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Posted

Fan support has been added to the Echo skill.

To enable this feature:

  1. On ISY Portal, go to Select Tools | Connectivity | Amazon Echo
  2. Edit your Fan "spoken"
  3. In the Alexa Category, choose the "Fan" option
  4. Save your "spoken"
  5. After changing the Alexa Category, ask "Alexa, discover my devices"

Both insteon and ZWave fans are supported.

To change your Fan settings:

  • Alexa, Set <spoken> to {Off | Low | Medium | High | Max}
  • Alexa, Turn {on | off} <spoken>
  • Alexa, Raise <spoken>
  • Alexa, Lower <spoken>

Enjoy!

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Posted

That is wonderful news.  I have tried it immediately and it worked without issue.  The graphical interface on the alexa app works well.

To be clear, I notice a couple of things.

 - there seems to be no touch interface on my alexa "show" devices to control a "fan".  This surprises me.  Am I missing something?

- this only works when adding the fanlinc as a device.  When adding an insteon scene to alexa, there is no "fan" option.  So...any scenes associated with the fanlinc will not stay in sync.  Any rooms with multiple fanlincs must be controlled separately.  I am guessing that the best way to handle this problem would be via ISY program.

 

Posted

I guess I spoke too soon.  On the alexa app, I con select slow and fast speeds and the fan responds.  Selecting medium speed does not seem to cause fan to react.

Posted (edited)
9 hours ago, bmercier said:

Fan support has been added to the Echo skill.

To enable this feature:

  1. On ISY Portal, go to Select Tools | Connectivity | Amazon Echo
  2. Edit your Fan "spoken"
  3. In the Alexa Category, choose the "Fan" option
  4. Save your "spoken"
  5. After changing the Alexa Category, ask "Alexa, discover my devices"

Both insteon and ZWave fans are supported.

To change your Fan settings:

  • Alexa, Set <spoken> to {Off | Low | Medium | High | Max}
  • Alexa, Turn {on | off} <spoken>
  • Alexa, Raise <spoken>
  • Alexa, Lower <spoken>

Enjoy!

My fans have 3 levels :  33 pct;  67%. and 100% (and 0% of course).   With new syntax,  "Low"   goes  to 10% (which in fact means 33 %);  both "High". and "Max". go to 100 %, but when I tell Alexa "Set Fan X to Medium",  Alexa tells me "I don't know how to set Fan X to that setting".

I then checked again the settings in  Portal - Connectivity - Alexa and saw that the fan had defaulted back to "Contact Sensor".  I tried this a few times and noticed that when I instruct Alexa to discover, in Portal the fan defaults (from "Fan") to "Contact Sensor".  That may explain why Medium does not work.

BTW, when yesterday I had the issues with my automatic curtains (through Mimo Lites), I noticed  the same default to "Contact Sensor" but in that case, I resolved this with a Routine in Alexa.

Edited by asbril
Posted

Thanks for the addition!  How if we could only get Amazon to allow us to assign a fan to a room (like for lights) so we can just say "turn on the fan".  Guess this is a step in that direction.

Also, looks like the overview page on the ISY Portal doesn't support showing type fan yet for the "Alexa Cat." column.  All the fans I just switched show up as "Device\Light"

 

Posted
2 hours ago, apnar said:

Also, looks like the overview page on the ISY Portal doesn't support showing type fan yet for the "Alexa Cat." column.  All the fans I just switched show up as "Device\Light"

 

Good catch! It's fixed

Posted
16 hours ago, asbril said:

My fans have 3 levels :  33 pct;  67%. and 100% (and 0% of course).   With new syntax,  "Low"   goes  to 10% (which in fact means 33 %);  both "High". and "Max". go to 100 %, but when I tell Alexa "Set Fan X to Medium",  Alexa tells me "I don't know how to set Fan X to that setting".

I then checked again the settings in  Portal - Connectivity - Alexa and saw that the fan had defaulted back to "Contact Sensor".  I tried this a few times and noticed that when I instruct Alexa to discover, in Portal the fan defaults (from "Fan") to "Contact Sensor".  That may explain why Medium does not work.

BTW, when yesterday I had the issues with my automatic curtains (through Mimo Lites), I noticed  the same default to "Contact Sensor" but in that case, I resolved this with a Routine in Alexa.

What fans are you using?

Could you send the output of

http://<isy ip>/rest/nodes/<your_fan> ?

Benoit

 

Posted
17 hours ago, oberkc said:

That is wonderful news.  I have tried it immediately and it worked without issue.  The graphical interface on the alexa app works well.

To be clear, I notice a couple of things.

 - there seems to be no touch interface on my alexa "show" devices to control a "fan".  This surprises me.  Am I missing something?

- this only works when adding the fanlinc as a device.  When adding an insteon scene to alexa, there is no "fan" option.  So...any scenes associated with the fanlinc will not stay in sync.  Any rooms with multiple fanlincs must be controlled separately.  I am guessing that the best way to handle this problem would be via ISY program.

 

It's up to Amazon to update the skill to allow touch interface for fans.

Scenes are not supported, only devices.

 

Posted
17 hours ago, oberkc said:

I guess I spoke too soon.  On the alexa app, I con select slow and fast speeds and the fan responds.  Selecting medium speed does not seem to cause fan to react.

Could you look at the history, make sure Alexa understands "Medium".

Testing here shows that Medium works with the 2 types of Fan (Insteon Fanlinc / ZWave)

Posted
5 hours ago, bmercier said:

Could you look at the history, make sure Alexa understands "Medium".

My lack of ability to control "medium" is from the alexa app touch interface.  Spoken commands seem to work fine.

Posted (edited)
6 hours ago, bmercier said:

What fans are you using?

Could you send the output of

http://<isy ip>/rest/nodes/<your_fan> ?

Benoit

 

Benoit

My better half is still sleeping and I am writing this from a room without GH, but I believe that this was resolved with the same fix you applied to my curtains (Mimo Lite) issue. Now when I set the fans, in Portal-Connectivity-Google Home to "Fan" these no longer revert back to "Contact Sensor". I will try the voice commands later but I am optimistic (as always....or should I say, as most of the time ?).

p.s. I need to get another GH . Father's Day is coming up.

Edited by asbril
Posted
3 hours ago, asbril said:

Benoit

My better half is still sleeping and I am writing this from a room without GH, but I believe that this was resolved with the same fix you applied to my curtains (Mimo Lite) issue. Now when I set the fans, in Portal-Connectivity-Google Home to "Fan" these no longer revert back to "Contact Sensor". I will try the voice commands later but I am optimistic (as always....or should I say, as most of the time ?).

p.s. I need to get another GH . Father's Day is coming up.

I am happy to report that low-medium-high work on my 4 ceiling fans on both Alexa and Google Home

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Posted

So I updated my fans in the portal to be a "Fan" - the app shows them as a fan, with the fan icon.

Some stuff works, some stuff kinda works, and some stuff doesn't work:

Works:

  • Alexa, turn on Master Bedroom Fan -> goes to Off
  • Alexa, turn off Master Bedroom Fan -> goes to High
  • Alexa, set Master Bedroom Fan to Off -> Goes to Off

Sort of works:

  • Alexa, raise Master Bedroom Fan
    • If fan is Off -> goes to Low 
    • if Fan is Low -> confirmation chime but nothing happens
    • if Fan is Medium -> confirmation chime but nothing happens
  • Alexa, Lower Master Bedroom Fan
    • if Fan is Low -> confirmation chime but nothing happens
    • if Fan is Medium -> Goes to Off
    • if Fan is High -> Goes to Medium

Does not work:

  • Alexa, set Master Bedroom Fan to Low -> Alexa says "I don't know how to set Master Bedroom Fan to that setting"
  • Alexa, set Master Bedroom Fan to Medium -> Alexa says "I don't know how to set Master Bedroom Fan to that setting"
  • Alexa, set Master Bedroom Fan to High -> Alexa says "I don't know how to set Master Bedroom Fan to that setting"
  • Alexa, set Master Bedroom Fan to Max -> Alexa says "I don't know how to set Master Bedroom Fan to that setting"

And based on the app, it shows a fan icon & slider..when I move it up and down, I get one of for indicator levels:

  • <blank> (off)
  • 1 (low)
  • 2 (medium)
  • 3 (high)

If I use the phase "Alexa, set master bedroom fan to { 0 | 1 |  2 | 3 }" -> Goes to off/low/medium/high respectively.

I'll check it again in the morning to see if it's sorted itself out.

Posted
9 hours ago, PurdueGuy said:

So I updated my fans in the portal to be a "Fan" - the app shows them as a fan, with the fan icon.

Some stuff works, some stuff kinda works, and some stuff doesn't work:

Works:

  • Alexa, turn on Master Bedroom Fan -> goes to Off
  • Alexa, turn off Master Bedroom Fan -> goes to High
  • Alexa, set Master Bedroom Fan to Off -> Goes to Off

Sort of works:

  • Alexa, raise Master Bedroom Fan
    • If fan is Off -> goes to Low 
    • if Fan is Low -> confirmation chime but nothing happens
    • if Fan is Medium -> confirmation chime but nothing happens
  • Alexa, Lower Master Bedroom Fan
    • if Fan is Low -> confirmation chime but nothing happens
    • if Fan is Medium -> Goes to Off
    • if Fan is High -> Goes to Medium

Does not work:

  • Alexa, set Master Bedroom Fan to Low -> Alexa says "I don't know how to set Master Bedroom Fan to that setting"
  • Alexa, set Master Bedroom Fan to Medium -> Alexa says "I don't know how to set Master Bedroom Fan to that setting"
  • Alexa, set Master Bedroom Fan to High -> Alexa says "I don't know how to set Master Bedroom Fan to that setting"
  • Alexa, set Master Bedroom Fan to Max -> Alexa says "I don't know how to set Master Bedroom Fan to that setting"

And based on the app, it shows a fan icon & slider..when I move it up and down, I get one of for indicator levels:

  • <blank> (off)
  • 1 (low)
  • 2 (medium)
  • 3 (high)

If I use the phase "Alexa, set master bedroom fan to { 0 | 1 |  2 | 3 }" -> Goes to off/low/medium/high respectively.

I'll check it again in the morning to see if it's sorted itself out.

I would suggest to change you "Master Bedroom Fan" to just "fan" during testing.

I suspect most of your issues are related to Alexa not understanding the spoken correctly all the times, and perhaps sometimes directing the request to another of your devices.

You can also double-check what she understood in the Alexa history: alexa.amazon.com -> settings -> History

 

 

 

Posted
1 hour ago, bmercier said:

I would suggest to change you "Master Bedroom Fan" to just "fan" during testing.

I suspect most of your issues are related to Alexa not understanding the spoken correctly all the times, and perhaps sometimes directing the request to another of your devices.

You can also double-check what she understood in the Alexa history: alexa.amazon.com -> settings -> History

Per the history, Alexa was identifying the correct device...but where it was directing the command, who knows.

I changed it to "Fan" and I can do everything except "Medium"

Alexa_Medium_Fail.thumb.jpg.a3dd89190d4d4c31eccbd696dab9457e.jpg

Posted
4 hours ago, PurdueGuy said:

Per the history, Alexa was identifying the correct device...but where it was directing the command, who knows.

I changed it to "Fan" and I can do everything except "Medium"

 

Please redo a device discover and try again.

Due to the multiple reports of "Medium" not being recognized, I made a change that might help.

Here, when testing, it always works.

Posted
38 minutes ago, bmercier said:

Please redo a device discover and try again.

Due to the multiple reports of "Medium" not being recognized, I made a change that might help.

Here, when testing, it always works.

Just doing a device re-discover, and I got the "I don't know how to do set Fan to that setting" for every level.

I deleted (from Alexa and Portal), recreated, rediscovered.

No change...everything except medium works.

BTW: This is a "FanLinc v.41"

FanLinc_version.jpg.9869d2a439a4c6f3463b94ca8fa6443d.jpg

And the Alexa history"

Alexa_Medium_Fail_v02.thumb.jpg.b9a3dc5c2a97343ad5d344496340eaf1.jpg

Posted

Raise/lower are still weird:.

  • Alexa, raise Fan
    • If fan is Off -> goes to Low 
    • if Fan is Low -> confirmation chime but nothing happens
    • if Fan is Medium -> confirmation chime but nothing happens
  • Alexa, Lower Fan
    • if Fan is Low -> confirmation chime but nothing happens
    • if Fan is Medium -> Goes to Off
    • if Fan is High -> Goes to Medium
Posted
32 minutes ago, PurdueGuy said:

Raise/lower are still weird:.

  • Alexa, raise Fan
    • If fan is Off -> goes to Low 
    • if Fan is Low -> confirmation chime but nothing happens
    • if Fan is Medium -> confirmation chime but nothing happens
  • Alexa, Lower Fan
    • if Fan is Low -> confirmation chime but nothing happens
    • if Fan is Medium -> Goes to Off
    • if Fan is High -> Goes to Medium

I'm starting to think this might be a regional issue, all this works well here. I tried it in production with exactly this spoken "Fan". Works all the time.

Where are you located? (Country, region)

Posted
1 minute ago, bmercier said:

I'm starting to think this might be a regional issue, all this works well here. I tried it in production with exactly this spoken "Fan". Works all the time.

Where are you located? (Country, region)

Los Angeles, CA, US

Posted
15 minutes ago, PurdueGuy said:

Los Angeles, CA, US

Thanks for the quick response.

I'm from eastern canada, and it works 100% here.

In an attempt to get to the bottom of it, I've setup this poll:

 

Posted

Also, what does it look like in the Alexa app?  I get a slider.  Based on some comments, I should have buttons?

The device list:

Fan_DeviceList.jpg.771331b549f313c177918ca11f319e07.jpg

 

The Fan control:

Fan_Control.PNG.cf712764218b3f353e7bca79dbb0dc15.PNG

 

The Fan settings

Fan_Settings.jpg.052eede9fc10a8f77fc4945c12437266.jpg

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

Not sure if you can help or not, however when I setup my fan through ISY and then Alexa as described above what I am finding is that when I tell the fan to turn off it works as supposed to however if I tell the fan to set to Low, Medium, or High, the fan goes to high.  When I trouble shoot and look at the real time status below is what I get then reverts back to 100%

Low = 127%

Medium = 253%

High = 255%

Posted

Any progress on this?  I just tried with a different fan, and nothing has changed.

I also can't change my vote in the poll (I should have chosen "I have issues even in the Alexa app. The device icon is indeed a Fan.")

 

Posted
On 5/16/2020 at 2:41 AM, PurdueGuy said:

Also, what does it look like in the Alexa app?  I get a slider.  Based on some comments, I should have buttons?

The device list:

Fan_DeviceList.jpg.771331b549f313c177918ca11f319e07.jpg

 

The Fan control:

Fan_Control.PNG.cf712764218b3f353e7bca79dbb0dc15.PNG

 

The Fan settings

Fan_Settings.jpg.052eede9fc10a8f77fc4945c12437266.jpg

This is as expected. No issue here.

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