Alexa-enabled group commands not working.

[scorp508]

Recently Amazon added the ability to Alexa-fy groups by associating the Alexa device in a room to the group itself. This is supposed to allow you to do things such as walk into a room and say "Alexa, lights on" and only the lights in the group associated with the device that heard the command turn on without the need to specify the group and/or device name.


General Alexa integration with HomeSeer (the native plug-in) is working well. I can turn specific lights on/off or set dimmer %s without any problem. HomeSeer receives the command via Alexa and performs the requested action successfully. The devices are in the smart home section of the Alexa app and properly showing as 'lights'.


However, after assigning my Echo and Echo dot devices to groups I'm unable to use the ambiguous Alexa-enabled group commands. The Alexa device will flash its blue ring and say "ok" indicating it understood the command and will execute it, but I see no commands come into the HomeSeer log from Alexa and none of the Z-Wave switches for the lights in that room react.


Does anyone have Alexa-enabled groups working with HomeSeer? I'm just wondering if I have something else wrong and need to be troubleshooting this at the Alexa layer.

I'm on the .387 beta version of HS3 Pro.

[Walnut2000]

This appeared to be working for me, upto a point, until your post prompted me to look a little closer. Now I am not sure.

I'm running HS3 Standard Edition 3.0.0.379 (Windows) with Jowihue.

I have the 3 Hue lightbulbs in the Lounge, configured as a Room in the Hue app which appears as a Group in Jowihue. There is also a display cabinet light, controlled by HS3 via an Aeotec ZW096 Smart Switch.

In the Alexa app I have a Smarthome Group that includes all of the above devices, plus the Lounge Echo a thermostat and Sonos.

When I go into the Lounge and say "Alexa, turn on the lights", the Lounge Hue bulbs all come on but not the display cabinet. I have not found a way to configure the Alexa group to include the ZW096 in that action; I guess Alexa doesn't know the ZW096 controls a light as opposed to, say, a coffee machine.

However, on closer inspection, I now realise that my Alexa app is configured with both the Homeseer and Hue skills so the "lights on" action could be controlling the Hue bulbs directly, by-passing HS3 and Jowihue completely. I'm not sure how to check that easily, other than removing the Hue skill and messing up my whole system. I'd hope the Alexa app would recognise Jowihue devices & groups as lights, but I don't know for sure.

So, ambiguous Alexa-enabled group commands do work but (obviously) 'lights on/off' can only control devices that Alexa recognises as lights. The question is, can HS3 & plug-ins correctly present devices as "lights" to Alexa for that purpose?

[scorp508]

When I go into the Lounge and say "Alexa, turn on the lights", the Lounge Hue bulbs all come on but not the display cabinet. I have not found a way to configure the Alexa group to include the ZW096 in that action; I guess Alexa doesn't know the ZW096 controls a light as opposed to, say, a coffee machine.

If you edit the device in the Alexa app what kind of device do you see? Mine shows "light" which it may be pulling in from HomeSeer somehow, but it gets a non-light icon different from the Hue bulbs.

However, on closer inspection, I now realise that my Alexa app is configured with both the Homeseer and Hue skills so the "lights on" action could be controlling the Hue bulbs directly, by-passing HS3 and Jowihue completely. I'm not sure how to check that easily, other than removing the Hue skill and messing up my whole system. I'd hope the Alexa app would recognise Jowihue devices & groups as lights, but I don't know for sure.

I have hue lights in the same room as well, and if they are powered when I issue the ambiguous "Alexa, lights on" command they do come on or turn off. I then removed the Hue bulbs from the group in Alexa leaving only the zwave switches (all showing 'light' in the Alexa app) and issuing the same command results in "Sorry, I cannot find lights." If I use the group name and say "Alexa, turn on the master bedroom" all the HomeSeer devices in the group turn on.


It does sort of feel like there is either a command collision or Alexa isn't truly treating the HomeSeer devices as lights even though the Alexa app says they are lights. I tend to think it is the latter which is a bummer.





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[lj502]

Homeseer has not updated the Alexa skill yet, they are working on it, so until that happens it won't work. Hopefully it happens fast!
John

[scorp508]

Homeseer has not updated the Alexa skill yet, they are working on it, so until that happens it won't work. Hopefully it happens fast!
John

Ah. If that's the case I assume there's a newer API/SDK on Amazon's side they need to rev up to. Any idea what it'll allow? Such as discovering more device types and better association of what they are? I hope we are granted a way to filter what devices Alexa is allowed to discover, similar to how we can hide devices from mobile view.

Right now Alexa has only discovered HS-WS100+, HS-WD100+, and HS-PA100+ devices (all marked as "Light") as well as only one of my virtual devices even though I have more virtual devices configured exactly the same way. I can't see other things like a Z-Wave door lock or other connected devices.

[mbg0333]

Homeseer has not updated the Alexa skill yet, they are working on it, so until that happens it won't work. Hopefully it happens fast!
John

Any update on the skill being updated?

[scorp508]

Any update on the skill being updated?

Also interested, but with all the other stuff they're working on in parallel I just hope they're able to find some time for it!

[lj502]

I believe it is already submitted to Amazon and they are just waiting for it to go thru Amazon's testing, whatever that is, shouldn't be to long I hope.
I think everyone will be happy with the results, I know I am and my wife is the real test, and she loves it.

John

[scorp508]

I believe it is already submitted to Amazon and they are just waiting for it to go thru Amazon's testing, whatever that is, shouldn't be to long I hope.
I think everyone will be happy with the results, I know I am and my wife is the real test, and she loves it.

John

Where do we sign up for Prime 2-day guaranteed API approvals? I'll just rock in my corner a bit longer waiting for it.

[scorp508]

I believe it is already submitted to Amazon and they are just waiting for it to go thru Amazon's testing, whatever that is, shouldn't be to long I hope.
I think everyone will be happy with the results, I know I am and my wife is the real test, and she loves it.

John

While we sit (and rock) and wait... any ability to share what the experience would eventually be?

For example if I configure an event's voice command to be "bedtime" what is the phrase one must issue to Alexa? Is it "Alexa, run bedtime." or some other permuation?

The "...run..." portion of that example of takes the natural-ness out of the digital assistant interaction. I'd love to be able to set the voice command itself to "it's bedtime" and simply say "Alexa, it's bedtime." or "Alexa, fire it up" if I had an event that turns on my fireplace with a voice command set as "fire it up".

[AgileHumor]

While we sit (and rock) and wait... any ability to share what the experience would eventually be?

For example if I configure an event's voice command to be "bedtime" what is the phrase one must issue to Alexa? Is it "Alexa, run bedtime." or some other permuation?

The "...run..." portion of that example of takes the natural-ness out of the digital assistant interaction. I'd love to be able to set the voice command itself to "it's bedtime" and simply say "Alexa, it's bedtime." or "Alexa, fire it up" if I had an event that turns on my fireplace with a voice command set as "fire it up".

You can do this. Go to Alexa app, choose "routines". Have event switch a HomeSeer virtual switch on (i.e. bedtime mode).

In my case, "Alexa, Goodnight" routine has a single action to Turn "Bedtime Mode" On.

[scorp508]

You can do this. Go to Alexa app, choose "routines". Have event switch a HomeSeer virtual switch on (i.e. bedtime mode).



In my case, "Alexa, Goodnight" routine has a single action to Turn "Bedtime Mode" On.

I do this for a few things today. I'm hoping to not have to manually create Alexa routines if the new Voice Command field of events somehow automatically will tie in.


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