Voice Control Problems

[KHouse]

Hoping someone could help (not sure if this is the right forum/sub-forum but seemed like the best place for this).

Running an ISY994i, Elk, MobiLinc, Alexa's.

Using the voice control, I could say "Alexa, turn off the couch lights " (for example).

This command has worked, always / sort of.  I've been running into some communication issues where my ISY didn't work / voice commands didn't work.  I would power cycle the ISY, and they would work again for a while.  This however started occurring more frequently.

As of recently though, the power cycle doesn't work.  Voice controls sometimes work, and sometimes they don't.  (I get the error from Alexa that says "Couch lights does not support this".  And then an hour later the voice controls work.  Again, where a power cycle of the ISY used to fix this, it now does not fix it.  Only time "fixes" it, and randomly works/doesn't work.

On a similar note I've been getting issues where programs wont run (like my outdoor lights coming on at sunset).

Just a few days ago before the Insteon mess I submitted a ticket regarding the programs not running, however with everything going on with Insteon right now I want to leave Michel alone so that he can work on that more important matter.  (He always provides great tech support when needed but I know he's super busy right now so want to let him deal with that stuff and I can wait).

Appreciate any guidance on where to look.

[MrBill]

2 minutes ago, KHouse said:

"Couch lights does not support this".

This usually indicates that she's trying to operate the wrong device. 

I'd log into the Alexa app, or actually it's even easier to do if you log into https://alexa.amazon.com and delete all the devices and scenes that exist associated with the ISY, then tell her "Alexa, discover devices"   Its not as prevalent anymore, but she used to get duplicates of devices and scenes fairly easily-- one would function and one would not. The remedy was as described in the preceding sentence.

The other thing is watch out for similar names she used to say "sorry living room doesn't support that" alot... Took me forever to realize that the device she was referring to was the thermostat, once the thermostat was deleted suddenly she no longer told us the living room lights didn't support that.

[KHouse]

20 minutes ago, MrBill said:

This usually indicates that she's trying to operate the wrong device. 

I'd log into the Alexa app, or actually it's even easier to do if you log into https://alexa.amazon.com and delete all the devices and scenes that exist associated with the ISY, then tell her "Alexa, discover devices"   Its not as prevalent anymore, but she used to get duplicates of devices and scenes fairly easily-- one would function and one would not. The remedy was as described in the preceding sentence.

The other thing is watch out for similar names she used to say "sorry living room doesn't support that" alot... Took me forever to realize that the device she was referring to was the thermostat, once the thermostat was deleted suddenly she no longer told us the living room lights didn't support that.

Thanks Mr.Bill.  Makes sense.

To add a little bit more info though...it's not just that one voice command that won't work when it doesn't work.  When it doesn't work, none of them work.  I've got probably 15 different commands to controls lights/fans, but when it "goes down", none of them will work.

[Geddy]

@KHouse - by chance what version of Alexa skill are you running? On your Alexa app (on your phone/tablet) go to Skills -> My Skills and look for the Universal Devices skill. It should be the v3 looking like this:

It's possible you haven't updated to the v3 even though it's been out quite a while. Perhaps you still had v2 and it might not work well with ongoing updates for Alexa. Just wanted to check.

It's not happening often, but there are times where Alexa services are flaky or down. This is just a function of cloud dependency. Usually lengthy outtages will make the "news" or be talked about in lots of places on social media. Other times they're just local blips depending on the server your Alexa us using. 

 

The next step is to make sure that your "spoken" are unique and easy to speak and understand. Sometimes Alexa doesn't correctly hear long commands, and sometimes short spokens can sound too much like other devices. 

 

However, you mentioned something in the first post that concerns me...

On 4/17/2022 at 12:50 PM, KHouse said:

On a similar note I've been getting issues where programs wont run (like my outdoor lights coming on at sunset).

This might be signs of sudden communication issues with either failing PLM or line noise from other electrical changes in the house. Often times people will simply say "I haven't added anything new", but there have been a lot of recent reports of OLD power supplies suddenly adding noise in the electrical service. 

In the Admin Console under the programs tab make sure you look at summary and check when the program(s) last ran and when they're supposed to run again. To test them perhaps run the "then" portion of the program and make sure the status of last run time changed. And see if the program did what you expected it to do.

Would you log into the ISY admin console and open the event viewer and set it to level 3. 

Now, control lights/devices within the admin console and make sure they act as expected and no extra errors are showing up in the event viewer. Then try controlling the SAME devices with Alexa. The results should be identical. 

If you're getting errors or different hops this could indicate noise. @MrBill has posted how to check/find noise in a recent post that should be checked out.

Ultimately the steps I would take are:

1 - Making sure you have the ISY v3 skill enabled with Alexa. Do as @MrBill suggests - remove existing devices from alexa.amazon.com (https://alexa.amazon.com/spa/index.html#appliances) and go through the "Alexa, discover devices" process again.

2 - On ISY Portal make sure spoken and/or device names are unique and easy to speak and understand

3 - Check event viewer on Admin Console for differences in hops to/from devices when controlled in admin console and with Alexa

4 - Check for noise if there are differences in the event viewer

 

A "simple" power cycle of the ISY doesn't always mean it's going to be better. If you have ongoing issues then it's usually going to be more serious and requires more troubleshooting steps. 

 

Let us know after you've done this to see if some here can help. Otherwise, it might be best to get a support ticket going and see if Universal Devices can get you back on track. 

 

Good luck!