Issues with Alexa Controlling Scenes

[chris87]

I have the MobiLinc skill enabled in my Alexa, and it has worked almost flawlessly. Starting last night, it won’t work with any of my scenes. When I say “Alexa, turn on the kitchen lights,” it responds with “I found more than one device with the name kitchen lights. Please give them unique names, then run discovery again. Or, create a group if you want to control them simultaneously.”

It does this with any scene that I try. I’ve never had any issues in the past, and I haven’t made any changes. How would I troubleshoot this?

[InsteonNut]

Hi @chris87

I had another report of this last night as well. As far as I can tell, this is an issue on Amazon's side. We haven't changed anything with the MobiLinc Alexa skill. Did this resolve itself today?

Wes

[edgar]

I have had the same issue for the last week, any ideas? Thanks. BTW one of the scenes that doesn't recognizes, does not show under the scenes in the Alexa app, shows under all devices. It does not happen with all the scenes or devices.

[chris87]

Sorry that I am just responding now. I am still having issues. The only workaround I've found so far has been to add certain devices to groups within the Alexa App. It was working perfectly before, so I'm not sure what they did!

[InsteonNut]

Hi @chris87

I'm not sure either. We haven't changed anything. One theory I saw posted on the Alexa forums was that Alexa is now looking at group names for uniqueness. So, make sure that groups/folders you have setup in Alexa are also uniquely named.

Wes

[edgar]

7 hours ago, InsteonNut said:

Hi @chris87

I'm not sure either. We haven't changed anything. One theory I saw posted on the Alexa forums was that Alexa is now looking at group names for uniqueness. So, make sure that groups/folders you have setup in Alexa are also uniquely named.

Wes

Does that mean that the Alexa app does not work with MobiLinc anymore? I do not have Alexa scenes, I was using the MobiLinc scenes; I like to work on the MobiLinc side, not looking forward to "fool" around with Alexa scenes. Would make the MobiLinc app pointless?

[lilyoyo1]

No it does not. It simply means you must have Alexa control the scene that the lights are part of instead of the device directly. If the device name is similar to the scene it is in then change one so that it is no longer similar

[InsteonNut]

@edgar

We fully support Alexa, like we have in the past. Devices, scenes, and programs from your ISY are all supported. Nothing has changed on our end.

My comment was if you had setup a group in Alexa with a name like "Kitchen" but if you also have a device, scene, or program in Alexa also named "Kitchen" then Alexa won't know if you meant the Alexa group or the individual device, scene, or program you wanted to control.

Wes

[edgar]

21 hours ago, lilyoyo1 said:

No it does not. It simply means you must have Alexa control the scene that the lights are part of instead of the device directly. If the device name is similar to the scene it is in then change one so that it is no longer similar

 

8 hours ago, InsteonNut said:

@edgar

We fully support Alexa, like we have in the past. Devices, scenes, and programs from your ISY are all supported. Nothing has changed on our end.

My comment was if you had setup a group in Alexa with a name like "Kitchen" but if you also have a device, scene, or program in Alexa also named "Kitchen" then Alexa won't know if you meant the Alexa group or the individual device, scene, or program you wanted to control.

Wes

I can understand having the same name for a scene & a device. One of the scenes I was having a problem was  Table Lamps, I also have a Table Lamps Sunset & a Table Lamps Sunset-Motion; they are MobiLinc scenes. They are different names & never had any problem until recently; been using since the MobiLinc skill was available. I have a couple of  devices named Family Rm Table Lamp & Great Rm Table Lamp. I can control both with Alexa with no problem. I prefer to program & create scenes with MobiLinc, way better than with the Alexa app. BTW I have been controlling the Table Lamps scene while typing this with no problem. Go figure. Maybe somebody realized that Alexa was slacking with the MobiLinc skill and changed something. Only time will tell. Thanks for your help In trying to solve this problem. 

[lilyoyo1]

20 minutes ago, edgar said:

 

I can understand having the same name for a scene & a device. One of the scenes I was having a problem was  Table Lamps, I also have a Table Lamps Sunset & a Table Lamps Sunset-Motion; they are MobiLinc scenes. They are different names & never had any problem until recently; been using since the MobiLinc skill was available. I have a couple of  devices named Family Rm Table Lamp & Great Rm Table Lamp. I can control both with Alexa with no problem. I prefer to program & create scenes with MobiLinc, way better than with the Alexa app. BTW I have been controlling the Table Lamps scene while typing this with no problem. Go figure. Maybe somebody realized that Alexa was slacking with the MobiLinc skill and changed something. Only time will tell. Thanks for your help In trying to solve this problem. 

I highly doubt it. Most likely it's on the Echo side. There are many times things I say (general stuff) that Alexa and Google have no issues with one day and then the next it's a problem. Go figure. Though they seem to have been around forever, it's still new technology

[edgar]

It it strange that it worked for as long as the MobilInc skill was available, can't remember how long, then did not work for the past week. Hoping for it to continue working.

[chris87]

I came home tonight, and my Alexa is back to working as usual. Very strange. It was down for over a week, and now it’s like nothing was ever wrong. It must have been something on Amazon’s end.

[lilyoyo1]

1 hour ago, edgar said:

It it strange that it worked for as long as the MobilInc skill was available, can't remember how long, then did not work for the past week. Hoping for it to continue working.

I would think if it was in mobilinc or something changing on either end, more users would be reaching out about their systems not working

[RandyT]

I've been having the same issue.

I have a couple of multi-way switches that I have configured into scenes in order to make them both controllers. For example, one of the pairs is named Kitchen North and the other Kitchen South.

I have a scene named "Kitchen" which contains both of these devices as controllers.

If I configure Alexa to control these as "Kitchen", the Alexa command for "Turn on/off Kitchen" works. Using "Turn on/off Kitchen lights" does not work and results in Alexa giving me a "cannot connect" error. If I create an alternate spoken word for "Kitchen lights", using only "Kitchen" works, but using "Kitchen lights" gets me the error of "multiple devices". I thought this all worked before but I could be mistaken. I've been fiddling with this config lately trying to come up with a workable way to be able to turn these multi-way scenes on at some dim level but have yet to figure that out.

[lilyoyo1]

That's not an ISY issue. It's how these assistants recognize key words. For whatever reasons, sometimes they work and sometimes they dont

[edgar]

On 12/5/2019 at 6:34 PM, lilyoyo1 said:

That's not an ISY issue. It's how these assistants recognize key words. For whatever reasons, sometimes they work and sometimes they dont

I agree that it's not ISY. In my case "Alexa" was recognizing the name Table Lamps, the problem was that it was finding more than one device with the same name, which is not correct. I don't have any repeated names. Now that the problem "solved itself", I hope that it keeps working without issues for a long while.  ?

[RandyT]

On 12/5/2019 at 4:34 PM, lilyoyo1 said:

That's not an ISY issue. It's how these assistants recognize key words. For whatever reasons, sometimes they work and sometimes they dont

I've been an Alexa user for 3 years now and an ISY user for much longer than that. This is not the standard intermittent issue. It continues to fail and is very reproducible. 

 

[lilyoyo1]

8 minutes ago, RandyT said:

I've been an Alexa user for 3 years now and an ISY user for much longer than that. This is not the standard intermittent issue. It continues to fail and is very reproducible. 

 

If you keep doing the same thing and getting the same results I would try something different. A quick test in changing how you name things would show if it's what Alexa is hearing/interpreting, the portal or what's running on the isy side. 

[RandyT]

2 minutes ago, lilyoyo1 said:

If you keep doing the same thing and getting the same results I would try something different. A quick test in changing how you name things would show if it's what Alexa is hearing/interpreting, the portal or what's running on the isy side. 

Lilyoyo1, I appreciate that advice but I am way beyond that point of debugging this. I assure you, I have a consistent problem that I cannot find a solution for. I'm posting here because I am out of ideas.

[lilyoyo1]

5 minutes ago, RandyT said:

Lilyoyo1, I appreciate that advice but I am way beyond that point of debugging this. I assure you, I have a consistent problem that I cannot find a solution for. I'm posting here because I am out of ideas.

And I'm saying what I say because you aren't the only one in the position you're in. I'm on multiple forums and different people with different controllers are experiencing exactly what you are experiencing. 

[RandyT]

4 minutes ago, lilyoyo1 said:

And I'm saying what I say because you aren't the only one in the position you're in. I'm on multiple forums and different people with different controllers are experiencing exactly what you are experiencing. 

That would make me strongly suspicious that it is an Alexa API issue that is not well handled by controllers or even a recent change in the API. And not the intermittent issue that your first response suggested.

[lilyoyo1]

12 minutes ago, RandyT said:

That would make me strongly suspicious that it is an Alexa API issue that is not well handled by controllers or even a recent change in the API. And not the intermittent issue that your first response suggested.

My response was geared towards the use of similar sounding words and phrases ie: naming multiple things with the word lights in the title. Sometimes it will work and other times it will not.