Jon00 Homeseer/Echo Skill Helper for Homeseer 3 & Homeseer 4

[jon00]

Did you update the jon00alexa.aspx file?

Edit: I see the issue. Open up the file in Notepad and change the file extension of the script from .vb to .vben

Download now corrected!

[IanIreland]

That did the trick - thank you.

[cheeryfool]

Will Chromium on a Pi work for the local mode?

Jon

Just wondering whether Chromium on a RPi 2 would work for the local scraping of the Alexa log? Haven't tried yet, as I am working through a couple of more serious issues with my Pi

Cheers
James

[jayceekeys]

Hey Jon,

After your help with the UK workaround, I've been playing with your ace plugin !

Just wanted to check a couple of things. I have a PLC-BUS system and seem to be struggling with lamps and dimming. I'm probably doing something totally wrong, but thought it best to check!

When I program a dimmable light, I am putting the device number e.g. 4 then the value I want it to be dimmed to e.g. 40 in the CAPI field ...

e.g. 4,80

The DOT replies stating OK and the value of the status even changes, however it doesn't switch on!

If however I put 4,100 in the same field, it switches on - but not to 100, but rather to the value that the device was last set at in the HomeSeer program or on my iPhone.

Am I doing something wrong?

Also ... is it possible to just use a command along the lines of "Set Main Light to 80%" and how would I go about that in the plugin.

Many thanks,

Jay

[basshook]

This is a little off topic from Jon's excellent helper.

I just found the "Reverb" app in the android store which allows you to use Alexa on your smartphone. It registers the device with Amazon (name can be changed). It seems to do be like a standard Alexa so you have full control of your skills and home automation, etc. Others may know about this but new to me.

-Ron

[jon00]

Jon

Just wondering whether Chromium on a RPi 2 would work for the local scraping of the Alexa log? Haven't tried yet, as I am working through a couple of more serious issues with my Pi

Cheers
James

I don't know as I don't run a RPi 2. As I use a plugin for Chrome, Chromium would need that too.

[jon00]

Hey Jon,

After your help with the UK workaround, I've been playing with your ace plugin !

Just wanted to check a couple of things. I have a PLC-BUS system and seem to be struggling with lamps and dimming. I'm probably doing something totally wrong, but thought it best to check!

When I program a dimmable light, I am putting the device number e.g. 4 then the value I want it to be dimmed to e.g. 40 in the CAPI field ...

e.g. 4,80

The DOT replies stating OK and the value of the status even changes, however it doesn't switch on!

If however I put 4,100 in the same field, it switches on - but not to 100, but rather to the value that the device was last set at in the HomeSeer program or on my iPhone.

Am I doing something wrong?

Also ... is it possible to just use a command along the lines of "Set Main Light to 80%" and how would I go about that in the plugin.

Many thanks,

Jay

CAPI is very hit/miss when trying to cover all bases. I have no experience of PLC-BUS so difficult to advise.

I suggest you download TenScriptAid to see the CAPI command required to operate the lights. It may need a small script to work.

To operate a light without the 'tell Homeseer' command requires a Smart Home Skill. As the official Homeseer skill is still not available in the UK, you would have to setup the HA-Bridge which emulates Philips Hue lamps (which is natively supported by the Echo)

[jayceekeys]

Jon00 Homeseer/Echo Skill Helper for Homeseer 3

CAPI is very hit/miss when trying to cover all bases. I have no experience of PLC-BUS so difficult to advise.



I suggest you download TenScriptAid to see the CAPI command required to operate the lights. It may need a small script to work.



To operate a light without the 'tell Homeseer' command requires a Smart Home Skill. As the official Homeseer skill is still not available in the UK, you would have to setup the HA-Bridge which emulates Philips Hue lamps (which is natively supported by the Echo)

Hi Jon,

Not sure if I'm being dumb .... I'm ok with using the "Tell Homeseer" command to operate the lights ... am I right in reading that there is an alternative method to CAPI to switch or dim the lights if I'm ok with this? I.e. Am I trying to use a more complicated method to turn on or dim the lights than I should be?

I know that technically the native Alexa Skill does what I need.... the main reason I prefer your plugin is because it understands variants of the instruction and the responses can be more random.

Cheers,

Jay

[jon00]

Homeseer does not make it easy to control things via scripts. In addition, different plugins can control things in different ways. I provide many methods to allow things to happen including CAPI, running events, device value change, Scripts, JSON etc.

If my CAPI interface cannot control your lights then you need to find out how they can be controlled via CAPI or device value, hence the recommendation you download and install TenscriptAid. This will give an indication what needs to be done.

[jayceekeys]

Jon00 Homeseer/Echo Skill Helper for Homeseer 3

Hi Jon,

I originally assumed that simply putting e.g. the device ref, the device dim value 82,40 in the device value should do the trick, but although the response from Alexa is OK and the device list shows the new status, the device itself doesn't change state.





I downloaded tenscriptaid (which seems like a great tool) and used the dropdowns to get the correct code/syntax, but am a little unsure as to where to put the copied snippet. I tried pasting it in the CAPI field in your trigger screen, but that obviously isn't the right thing to do ?



I hate having to reach out to you again but am really struggling. Although I really like the PLC-BUS solution and have been running it with very little issues for many years, it is tricky when these sort of issues crop up as it doesn't seem to be all that common - so issues often aren't really that well documented.

Cheers again,

Jay

[jon00]

For on/off the following should work in the CAPI: field:

82,100,on

and

82,0,off

Then try 82,40,brightness or 82,40,dim to see if that will turn on with the Dim level set.

[jayceekeys]

For on/off the following should work in the CAPI: field:

82,100,on

and

82,0,off

Then try 82,40,brightness or 82,40,dim to see if that will turn on with the Dim level set.

Hi Jon,

The first two commands work fine, but in the case of the "On" variant, the device status shows 100, however the actual device simply switches on to the previous dim level that had been used.

Using the dim or brightness level options, do not do anything.

When I was using the Alexa Skill on it's own I was able to do the set the XXX light to YY % and it worked (although clunky with the normal Alexa often not recognizing the device) so the device is able to respond to dim instructions - and using the normal faders in HS works fine.

Am I correct in thinking that I would have to set up a trigger for each device in the house (not sure what the maximum number allowed is) - with the instructions that I select to operate each device? I'm happy to do this and even happy to accept that an on "100" command simply reverts the device back to whatever previous dim level the device was on, however it's a huge amount of work so just keen to make sure that I'm doing things correctly before I repeat any mistake 100 times over for each device !

Cheers again .... I really appreciate your help.

Jay

[jon00]

For on, try 82,101,on

So what exactly are you trying to achieve with this voice command.

[jayceekeys]

For on, try 82,101,on

So what exactly are you trying to achieve with this voice command.

Hi Jon,

So using the 101 command does exactly the same .... it turns the device on but only to whatever the device dim level it was last set to. It does however change the device level to what the command says in the HomeSeer status screen !

For most devices (which are simply on and off) the 0-100 option will be just fine. With devices that dim it seems that I cannot preset a dim level in the "On" command - it will simply toggle the device on - to whatever the dim level was set to previously - in other words it completely ignores the dimming level.

To give some context to what I am trying to achieve with this command..... I built light units in the Lounge that allow me to fade RGB lamps using PLC-BUS dimmer units. When I'm watching TV in the evening, it's nice to have a low level coloured light in the background, so have an event, that sets the TV, Amp, SKY box etc to ON. The main light is set to OFF. The coloured lamps are dimmed to a preset 40%.

It would be nice to still be able to control the coloured lamps outside of the event, so was setting up a trigger to be able to turn them on - but to a normal 100% level - rather than the dimmed level that the event would have last set them to. The use of the 100 command, simply turns them on - but keeps them on the value that they were dimmed to last - without any ability to do 100%.

I'm wondering if on the devices that I'm trying to dim, whether there is any way that I can set up a similar function to the Alexa Skill which would work along the lines of "Alexa, tell HomeSeer to Set Red Lights to 40%" rather than just "turn on the red lights"?


Cheers,

Jay

[jon00]

Try this test script:

Save the following to your scripts directory and call it PLCBUS.vb

Sub Main(ByVal Num As String)

Dim cc as HomeSeerAPI.CAPI.CAPIControl = hs3.CAPIGetSingleControl(82, True, "Brightness(value)%", False, False)
cc.ControlValue = CInt(Num)
Dim cr as HomeSeerAPI.CAPI.CAPIControlResponse = hs3.CAPIControlHandler(cc)

End Sub 

(There may be a space required between Brightness and (value) - check Tenscriptaid)

Then define PLCBUS.vb in the 'Run Script' text box on the trigger setup page.

Change the Alexa Text to:

dim red light||set red light

Finally, say, Alexa tell homeseer to set the red lights to forty percent or Alexa tell homeseer to dim the red lights to forty percent.

Does that work?