video skills that supports that."  Can you trigger programs with the Alexa?

[nathagt]

What about programs? I added a program to the portal that is called by my remote control & it's labeled a scene for Alexa.  The program dims lights to specified levels for movie watching.  However when I use the spoken "watch movie" Alexa responds "I can't find any video skills that supports that."  Can you trigger programs with the Alexa?

Yes, you can use programs with Alexa. But Alexa does not have a category for "programs" so they are interpreted as scenes. It sounds like what you want is an Alexa routine that activates your program. I would set your scene to a switch in the portal (not required but it's better) and then set up an Alexa routine with an action that turns on the "switch" tied to your program. Turning the switch on will run the THEN and turning it off will run the ELSE for that program. You'll probably just use THEN. The routine can be activated by you saying "Alexa, watch movie" or anything else you want to define as the trigger.

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