Alexa open/close sensor not working

[n_sievers]

Unfortunately mine is still not working. The open/close sensor state changes and is reflected properly in the AC and notifications come through properly through text and UD Mobile push but the state does not change when viewing the open/close sensor in the Alexa app, therefore the notification routine does not execute. 

[bmercier]

1 hour ago, n_sievers said:

Unfortunately mine is still not working. The open/close sensor state changes and is reflected properly in the AC and notifications come through properly through text and UD Mobile push but the state does not change when viewing the open/close sensor in the Alexa app, therefore the notification routine does not execute. 

That would be a different problem - This is not specific to routines.

Based on your problem description, I would recommend to:

1. Delete the contact sensor in the Alexa app
2. Ask "Alexa, discover my devices" - This will recreate the device in Alexa based on the configuration you have on ISY Portal
3. Make sure your ISY/Polisy/eisy is online on portal
4. Make sure you have an active license
5. If that still does not work, make sure that the device or variable you are testing with in AC is the same that you have mapped in ISY Portal (Select Tool | Connectivity | Amazon Echo)

 

[n_sievers]

Unfortunately I have tried and checked everything multiple times with no success.  Previously it would intermittently work then completely stopped.  The issue seems to be with Alexa app not updating/recognizing the open/close status from the sensor.  All other device status states are and update correctly and the open/close sensor always updates correctly in AC and UD Mobile and those notifications are working properly so am still at a loss here.

 

[bmercier]

6 minutes ago, n_sievers said:

Unfortunately I have tried and checked everything multiple times with no success.  Previously it would intermittently work then completely stopped.  The issue seems to be with Alexa app not updating/recognizing the open/close status from the sensor.  All other device status states are and update correctly and the open/close sensor always updates correctly in AC and UD Mobile and those notifications are working properly so am still at a loss here.

 

So did you delete that Alexa device?

If it still does not work after recreating using a "Discover devices", then check the mapping in Select Tool | Connectivity | Amazon Echo. It might be pointing to an incorrect device address on ISY. I would suggest to delete that device mapping and recreate it as well.

[n_sievers]

I have confirmed everything is correctly mapped and even deleted all Alexa associations and rebuilt, still with no success. I have noticed that after I trigger open/close numerous times repeatedly, it changes state once and then not again until I tried it again the next day where it changed state in Alexa app once. Even when it changes states in Alexa the single time, the routine still does not trigger. 

[bmercier]

Please open a ticket, and include the following:

1. Your polisy uuid
2. The device address you are testing with
3. Open a browser, try this url when there is contact and when there is none, and post the content of both cases in the ticket: https://polisy.local:8443/rest/nodes/yourdeviceaddress 

 

[n_sievers]

I apologize for the confusion here but how do I structure the "yourdeviceaddress" portion? (Insteon address  xx.xx.xx.1). I have tried with and without the periods, with  and without spaces instead of periods, and without the .1 but all are returning "404".  I fell I am just missing something on the structure here.

 

[bmercier]

14 minutes ago, n_sievers said:

I apologize for the confusion here but how do I structure the "yourdeviceaddress" portion? (Insteon address  xx.xx.xx.1). I have tried with and without the periods, with  and without spaces instead of periods, and without the .1 but all are returning "404".  I fell I am just missing something on the structure here.

 

Sorry, good question.

Normally in a browser you can just enter spaces instead of the dot, which translate to %20 (space = %20).

But if you struggle with that, just use https://polisy.local:8443/rest/nodes and find your device in the list.

[n_sievers]

Thank you for that input. As soon as a replaced the spaces with %20, I got it to work.  In all of this testing/diagnostics, I have found that the reason the sensor status was not updating in Alexa app (or at least visibly) is that this is connected to a contact sensor on a mailbox flap and the state was changing too quickly for it to show reflected in the app; however the state change was enough to trigger the notifications set up in my Polisy for email and push.  If I slowly move the flap it does correctly show the updated state in the Alexa app but with that being said, the routine still will not execute based on the state change so that has opened the original question here again I believe.  I have tried creating another test routine based on the state change of my deadbolt to see it that would be successful but unfortunately it does not seem to be working either so is not isolated to a single device.

[garybixler]

I have had the Alexa routines fail 3 time over the last two years. It always required a call to Alexa Amazon to fix the problem. If you can see the trigger to the routine change states in the Alexa  app and the routine doesn't run then it is most likely an Alexa problem. Also there is a 30 second wait time when triggers change states to prevent flip flopping. Thankfully with the addition of the Audio player plugin I have been able to drop all the Alexa routines that provide a speech response to an event. Much better solution.

[n_sievers]

On 4/15/2024 at 6:10 PM, garybixler said:

I have had the Alexa routines fail 3 time over the last two years. It always required a call to Alexa Amazon to fix the problem. If you can see the trigger to the routine change states in the Alexa  app and the routine doesn't run then it is most likely an Alexa problem. Also there is a 30 second wait time when triggers change states to prevent flip flopping. Thankfully with the addition of the Audio player plugin I have been able to drop all the Alexa routines that provide a speech response to an event. Much better solution.

Thank you for the insight on this.  I have contacted Amazon and that was an absolute exercise in frustration where the rep didn't know anything other than reading from their script.  Tried telling me that I am incorrectly using routines as they are not intended to do this.....  Finally after almost an hour and several transfers, I was told the concern was being escalated to the development team and would get a response back in 48 - 72 hours so just waiting to hear back now.  I saw the announcement about the audio player plugin but haven't explored that yet; guess will add that to my list. 

[koln1011]

@n_sievers

Did Amazon fix your issue? Do you know what they did? I am having the same issue with motion/contact sensors showing changes in the Alexa app but not triggering the action, however, the action in the routine does work if I hit the play button. Unfortunately, there is a disconnect between the trigger and the action on Alexa routines that started a couple of weeks ago but I haven't been able to work on it due to a death in the family.

@garybixler

I am not familiar with the audio player plugin. Can it be used to connect to specific Alexa speakers so I can announce different things from different speakers throughout the house like I do now? It sounds like you enjoy it and I wonder if it will work for me as well.

[garybixler]

@koln1011

At the moment I am using the audio player as the paging source in my whole house russound audio system. However if I move later this year I will no longer have that option. As an alternative I have been experimenting with using wifi streaming to various wifi audio receivers. I could be wrong but I have not found anyway to use Alexa speakers  for this purpose. You could use bluetooth to pair with one Alexa speaker but that my be the limit. What I am experimenting with is the wiim pro that will accept either audio input jacks or bluetooth pairing from the audio player.  Also there is a wiim clock that receives the stream and also acts as an Alexa device. I am hoping that they will have more products available soon. The best thing in my opinion about using wifi streaming is that there would be no Alex cloud to deal with.

[n_sievers]

On 5/2/2024 at 11:16 AM, koln1011 said:

@n_sievers

Did Amazon fix your issue? Do you know what they did? I am having the same issue with motion/contact sensors showing changes in the Alexa app but not triggering the action, however, the action in the routine does work if I hit the play button. Unfortunately, there is a disconnect between the trigger and the action on Alexa routines that started a couple of weeks ago but I haven't been able to work on it due to a death in the family.

@garybixler

I am not familiar with the audio player plugin. Can it be used to connect to specific Alexa speakers so I can announce different things from different speakers throughout the house like I do now? It sounds like you enjoy it and I wonder if it will work for me as well.

Unfortunately they have gone silent on me again without any resolution. I am currently traveling so will have to follow up again next week.  They have not been any help thus far so unfortunately I will likely give up if one more attempt goes unresolved. 

[koln1011]

@n_sievers

UD asked me to upgrade to IoX 5.8.3 and a couple of days later all my sensors started working again. I guess there is a bug with subscriptions on the previous version that can make it unstable and thus have an impact on Alexa routines. If you haven't already done so, give that a try. Best wishes!

 

[bmercier]

On 5/6/2024 at 11:48 PM, n_sievers said:

Unfortunately they have gone silent on me again without any resolution. I am currently traveling so will have to follow up again next week.  They have not been any help thus far so unfortunately I will likely give up if one more attempt goes unresolved. 

My apologies if me or another team member let you down.

Unfortunately I can't find any recent tickets from you related to this, so I'm not sure in what context I or someone else "has gone silent". This is definitely not how we do things at UDI.

I must say that I worked extremely hard lately to identify and fix related Alexa routine issues in the back end. At this time, it should be stable for everyone. If it is not for you, I encourage you to open a ticket and mention your uuid. I will be happy to investigate further and ensure that it works for you as well.

[n_sievers]

On 5/10/2024 at 9:11 AM, bmercier said:

My apologies if me or another team member let you down.

Unfortunately I can't find any recent tickets from you related to this, so I'm not sure in what context I or someone else "has gone silent". This is definitely not how we do things at UDI.

I must say that I worked extremely hard lately to identify and fix related Alexa routine issues in the back end. At this time, it should be stable for everyone. If it is not for you, I encourage you to open a ticket and mention your uuid. I will be happy to investigate further and ensure that it works for you as well.

I am so sorry for the confusion, I had meant that Amazon went silent on me and all communicated frustration was directed only towards Amazon.  They continue to be so incredibly frustrating and unhelpful in every sense of their customer service!  I have absolutely no disparaging words for UD and greatly appreciate all the work you do and help that has been given over the years!  I am currently running 5.8.3, have deleted and recreated the routine again but is still not working; I will submit a ticket.

[bmercier]

FYI, a fix has been made: