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    Controlling Amazon Music on an Echo device from homeseer.

    Hi all,

    hoping to pick the hive mind's brain here for a sec.

    what i am trying to do is replace my squeezebox audio players and move to Amazon Music Unlimited with the echo dots as audio players.

    i have been testing the sync and it works well, the main issue is i can't just say "alexa play song x" and have it also turn on my whole house players, set receiver inputs and all that. so i am hoping to be able to do all that with homeseer but i cant seem to be able to trigger a homeseer event when alexa is playing music.

    has anyone been able to do this or been able to control alexas transport controls from homeseer?
    thanks
    Raptor
    HS3 Pro on Windows 8 64bit
    53 Z-wave nodes(46 devices, 7 remotes), 15 DS10a's, 10 ms16a's, 9 Oregon Sensors, W800, RFXCOMtrx433, Way2Call, 3 HSTouch Clients, 2xRussound CAS44, Global Cache GC100-12,10 Rollertrol blinds(+ zwave) ,3 Squeezebox Radios and 1 Squeezebox Boom,DMX Arduino via ethernet,Rain8Net,3x Echo Dot's


    Check out my electronics blog here:
    https://www.facebook.com/RaptorsIrrationalInventions

    #2
    Do you by chance have a SmartThings hub? If so, this would be relatively easy to do by using the "Echo Speaks" smart app to integrate the Echo Dots to SmartThings, and then use WebCore to send a JSON request to Homeseer to toggle a virtual device on/off. The WebCore event would look like this:

    Click image for larger version  Name:	webcore2.png Views:	0 Size:	42.6 KB ID:	1341114

    That would turn on a virtual device in Homeseer when Amazon Music starts to play and then off when another source is chosen. You could then set up Homeseer events around changes to the virtual device.

    --Barry

    Comment


      #3
      I do the control between HS and Alexa the primitive way. I use IFTTT to trigger HS events from Alexa. And I use an HS Speaker Client that is near an Alexa device that speaks the magic Alexa phrase to control Alexa. I use these methods to turn on and off the Alexa Guard feature, and to control Pandora.

      Comment


        #4
        Originally posted by aa6vh View Post
        I do the control between HS and Alexa the primitive way. I use IFTTT to trigger HS events from Alexa. And I use an HS Speaker Client that is near an Alexa device that speaks the magic Alexa phrase to control Alexa. I use these methods to turn on and off the Alexa Guard feature, and to control Pandora.
        I'm curious--why do you use IFTTT between Alexa and HS rather than direct?
        -Wade

        Comment


          #5
          Originally posted by cc4005 View Post

          I'm curious--why do you use IFTTT between Alexa and HS rather than direct?
          One less plugin? I have never had a performance issue going through IFTTT, so see no reason to change. If IFTTT ever becomes unreliable (or they start charging), I will re-evaluate it.

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by aa6vh View Post

            One less plugin? I have never had a performance issue going through IFTTT, so see no reason to change. If IFTTT ever becomes unreliable (or they start charging), I will re-evaluate it.
            Fair enough. If it ain't broke...

            Not trying to change your mind about anything, just hearing other opinions and ways of doing things. This said, I don't use a plugin for Alexa access. Just have to add the Homeseer skill to alexa and let it discover devices and events. I do use IFTTT for (minimal) HS3 integration with my Trane thermostat that's only accessible via Nexia.com. I do that via webhooks so don't use the IFTTT plugin either. IFTTT has generally been very reliable, although no critical automation relies on it and I likely wouldn't notice intermittent service issues.
            -Wade

            Comment


              #7
              I hear you. I suppose I should have also said "one less skill in Alexa".

              When I first tried using Alexa to control Homeseer, I found that the required Alexa verbiage to be cumbersome. With IFTTT, I can use any triggering phrase I want (including inappropriate ones) as long as it starts with "Alexa trigger..."

              I also use IFTTT to trigger Homeseer events from other things, and it makes it simplier to use one interface.

              Comment


                #8
                I appreciate all the comments, might have to go down the HS Speaker option!
                HS3 Pro on Windows 8 64bit
                53 Z-wave nodes(46 devices, 7 remotes), 15 DS10a's, 10 ms16a's, 9 Oregon Sensors, W800, RFXCOMtrx433, Way2Call, 3 HSTouch Clients, 2xRussound CAS44, Global Cache GC100-12,10 Rollertrol blinds(+ zwave) ,3 Squeezebox Radios and 1 Squeezebox Boom,DMX Arduino via ethernet,Rain8Net,3x Echo Dot's


                Check out my electronics blog here:
                https://www.facebook.com/RaptorsIrrationalInventions

                Comment


                  #9
                  Has there been any more progress in this space? Interested in being able to control Amazon Music on a specific echo dot from HS. Specifically, I would like to have control over genre selection or playlist and the typical pause, play, next, previous commands. What are some ideas with minimal use of 3rd party services like IFTT, etc. Thanks.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    I've been using Alexa Media Player for Home Assistant.

                    Read about it here.

                    hxxps://github.com/custom-components/alexa_media_player/wiki

                    You can control it via Homeseer ==> Home Assistant using MQTT.
                    - Pete

                    Auto mator
                    Homeseer 3 Pro - 3.0.0.548 (Linux) - Ubuntu 18.04/W7e 64 bit Intel Haswell CPU 16Gb
                    Homeseer Zee2 (Lite) - 3.0.0.548 (Linux) - Ubuntu 18.04/W7e - CherryTrail x5-Z8350 BeeLink 4Gb BT3 Pro
                    HS4 Lite - Ubuntu 22.04 / Lenovo Tiny M900 / 32Gb Ram

                    HS4 Pro - V4.1.18.1 - Ubuntu 22.04 / Lenova Tiny M900 / 32Gb Ram
                    HSTouch on Intel tabletop tablets (Jogglers) - Asus AIO - Windows 11

                    X10, UPB, Zigbee, ZWave and Wifi MQTT automation-Tasmota-Espurna. OmniPro 2, Russound zoned audio, Alexa, Cheaper RFID, W800 and Home Assistant

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Originally posted by Pete View Post
                      I've been using Alexa Media Player for Home Assistant.

                      Read about it here.

                      hxxps://github.com/custom-components/alexa_media_player/wiki

                      You can control it via Homeseer ==> Home Assistant using MQTT.

                      That’s an interesting approach do you run the HA server in parallel on the same machine?

                      Comment


                        #12
                        do you run the HA server in parallel on the same machine?

                        Yes running (and they all talk to each other)

                        1 - Home Assistant in Docker (MQTT) on Ubuntu 18.04
                        2 - Homeseer 3 Lite (MQTT) on Ubuntu 18.04
                        3 - Node Red on Ubuntu 18.04 (not used much these days)
                        4 - Oracle Virtual Box ==> Windows 7E for MS WIndows SAPI / speaker client

                        on a Mini PC (BeeLink BT3 Pro) using around 64 Gb eMMC / 4Gb of RAM.

                        Primary lighting control here is via UPB. Tinkering with Z-Wave/Zigbee and still utilize X10.

                        Been testing WiFi switches modded with Tasmota / Espurna.

                        House #2 is all WiFi switches (modded - MQTT) and integrated to a Ring Alarm system (via MQTT).

                        First time venture here to all wireless and cloud use (Ring-Amazon Alexa devices).
                        - Pete

                        Auto mator
                        Homeseer 3 Pro - 3.0.0.548 (Linux) - Ubuntu 18.04/W7e 64 bit Intel Haswell CPU 16Gb
                        Homeseer Zee2 (Lite) - 3.0.0.548 (Linux) - Ubuntu 18.04/W7e - CherryTrail x5-Z8350 BeeLink 4Gb BT3 Pro
                        HS4 Lite - Ubuntu 22.04 / Lenovo Tiny M900 / 32Gb Ram

                        HS4 Pro - V4.1.18.1 - Ubuntu 22.04 / Lenova Tiny M900 / 32Gb Ram
                        HSTouch on Intel tabletop tablets (Jogglers) - Asus AIO - Windows 11

                        X10, UPB, Zigbee, ZWave and Wifi MQTT automation-Tasmota-Espurna. OmniPro 2, Russound zoned audio, Alexa, Cheaper RFID, W800 and Home Assistant

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Originally posted by logman View Post
                          Do you by chance have a SmartThings hub?
                          --Barry
                          Hey Barry,
                          Can you fairly easily trigger Alexa speech using a SmartThings hub?

                          Thank you



                          ~Bill

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Originally posted by Bill Brower View Post

                            Hey Barry,
                            Can you fairly easily trigger Alexa speech using a SmartThings hub?

                            Thank you
                            I could up until about 2 months ago... That's when SmartThings decided to sunset the "Echo Speaks" app because it had become such a bandwidth hog (due to so many people using it). It had literally gotten to the point that it was threatening to take the whole SmartThings network down, according to ST engineers. They are still working on an alternate solution. For now I think Node Red is the least involved solution for Homeseer users.

                            --Barry

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Originally posted by logman View Post

                              I could up until about 2 months ago...

                              --Barry
                              Oh man - I would have been annoyed! Thanks!


                              ~Bill

                              Comment

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