Context-aware Alexa with an ISY

[copumpkin]

I’m considering signing up for the ISY portal but have been unable to figure out from the documentation whether the ISY skill makes it easy to assign individual Echos to certain parts of the house or devices, so saying “turn on the lights” in each room does the right thing. I know that in theory Alexa supports the feature but just can’t figure out if the ISY integration complicates that at all. Anyone have any experience with it?

[TomL]

You would have to name the lights in particular lights of the house, say in Living Room, I have Alexa contol several lights by saying Alexa turn on End Table or turn on sofa table or floor lamp,  or living room lights to turn all of them on, etc..  Then in Master bedroom its Alexa turn on ceiling light ot turn on accent lamp, etc.  It doesn't matter what room you talk to alexa in, it triggers by the SPOKEN phrase you assign the device.  All the echo's use the same spoken database you build.

[dbuss]

2 hours ago, copumpkin said:

 

I’m considering signing up for the ISY portal but have been unable to figure out from the documentation whether the ISY skill makes it easy to assign individual Echos to certain parts of the house or devices, so saying “turn on the lights” in each room does the right thing. I know that in theory Alexa supports the feature but just can’t figure out if the ISY integration complicates that at all. Anyone have any experience with it?

 

By using the group feature in the Alexa app you can assign individual echo devices and other devices like switches to a group. This allows you to walk the room with that group and say, "Alexa, turn on the light" and the light will turn on. It's a nice feature.

[larryllix]

9 minutes ago, dbuss said:

By using the group feature in the Alexa app you can assign individual echo devices and other devices like switches to a group. This allows you to walk the room with that group and say, "Alexa, turn on the light" and the light will turn on. It's a nice feature.

AS something I have never jumped into.... Can Alexa let ISY know which room has been activated, or is this just an Alexa app thing?

[TomL]

12 minutes ago, dbuss said:

By using the group feature in the Alexa app you can assign individual echo devices and other devices like switches to a group. This allows you to walk the room with that group and say, "Alexa, turn on the light" and the light will turn on. It's a nice feature.

I did not know groups made an Echo independent, may have to try that.  Does it still allow you to turn something on or off in another part of the house or does it just then work with the devices within the group?

[dbuss]

Just now, TomL said:

I did not know groups made an Echo independent, may have to try that.  Does it still allow you to turn something on or off in another part of the house or does it just then work with the devices within the group?

It works with only devices in that group. However, you can turn other lights on and off with that same echo device by using the Alexa spoken name. For example, if I walk ion the bedroom and say Alexa turn on the light, the ceiling light turns on. If I walk into the room and say Alexa turn on the bedside lamp, the bedside lamp turns on. Or I could say Alexa turn on any other device and it would turn that device on. As long as you have a spoken for that device in Alexa.

[dbuss]

8 minutes ago, larryllix said:

AS something I have never jumped into.... Can Alexa let ISY know which room has been activated, or is this just an Alexa app thing?

@larryllix it's no different than manually switching on that light. 

[larryllix]

2 hours ago, dbuss said:

@larryllix it's no different than manually switching on that light. 

OK. so if I am understanding that right.

• A vocal instructon is interpreted by Alexa,
• Alexa sorts out groupings and selects a particular light from the generic instruction
• Alexa turns on this light/device.

Here is where it gets tricky. Is Alexa telling ISY to turn on that light? … or doing it under Alexa control, so ISY wouldn't know?
ISY could sort out devices in a program to know what room but if ISY gets bypassed, it wouldn't know.

[TomL]

I would think that as long as it is a registered device with isy, whether ale a or isy activates it, the status would change from off to on in isy.  My thought is it would be no different then activating a device by smart switch or door sensor. It may not run a program, but it should show a status change.  In regards to whether a room or group becomes active, I wonder if you could set a variable for Alexa to trigger and get an announcement, text or email?

[larryllix]

Perhaps pseudo devices could be designed so that Alexa thinks it is a device, grouped in each room, and when to asked to "turn on the light" Alexa would be notifying ISY that that room's light be activated.

 

I now have more lights that use WiFi, or other non-Insteon protocols, than Insteon lights, and they do not send any status to ISY. ISY is my main controller and I want to keep it that way to utilise it's logic and control.

 

I also have Insteon lighting that I use with dimmed levels in the wee hours. 100 Watt equiv. bulb in bedside table lamps are not appreciated 100% on. I don't see a way around that without ISY.

 

 

[dbuss]

I would think that as long as it is a registered device with isy, whether ale a or isy activates it, the status would change from off to on in isy.  My thought is it would be no different then activating a device by smart switch or door sensor. It may not run a program, but it should show a status change.  In regards to whether a room or group becomes active, I wonder if you could set a variable for Alexa to trigger and get an announcement, text or email?

When the group light is turned off or turned on the status in ISY admin console is changed.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

[dbuss]

Perhaps pseudo devices could be designed so that Alexa thinks it is a device, grouped in each room, and when to asked to "turn on the light" Alexa would be notifying ISY that that room's light be activated.
I now have more lights that WiFi or other non-Insteon operated, than Insteon lights, and they do not send any status to ISY. ISY is my main controller and I want to keep it that way to utilise it's logic nd control.
I also have Insteon lighting that I use with dimmed levels in the wee hours. 100Watt equiv. bulb in bedside table lamps are not appreciated 100% on. I don't see a way around that without ISY.

I use polyglot to control Lifx and Hue bulbs and I can use the group feature to turn these lights on and off and the status of the polyglot node in the admin console changes accordingly.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

[larryllix]

I use polyglot to control Lifx and Hue bulbs and I can use the group feature to turn these lights on and off and the status of the polyglot node in the admin console changes accordingly.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

Ok. I don't use Polyglot for any bulbs, only my own bridging software so I wouldn't have any feedback.
That still doesn't address the brightness levels used by Insteon control.

Sent using Tapatalk

[dbuss]

3 minutes ago, larryllix said:

Ok. I don't use Polyglot for any bulbs, only my own bridging software so I wouldn't have any feedback.
That still doesn't address the brightness levels used by Insteon control.

Sent using Tapatalk
 

You could control a scene that has the brightness level set to your liking.

[DaveStLou]

I've used Alexa with ISY for years but I haven't tweaked Alexa settings much during that time - just added devices.

I saw this thread and decided to give rooms a try. I have my ISY devices, scenes, etc., generally set up in ISY portal with the room in the name (e.g. Bedroom Lamp, Living Room Lamp, Game Room Lamp, etc.). This includes several A/V devices I've mapped through the ISY portal referencing programs, variables, etc.

I assigned devices (including an Alexa devices) to groups by location (living room, kitchen, bedroom, upstairs, downstairs). I then went into the Alexa app on my phone and shorted the names there removing the room reference (e.g. lamp, TV, ceiling lights, fan, etc.)

In practice though, saying Alexa turn on the lamp to the Amazon device in the bedroom for instance, turns on the lamp in the living room. Do the names have to remain unique for this to work? If so, it seems to defeat the convenience of just saying the device (One more thing to remember!). I've double checked that the Alexa devices are in the same room group as the ISY devices I'm trying to control.

What am I missing?

Edited September 6, 2019 by DaveStLou
fixed typo

[dbuss]

4 minutes ago, DaveStLou said:

I've used Alexa with ISY for years but I haven't tweaked Alexa settings much during that time - just added devices.

I saw this thread and decided to give rooms a try. I have my ISY devices, scenes, etc., generally set up in ISY portal with the room in the name (e.g. Bedroom Lamp, Living Room Lamp, Game Room Lamp, etc.). This includes several A/V devices I've mapped through the ISY portal referencing programs, variables, etc.

I assigned devices (including an Alexa devices) to groups by location (living room, kitchen, bedroom, upstairs, downstairs). I then went into the Alexa app on my phone and shorted the names there removing the room reference (e.g. lamp, TV, ceiling lights, fan, etc.)

In practice though, saying Alexa turn on the lamp to the Amazon device in the bedroom for instance, turns on the lamp in the living room. Do the names have to remain unique for this to work? If so, it seems to defeat the convenience of just saying the device (One more thing to remember!). I've double checked that the Alexa devices are in the same room group as the ISY devices I'm trying to control.

What am I missing?

To make this work by saying Alexa turn on the light, you need a group with just the light you want to turn and the Alexa device you want to use for turning on that light. I have only made these groups from the Alexa phone app so.

[DaveStLou]

23 minutes ago, dbuss said:

To make this work by saying Alexa turn on the light, you need a group with just the light you want to turn and the Alexa device you want to use for turning on that light. I have only made these groups from the Alexa phone app so.

I just tried renaming the lamps in the four groups I set up in the Alexa app: Bedroom, Living Room, Upstairs, Downstairs. There's a corresponding Alexa device in each group.

I renamed the lamps in each group to "lamp".  Next I asked the living room Echo to "turn on lamp". Alexa said okay and nothing appeared to happen. I check other rooms and found the bedroom lamp was on.

I tried telling the same living room Echo to "turn on living room lamp" and, of course, the correct lamp turn on.

Seems like I'm missing something on making this work.

[dbuss]

@DaveStLou, Here's how I set up my groups.

1.Open Alexa app on phone

2. Select devices

3. Press + in the upper right corner

4. Press add group

5. Select a room name from the list or create your custom room name

6. Press Next

7. Select the Alexa-enabled device you want in the group

8. Select the light from the device list that you want to turn on

9. Press save

You're now done and should be able to go to the room with the selected Alexa device and say, "Alexa, turn on the light" and the light should turn on.

 

 

[DaveStLou]

20 minutes ago, dbuss said:

@DaveStLou, Here's how I set up my groups.

1.Open Alexa app on phone

2. Select devices

3. Press + in the upper right corner

4. Press add group

5. Select a room name from the list or create your custom room name

6. Press Next

7. Select the Alexa-enabled device you want in the group

8. Select the light from the device list that you want to turn on

9. Press save

You're now done and should be able to go to the room with the selected Alexa device and say, "Alexa, turn on the light" and the light should turn on.

 

 

I started over and added only the lamps and Alexas in the four groups. I can say "turn on the light" in each room and that works, but not "turn on the lamp". I added ceiling light to one room and when I say turn on light, all of the lights come on - only in that room. Which is progress. I am still unable to call out individual lights within the room without giving it the full name (e.g. living room ceiling light or living room lamp).

I guess I was thinking I could request individual devices in that room by the name I chose from @TomL's comment below.

On 8/28/2019 at 11:48 AM, TomL said:

You would have to name the lights in particular lights of the house, say in Living Room, I have Alexa contol several lights by saying Alexa turn on End Table or turn on sofa table or floor lamp,  or living room lights to turn all of them on, etc..  Then in Master bedroom its Alexa turn on ceiling light ot turn on accent lamp, etc.  It doesn't matter what room you talk to alexa in, it triggers by the SPOKEN phrase you assign the device.  All the echo's use the same spoken database you build.

I haven't been able to get them to respond by the name I assign the device at all. Hmmm

Edited September 6, 2019 by DaveStLou

[dbuss]

5 minutes ago, DaveStLou said:

I started over and added only the lamps and Alexas in the four groups. I can same turn on the light in each room and that works, but not turn on the lamp. I added ceiling light to one room and when I say turn on light, all of the lights come on - only in that room. Which is progress.

I guess I was thinking I could request individual devices in that room by the name I chose from @TomL's comment below.

I haven't been able to get them to respond by the name I assign the device at all. Hmmm

If you want to turn on a light using the light's given name, it needs to be the spoken you gave it in the ISY Alexa portal.

When you assign a light to a group as I outlined,  Alexa identifies it only as a light. So you have to say "turn on the light" or it won't recognize what you want to do. You could also ask Alexa to turn the same light by using the spoken you gave it in the ISY Alexa porTAL.

For example. In a bedroom, I have a ceiling light and a bedside lamp. I have the ceiling light and the Alexa device in that bedroom in a group. If I say "Alexa, turn on the light", the light turns on. This is the only Alexa device that will turn on that ceiling light with that command. I do this for several rooms. That way all you have to remember is "Alexa, turn on the light" when you enter a room.

If I want to turn on the bedside lamp I have to say, "Alexa, turn on the bedside lamp". Of course I can say "Alexa, turn on the bedside lamp from any Alexa device we have and the bedside lamp will turn on.

[DaveStLou]

Ah, that makes sense. Outside of the general name "light", each device must have a unique name for Alexa to find. Thanks for the clarification.

[Guest]

Hey guys, here's a comment on this as well as a question.

 

I've been successfully using the Amazon Groups feature to place context-aware devices together in the same room. For several months now, this has been working perfectly. 

This bears repeating:

1. Create in the Alexa app your group, say 'Master Bedroom'

2. Edit that group to include any lights and other devices that exist in that room (this is done by clicking the check mark box next to each device)

2a. Make sure you also include the actual Echo device that sits in that room... that way, when you are in that room, Alexa KNOWS what lights, etc. are local to THAT Echo. Amazingly, this also works for things like TVs, XBox, Roku (since they just updated to allow for multiple Roku control), etc.

3. Save... this is important.

4. When you are done, simply saying "Alexa, Turn on the Lights, or Lights On/Off" all of the lights in that group should turn on/off. You can certainly include any Insteon-based lights as well.

4a. Here's the key - In Alexa, there are device types such as Light, Switch, Scene, etc. When you include the Insteon-based light into the ISY Portal, ensure that you pick the correct device type, which is feed into Alexa from the portal. Also, always be mindful of unique naming that Alexa requires, and don't include any invocation words into your spoken!

 

Now for my question: (This is for folks that are indeed using this successfully) - Recently, I noticed that I cannot simply speak "Lights On/Off" using context-aware! I now have to say the name of the Group/Room when asking for the action... So, from my perspective, context-aware seems to be broken... Has anyone experienced this behavior as well? I tried searching the web for this, and I keep getting results on how to set it up, not that it's borked, here's how to fix it!

 

FWIW, I've completely scratched and rebuilt my groups, and still have the same result. Any thoughts???

 

[Bumbershoot]

9 minutes ago, Tonyhuk said:

So, from my perspective, context-aware seems to be broken...

It's still working for me.  I haven't changed anything in months in the specific rooms that I use this in, but it was still good as of earlier this morning.

[Guest]

Thanks for checking... I appreciate the confirmation... So, it appears that I have something specific to my environment I have to dig into.

I really wish I could figure it out... I'll keep looking.

[ralbright]

I was browsing the forums, found this thread, went to my Alexa app and did it. Showed my wife, and she REALLY likes it. Thank you!!