Hi All,

I have a couple Alexa routines that are triggered buy a "fake" motion sensor associated with a state variable on the ISY. This has been working for years but just recently stopped. The device in the Alexa app indicates "Device is unresponsive". I found another thread (now closed) where other user(s) have had the same exact issue and it seems to be something on the Amazon side. There doesn't seem to be a solution other than spend hours on multiple support calls with Amazon and then hope it will be magically fixed. Even if I could get through to a real person for Amazon support, I'm not sure how I could explain what's going on? I'm sure they would suggest deleting all the routines, deleting all the devices, deleting the app, reboot, etc etc. I've already tried this with no success. The problem is obviously not wide-spread. Any suggestions on how to resolve this? Anyone else dealing the the same issue?

I gave up and used "Virtual Buttons" Node Server in PG3X

1 hour ago, bgrubb1 said:

I gave up and used "Virtual Buttons" Node Server in PG3X

Wish there was a free solution but I might have to give this a try.

2 hours ago, DGG said:

Wish there was a free solution but I might have to give this a try.

looks like both virtual button plugins are free. Not sure what you're thinking costs anything.

As for the Alexa problem -- yeah, that probably an Alexa issue as they (Amazon/Alexa/Echo team) really like to change code and ends up breaking things without letting people know. It's been a recurring theme here that things connected to/through the UD Portal to Alexa will randomly break then randomly work and it's nothing done by UD to disrupt the process...it's 100% random code changes via Amazon. I'm surprised people have been able to get support from Amazon to get things to work again. If I had anything that depended on Amazon's service it would have been removed long time ago.

@Geddy Do you have a recommendation for a different voice activation method? I hate to lose the capability to use Alexa reliably without a replacement.

@lgilsenberg no, I use Alexa. I haven't "updated" to Alexa+ since there were a lot of known issues with that system not working well with home automation systems (not just UD). You're doing more advanced integration with UD and Alexa that I don't use so not sure why it would break. I just have it for the family to turn lights on/off when needed if our daily schedule alters from what we usually have automated.

The trick is to keep the voice prompts unique and simple.

• Make sure devices don't sound like other devices: Hall/fall/wall

• Keep simple one or two word device (not long names): Living Fan or Livingroom Fan NOT Living Room Ceiling Fan

I think scenes and routines are the most common complaints of things getting broken in the UD/Echo skill link. It's not clear if it's because the scene can get very complicated and Echo is trying to be "smart" by looking for a device rather than a scene and just control the device when really you want to control something in IoX that's a scene. It's as though the Echo system is trying to be the primary controller (especially with Alexa+) rather than using the skill link to send a command back to IoX.