Alexa doorbell response is sluggish

[abrayshaw]

I've sucessfully interfaced my ISY to Alexa for numerous lighting controls, etc. But I'm having a weird problem with the ISY's communication with Alexa via my portal for one particular purpose.

I've connected my hard-wired doorbell button to an X10 Powerflash Interface and set its X10 code. When the doorbell is pressed, the X10 Powerflash sends an "On" signal to the ISY. (I can see this is working by viewing the ISY Event Viewer.) I've set up a state variable named $Doorbell. I created a program that sets $Doorbell to 1 when the X10 code is received, waits 1 second, and resets the $Doorbell variable back to 0. When I press the doorbell button, I can see the variable change to a 1, and then change back to zero. So, I know the ISY is correctly reacting to the doorbell button press.

I've exposed the state variable to Alexa via my portal, and have created an Alexa routine to announce "Someone's at the door" when the doorbell is pressed. Here's where it gets weird. When I press the doorbell button, I hear all 4 of my Alexa devices announce "Someone's at the door". BUT, if, a few seconds later, I press the button again, I do NOT hear the announcement. If I then wait several minutes, the doorbell again triggers the announcement. It's as if there's a unexplained "waiting period" before the sequence sucessfully repeats as it should.

So, does anyone have any ideas as to why there's such a delay between Alexa's reaction to subsequent button presses? Basically, my doorbell setup works, but not as I'm expecting it to. I think the problem is with Alexa, not the ISY. The delay may be attributed to the action of the portal, but I can't find any reason there.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

[bmercier]

4 minutes ago, abrayshaw said:

I've sucessfully interfaced my ISY to Alexa for numerous lighting controls, etc. But I'm having a weird problem with the ISY's communication with Alexa via my portal for one particular purpose.

I've connected my hard-wired doorbell button to an X10 Powerflash Interface and set its X10 code. When the doorbell is pressed, the X10 Powerflash sends an "On" signal to the ISY. (I can see this is working by viewing the ISY Event Viewer.) I've set up a state variable named $Doorbell. I created a program that sets $Doorbell to 1 when the X10 code is received, waits 1 second, and resets the $Doorbell variable back to 0. When I press the doorbell button, I can see the variable change to a 1, and then change back to zero. So, I know the ISY is correctly reacting to the doorbell button press.

I've exposed the state variable to Alexa via my portal, and have created an Alexa routine to announce "Someone's at the door" when the doorbell is pressed. Here's where it gets weird. When I press the doorbell button, I hear all 4 of my Alexa devices announce "Someone's at the door". BUT, if, a few seconds later, I press the button again, I do NOT hear the announcement. If I then wait several minutes, the doorbell again triggers the announcement. It's as if there's a unexplained "waiting period" before the sequence sucessfully repeats as it should.

So, does anyone have any ideas as to why there's such a delay between Alexa's reaction to subsequent button presses? Basically, my doorbell setup works, but not as I'm expecting it to. I think the problem is with Alexa, not the ISY. The delay may be attributed to the action of the portal, but I can't find any reason there.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Contact & motion sensor events are debounced. There can't be more than 1 event within a 30 seconds period. So this is likely the reason if you are testing 2 doorbell rings within 30 seconds.

This is implemented within our Alexa skill.

[Guy Lavoie]

I found that Alexa announcements are slow in general (even single ones), up to a minute in some cases.

[abrayshaw]

Thanks for the input. The "debouncing" at least explains the behaviour I was seeing.

Thanks much again.