Context-aware Alexa with an ISY

[lilyoyo1]

4 hours 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 use both Google home and Alexa in my house. Both are set up exactly the same way. 

I do control my lights with programs. I don't know if that makes a difference or not

[ulrick65]

3 hours ago, apnar said:

 

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.

 

Thanks.  I tried it and noticed a few things:

When you create the Spoken in the ISY Portal, you can select a Scene and add it as a Device/Light...it then works in the group that is created in the Alexa App and will turn on the light with "Alexa Turn on the Light".

However, When you create the Spoken in the ISY Portal, you can't select FAN when you select a scene (not sure why, you can pick any of the other categories!).  So there does not seem to be a way to use a scene for the Fan.  Since I using FanLincs, I have buttons created that set the desired fan speed...so selecting the Fanlinc device is not ideal for me really.

I did add the FanLinc directly as a Device and picked FAN in the Spoken setup and it worked perfectly in the group.  I am now able to turn on the light with "Alexa Turn on the Light" when I am in that room and "Alexa Turn on the Fan"...however, it turns on the Fanlinc to high speed...creating a wind tunnel!

I will mess around more and see if I can figure out how to use the Fan as slow speed this way...but I did confirm that it works when referencing the FAN device directly and add it to the group.

Thanks.

[DaveStLou]

5 hours ago, lilyoyo1 said:

I use both Google home and Alexa in my house. Both are set up exactly the same way. 

I do control my lights with programs. I don't know if that makes a difference or not

I tried again to set up my fans like above but I am unable to give a second fan the same spoken as another, let alone third, fourth and fifth, like I have. I DO use Fan Alexa Category so I can set speed rather than just on an off. Seems odd that it would allow switch to have the same spoken for more than one switch and not allow it on fans.

[lilyoyo1]

12 hours ago, DaveStLou said:

I tried again to set up my fans like above but I am unable to give a second fan the same spoken as another, let alone third, fourth and fifth, like I have. I DO use Fan Alexa Category so I can set speed rather than just on an off. Seems odd that it would allow switch to have the same spoken for more than one switch and not allow it on fans.

Maybe that difference is why it doesn't work for you. We never change speeds so it being a switch works for me

[apnar]

Having failed to get this to work for my fans for years, let alone other device types I ended up using a different solution.  Using NodeRed I was able to create room aware commands for everything I wanted to (fans, TVs, blinds).  Here is the post that got me going and I posted there with my updated config:

https://community.home-assistant.io/t/approaches-to-room-aware-voice-commands-for-alexa-with-node-red/165399