Alexa Will Not Add More Than 300 HomeSeer Devices

[jeanv]

My home has many Insteon KPL 8 Button switches. The Connected Home API "Smart Home Skill" imports each button as a device. I get 300 devices, but when I add a new virtual device, then forget and re-discover, the new virtual ON / OFF device is not added.

Right now it does not seem like I can add any new devices, but I can change and control the ones I do have and make them work.

Is there a limit on 300 Devices in the Connected Home API "Smart Home Skill" for HomeSeer or Alexa?

Is there a way for Alexa not to import the KPL buttons and just control the load itself?

Thanks for the help!

[jhearty]

Just speculating here that the limit is an Amazon limit. The more devices, the harder it may be to tell which one you asked to do something with when doing the voice recognition.

To solve your problem though, go into the devices you don't need voice control of in the Device Management page and on the Configuration tab of the device uncheck the Voice Command checkbox.

Easier still, click the Show all button of the Device Management page to unhide all devices, then check the box on the upper left to select all devices, then on the pull down list next to it select Disable Voice to disable voice on ALL devices, then go back and select the individual devices you want Voice Control of and then select Enable Voice on the pull down list. Then you'll have a smaller list of the things you actually intend to control with your voice in the Alexa app.

[kenm]

After looking over the Smart Home API docs I'd suspect it's just the size of an array in either the skill itself or something on the MyHS side. The Alexa service just parses out the directives and sends them to the skill for interpretation and interaction with the device cloud service (in this case MyHS). It also may be in some code called the Lambda skill adapter but that's also on the HS side.

It is good to know that you can exclude devices from the Smart Home Skill device list just by turning off Voice Command flag.

--Ken

[rjh]

I don't see any limit on our side, but I will check with Amazon.

After looking over the Smart Home API docs I'd suspect it's just the size of an array in either the skill itself or something on the MyHS side. The Alexa service just parses out the directives and sends them to the skill for interpretation and interaction with the device cloud service (in this case MyHS). It also may be in some code called the Lambda skill adapter but that's also on the HS side.

It is good to know that you can exclude devices from the Smart Home Skill device list just by turning off Voice Command flag.

--Ken

[rjh]

Amazon imposes this limit:

https://developer.amazon.com/public/...overy-messages

[jrfuda]

Is there a way to overcome the 300 device limit Amazon imposes in a future release? For example, each device, event, timer, scene, etc. could have a check box to hide or make available to external APIs. This would make it much harder to reach the 300 limit. I too have many zwave load devices controllable with either associated non-load switches or five-button scene switches that I don't care to see anywhere but on the wall in my house. If I want to control the load via the web interface or an external interface, all I want to see is the load device. Same goes for most of the child devices on nodes that don't really do anything for me. I have nearly 200 devices, but only a couple dozen I ever need to interact with directly.

[kenm]

[rjh]

I checked the code, and yes, if the voice command checkbox is not checked the device will be excluded from discovery. However, when you run the discovery it will not remove any devices. So go into the Alexa App, SmartHome section and you will see a list of all the discovered devices. Go to the bottom of the list and remove them all. The re-run the discovery, now you should only see the devices that are marked as a voice command.

[kenm]

I checked the code, and yes, if the voice command checkbox is not checked the device will be excluded from discovery. However, when you run the discovery it will not remove any devices. So go into the Alexa App, SmartHome section and you will see a list of all the discovered devices. Go to the bottom of the list and remove them all. The re-run the discovery, now you should only see the devices that are marked as a voice command.

Excellent. That worked perfectly.

THANKS!

Ken

[jeanv]

I truly appreciate everyone's response and inputs. Rich I saw your post and reference to the limit being on the array size on the Amazon side. But even better was the understanding that I could disable voice control on all the devices and then only enable it on the devices I actually want to control via voice.

That took care of my number of devices.

My only follow-up question is, as I add new plug-ins and devices, is there a way to show those devices that have a voice control enabled (so I can easily disable them) or set the default for any new devices to NOT enable voice control. The way I see it now, voice control should be the exception in my case, not the rule..

Thanks again to everyone! VERY VERY helpful!

[rjh]

Unfortunately, no, the voice command property is not exposed on any other page. If you can write scripts, you could create a script that would list them as the voice command property is a property on the device. The default is to enable it and we don't have a setting to reverse that.

I truly appreciate everyone's response and inputs. Rich I saw your post and reference to the limit being on the array size on the Amazon side. But even better was the understanding that I could disable voice control on all the devices and then only enable it on the devices I actually want to control via voice.

That took care of my number of devices.

My only follow-up question is, as I add new plug-ins and devices, is there a way to show those devices that have a voice control enabled (so I can easily disable them) or set the default for any new devices to NOT enable voice control. The way I see it now, voice control should be the exception in my case, not the rule..

Thanks again to everyone! VERY VERY helpful!

[jeanv]

Not a problem at all Rich.. I do write scripts and have written some plug-ins on HS2. I will script it... Another easy way to do this is when I re-discover on the Amazon Alexa page, see what gets pulled in and then go back and remove those that I missed.

I appreciate the feedback very much. I am quite impressed with the response times and the quality of the connection between the Amazon Echos and HS3! It has become the preferred automation interface in my home.

[Krumpy]

I think that the 300 device limit is reasonable. My point is that I do not think that I could remember the names of 300 devices to control as part of voice recognition. Sometimes I have problems remembering my name....

Glad that one can pair it down in HomeSeer.

[kenm]

I'd really like to be able to name my devices things like "the", "that", and "those" and have Alexa be able to turn on "the lights" in a given area. With multiple devices around the house your should be able to say something like "Alexa, turn on the lights" and have "the kitchen lights turn on" if the device processing the command is in the kitchen. Why should I have to say "Alexa, turn on the kitchen lights" when I'm standing in the kitchen with an Echo that's also in the kitchen. The others might be a little more difficult but if the Echo can figure out what microphone picked up my voice command it could figure out that "that light" was 180 degrees from the microphone that picked up my voice. I actually started writing up a user story about this not long after they announced the Echo Spatial Perception feature which allows the closest device to respond.

Of course this would require some setup and testing to get if working in a home but what in HA doesn't?

[rjh]

We have talked to Amazon about this, we want them to give us some ID of the echo that heard the command. Currently, they do not offer such a thing. We will keep trying.

I'd really like to be able to name my devices things like "the", "that", and "those" and have Alexa be able to turn on "the lights" in a given area. With multiple devices around the house your should be able to say something like "Alexa, turn on the lights" and have "the kitchen lights turn on" if the device processing the command is in the kitchen. Why should I have to say "Alexa, turn on the kitchen lights" when I'm standing in the kitchen with an Echo that's also in the kitchen. The others might be a little more difficult but if the Echo can figure out what microphone picked up my voice command it could figure out that "that light" was 180 degrees from the microphone that picked up my voice. I actually started writing up a user story about this not long after they announced the Echo Spatial Perception feature which allows the closest device to respond.

Of course this would require some setup and testing to get if working in a home but what in HA doesn't?