Context-aware Alexa with an ISY

[ulrick65]

Glad I found this thread...finally understand the benefit of using groups in Alexa App.  The part I was missing was that Alexa only understands "light" and can not differentiate between different lights in the room...BUT I can simply have spokens setup for them and those work too.

Question:  Is there anything else that Alexa would understand other than light? (not sure what would be useful, but I am just asking to see).

Thanks.

[Guest]

TV seems to work, as well as XBox. I have a Bond fan bridge as well, that also works with context aware as well.


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[Rob]

I know this thread is almost a year old but can anyone elaborate on "TV" being context aware? I have a few tv's in the home and obviously they can't all be called TV. They're all classified as AV devices in myisy and all are named like "Living Room TV" where "Living Room" is also the name of the Room it's assigned to in Alexa.

I can say "Alexa, turn on lights" without having to specify the room name. I would like to say "Alexa, turn on the tv" but she responds with the standard warning about multiple devices sharing that name.

Am I missing something or is this not possible?

thanks

rob

[lilyoyo1]

16 hours ago, Rob said:

I know this thread is almost a year old but can anyone elaborate on "TV" being context aware? I have a few tv's in the home and obviously they can't all be called TV. They're all classified as AV devices in myisy and all are named like "Living Room TV" where "Living Room" is also the name of the Room it's assigned to in Alexa.

I can say "Alexa, turn on lights" without having to specify the room name. I would like to say "Alexa, turn on the tv" but she responds with the standard warning about multiple devices sharing that name.

Am I missing something or is this not possible?

thanks

rob

All of my fans are located in their respective rooms and labeled simply fan. I haven't had an issue with that. Are you sure you put each tv in the proper room?

[apnar]

32 minutes ago, lilyoyo1 said:

All of my fans are located in their respective rooms and labeled simply fan. I haven't had an issue with that. Are you sure you put each tv in the proper room?

Are you saying that you can walk into any room and say "Alexa, turn on the fan" and it will turn on only that rooms fan?  As far as I know that only works with "light", but would love to get it to work for fans.

[larryllix]

18 minutes ago, apnar said:

Are you saying that you can walk into any room and say "Alexa, turn on the fan" and it will turn on only that rooms fan?  As far as I know that only works with "light", but would love to get it to work for fans.

Alexa thinks every item in my house is a light or a switch. It only knows what I tell it, via ISY Portal.

"Alexa...turn on louder" turns the A/V volume higher. I don't connect things directly to Alexa, only from ISY via the Portal.

"Alexa...turn on the fan high" or "Alexa....turn on the high fan" tuns on the fan in that room.

[Guest]

If you go into the Alexa app, and create Groups (Rooms), you can associate any device to that group (including the Echo device in that room).

So, if you have a fan, thermostat, tv, Xbox, etc. in that room, you can say set the temperature to 72 and the thermostat in that room will respond.  Same thing for Bond Fans, etc.

Where it gets tricky is if your fan has a light kit as well, and you just want your table lights to come on... saying “Turn on the lights” will turn EVERY light on in that room, even the fan light kit!

 

[apnar]

I have everything going Alexa -> ISY Portal.  I have Alexa Groups created for every room.  I have 3 things in each group, the light, the fan, and the Echo for that room.  For example:

Alexa Group: Kids Room

Devices:
 Kids Echo
 Kids Light (ISY Portal catagory: Device\Light)
 Kids Fan (ISY Portal catagory: Device\Fan, so I get high/med/low control)

If I'm in that room and say "Alexa, turn on the light" it works.  If I say, "Alexa, turn on the fan" I get the "a few things share the name fan" response.  If instead I say "Alexa, turn on kids fan" it works as expected.

What I'd like to know (and it's hinted by the responses above but not completely clear) is does anyone have it working where you can say "Alexa turn on the fan"?  And if so how are you doing it exactly?  Do you have every fan in the house just called "fan" and in a room group?  If so how to you tell it to turn on a fan that's in another room?

 

[lilyoyo1]

3 hours ago, apnar said:

Are you saying that you can walk into any room and say "Alexa, turn on the fan" and it will turn on only that rooms fan?  As far as I know that only works with "light", but would love to get it to work for fans.

That is correct. I add it to the room in the portal (and alternate names) and then my connected service. I do use programs to trigger my stuff instead of the scene or device directly. Instead of trying to control every individual light, I use it to turn on what we use mostly. If I tell it to turn off the lights it will turn off any light that's on. 

[Rob]

On 8/13/2020 at 10:56 AM, lilyoyo1 said:

All of my fans are located in their respective rooms and labeled simply fan. I haven't had an issue with that. Are you sure you put each tv in the proper room?

Ahh THANK YOU!!!  I now better understand Alexa's logic when it comes to rooms. I was only testing one TV. Now that I put them all in their respective rooms it seems to work fine (after having to wait a bit for the changes to take.  Next will be doing the same with the ceiling fans. This is really taking the usability her up a notch!

[piconut]

 

On 8/13/2020 at 11:50 AM, apnar said:

I have everything going Alexa -> ISY Portal.  I have Alexa Groups created for every room.  I have 3 things in each group, the light, the fan, and the Echo for that room.  For example:

Alexa Group: Kids Room

Devices:
 Kids Echo
 Kids Light (ISY Portal catagory: Device\Light)
 Kids Fan (ISY Portal catagory: Device\Fan, so I get high/med/low control)

If I'm in that room and say "Alexa, turn on the light" it works.  If I say, "Alexa, turn on the fan" I get the "a few things share the name fan" response.  If instead I say "Alexa, turn on kids fan" it works as expected.

What I'd like to know (and it's hinted by the responses above but not completely clear) is does anyone have it working where you can say "Alexa turn on the fan"?  And if so how are you doing it exactly?  Do you have every fan in the house just called "fan" and in a room group?  If so how to you tell it to turn on a fan that's in another room?

 

I'm having the same problem with controlling ceiling fans as you. Did you ever get this working correctly?  I found this thread tonight and was successful in getting the lights to come on based on the room I'm in so I know that I'm correctly creating the groups and adding those devices (lights and fans) into the group (along with the related Alexa).  I also have all my fans setup as a fan device in the ISY portal.  So I'm stumped as to why the lights work properly but I get the "a few things share the name fan" when a ask Alexa to turn on the fan.  

Anyone have any ideas as to why this isn't working for ceiling fans?

[DaveStLou]

On 9/14/2020 at 10:58 PM, piconut said:

I'm having the same problem with controlling ceiling fans as you. Did you ever get this working correctly?  I found this thread tonight and was successful in getting the lights to come on based on the room I'm in so I know that I'm correctly creating the groups and adding those devices (lights and fans) into the group (along with the related Alexa).  I also have all my fans setup as a fan device in the ISY portal.  So I'm stumped as to why the lights work properly but I get the "a few things share the name fan" when a ask Alexa to turn on the fan.  

Anyone have any ideas as to why this isn't working for ceiling fans?

I believe it only works with lights. I tried in the past to get it working for ceiling fans and my televisions and AV systems in various rooms but was unsuccessful. 

[lilyoyo1]

2 hours ago, DaveStLou said:

I believe it only works with lights. I tried in the past to get it working for ceiling fans and my televisions and AV systems in various rooms but was unsuccessful. 

It works with both. I have it working with fans and lights for each room. Regardless of room, I simply say turn on the lights (or fan) and it does it for that room only

[DaveStLou]

16 hours ago, lilyoyo1 said:

It works with both. I have it working with fans and lights for each room. Regardless of room, I simply say turn on the lights (or fan) and it does it for that room only

@lilyoyo1 Would you mind sharing how you accomplished that?

I just tried going into the Alexa app and created groups named after the rooms with the devices in each room. When I ask for ceiling fan or fan to be turned off or adjusted, she still replies "which one do you want?"

[Guest]

You might want to look at your group names vs. your actual room names. Say if you have ‘bedroom fan’ defined in your Bond hub, and you have a room named ‘Bedroom’ in Alexa. This will a lot of times trigger the ‘which one are you asking for’ routine...

Makes no sense, but this has been my experience.

Other than that, I have 2 XBox devices in different rooms, and they are assigned in Alexa groups... and each of those rooms has an Echo or Sonos device... works perfectly to say ‘turn on XBox’ and the correct one responds!


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[lilyoyo1]

1 hour ago, DaveStLou said:

@lilyoyo1 Would you mind sharing how you accomplished that?

I just tried going into the Alexa app and created groups named after the rooms with the devices in each room. When I ask for ceiling fan or fan to be turned off or adjusted, she still replies "which one do you want?"

I did a few posts above. i'll add that each speaker is located in the individual rooms as well

[piconut]

2 hours ago, Tonyhuk said:

You might want to look at your group names vs. your actual room names. Say if you have ‘bedroom fan’ defined in your Bond hub, and you have a room named ‘Bedroom’ in Alexa. This will a lot of times trigger the ‘which one are you asking for’ routine...

Makes no sense, but this has been my experience.

I'm not sure what a "Bond hub" is.  However in the ISY Portal, when I add my devices to the Echo, I also use the optional room assignment to help with being able to sort devices by the room that they're in.   I have devices placed into rooms that I've defined like Kitchen, Master Bedroom, Office, etc.  When I set up groups in the Alexa app, I created group names that are the same as the room names I created in the ISY Portal.  Are you saying that this is the reason that it is not working for my ceiling fans? 

Or are you saying that I should not include the room name in the device's spoken name when setting up the device in the ISY Portal (so don't have a device with a spoke name of Office Fan if I also have an Alexa group named Office)?

I'm just trying to figure out why some people here seem to have it working, but others, such as myself, continue to get the "a few things share the name fan" from Alexa.  Any details regarding your setup(s) would be appreciated.

[DaveStLou]

4 hours ago, piconut said:

Or are you saying that I should not include the room name in the device's spoken name when setting up the device in the ISY Portal (so don't have a device with a spoke name of Office Fan if I also have an Alexa group named Office)?

That's my question too.

I tried removing all of my devices (which messes up all routines referencing them BTW so I don't recommend it) and still I get the pesky question from the A lady: "Which one do you want?" 

[lilyoyo1]

I use programs for my assistant control. I only control 1 light in a room which is the main light. I turn on the light I use mostly and the off turn off whatever is on. For example, in the kitchen, I use my can lights mostly. Saying turn the lights on will turn them on. If I say turn off the lights it will turn off whatever is on. It could be the sink lights, island lights, breakfast nook etc. Doesn't matter. It'll turn off. The same applies for any room. In Alexa, it's named Light. 

The same applies for fan. Every room is labeled as fan. I do have the exact room as secondary phrases but the main name is fan. This is for each and every room. 

Each speaker is in its individual room along with each device. With this setup I have not had any issues with turning something on or off

[DaveStLou]

8 minutes ago, lilyoyo1 said:

The same applies for fan. Every room is labeled as fan. I do have the exact room as secondary phrases but the main name is fan. This is for each and every room. 

Maybe I'm misunderstanding. When I attempt to name the fan in every room "fan" in ISY portal, it says "The spoken "fan" is already in use".

 

[lilyoyo1]

8 hours ago, DaveStLou said:

Maybe I'm misunderstanding. When I attempt to name the fan in every room "fan" in ISY portal, it says "The spoken "fan" is already in use".

 

This is how mine is set up

[TJF1960]

@lilyoyo1  I am seeing exactly what @DaveStLou is seeing. 

I noticed that in your pastes that it specifies Google Home Category, whereas ours say Alexa Category. Could it be that Alexa does not support this function?

[ulrick65]

1 hour ago, TJF1960 said:

@lilyoyo1  I am seeing exactly what @DaveStLou is seeing. 

I noticed that in your pastes that it specifies Google Home Category, whereas ours say Alexa Category. Could it be that Alexa does not support this function?

I noticed the same thing... @lilyoyo1 is using Google Home and not Alexa.

I did notice that fan is setup as a secondary spoken for multiple devices...I have not tried that before, so I might reopen this effort here and try again.  I could never get it to work correctly either and just gave up.

[ulrick65]

Going through it again, I think my problem is that my devices are setup as scenes connected to Alexa.  I use Alexa to activate the scenes rather than the device directly...perhaps I don't need to do that?  If I just have her turn on the device directly (say a Switchlinc dimmer that is the controller for a scene) it would activate the scene properly anyway?  I guess I can just try it...but if anyone has an advice, please let me know.

Thanks.

[apnar]

Going through it again, I think my problem is that my devices are setup as scenes connected to Alexa.  I use Alexa to activate the scenes rather than the device directly...perhaps I don't need to do that?  If I just have her turn on the device directly (say a Switchlinc dimmer that is the controller for a scene) it would activate the scene properly anyway?  I guess I can just try it...but if anyone has an advice, please let me know.
Thanks.

I doubt it will make a difference for this effort, but yes you can control the device directly (assuming it’s the load). It won’t activate the scene so some switches may show the wrong dim value but it will control the load. I do most of mine this way as it gives more direct control of dimming levels. If having the rest of the scene out-of-sync bothers you you can have a program detect the device change and clean up the scene.