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    Events don't work

    I have my echo successfully turning on and off a light I have in Homeseer (I did the skill integration and it imported the devices).

    But when I try "Alexa, tell Homeseer to run the event All Lights Off" it just dings at me and turns off. I tried all combinations of group name, and no good.

    I also tried "Alexa, tell Home Seer to turn off all lights on Main Floor" but that didn't work either.

    It only works when I try to directly control a single device.

    Ideas? Thanks.

    #2
    Did you follow this guide to setting up the "Tell HomeSeer to..." skill?
    https://homeseer.com/amazon-alexa-integration/
    💁‍♂️ Support & Customer Service 🙋‍♂️ Sales Questions 🛒 Shop HomeSeer Products

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      #3
      Yes I did. But per that article, running events doesn't seem to require any configuration once I've logged my MyHS in to the echo (which I confirmed worked because I can turn on/off individual lights).

      Maybe I missed a step reading it some where?

      Comment


        #4
        Hi folks - any suggestions to help me here?

        Comment


          #5
          One suggestion - try adding phrase recognition to your events. That is how I have mine all set up and have never had any issues.

          So you could add a trigger if a phrase is recognized
          phrase "turn off all the lights"

          Then you would say - Alexa tell homeseer to turn off all the lights. I find it more natural then run the event ....

          Until Alexa added routines - I used events like this to control multiple actions =

          Alexa tell homeseer goodnight (actually, I copied the homeseer skill into my own skill to change the invocation to my house), so I said Alexa tell my house goodnight - which set the thermostat, turned off all the lights, licked the doors, etc.

          Comment


            #6
            Tried adding an event for phrase recognition, but it is unrecognized also.

            Is it possible that the connection to Homeseer just isn't getting through?

            Turning lights on and off works but it appears in the Alexa app there were devices created for my lights in the app - so maybe that's how the current commands are working for specific devices.

            How can I test the "Tell homeseer to...." and if it truly isn't working, recommendations to troubleshoot?

            Comment


              #7
              There are 2 "skills" = one is the ai where the devices appear in Alexa. The other is homeseer skill (Alexa tell homeseer ...). It sounds like you have the API but not the skill enabled. Search the skills - the API is called Homeseer, the "skill" is called Homeseer home automation skill. Make sure both are enabled. Go to Alexa, click on skills, search for homeseer - you should get 2 results. I have both enabled, but for events the tell homeseer is redundant now that Alexa has routines (for the most part). Another alternative, would be to create a virtual device that is discovered by Alexa. The virtual device would simply have an on and off and you would set your event to trigger when the virtual device was turned on. Have the final command in the event to turn off the virtual device. Have Alexa discover it. The say Alexa turn on "good night" (for example).

              A better solution would be to use the Alexa routines to group your devices, thne you can simple say Alexa good night.

              Comment


                #8
                Discovery not yielding devices although "tell homeseer" works

                Originally posted by wkomorow View Post
                There are 2 "skills" = one is the ai where the devices appear in Alexa. The other is homeseer skill (Alexa tell homeseer ...). It sounds like you have the API but not the skill enabled. Search the skills - the API is called Homeseer, the "skill" is called Homeseer home automation skill. Make sure both are enabled. Go to Alexa, click on skills, search for homeseer - you should get 2 results. I have both enabled, but for events the tell homeseer is redundant now that Alexa has routines (for the most part). Another alternative, would be to create a virtual device that is discovered by Alexa. The virtual device would simply have an on and off and you would set your event to trigger when the virtual device was turned on. Have the final command in the event to turn off the virtual device. Have Alexa discover it. The say Alexa turn on "good night" (for example).

                A better solution would be to use the Alexa routines to group your devices, thne you can simple say Alexa good night.
                I have both homeseer skills enabled as you suggest.

                The "homeseer home automation skill" works fine when I say "tell homeseer" such and such for both devices and events.

                However, when I ask the smarthome "homeseer" skill to discover devices, it spends about 20 seconds looking and then shows an empty page, no devices. No error message, just an empty page of devices. So I can't group them, etc.

                Any ideas?

                My profile:
                Current Date/Time: 11/24/2017 2:35:35 PM
                HomeSeer Version: HS3 Pro Edition 3.0.0.368
                Operating System: Microsoft Windows Embedded Standard - Work Station
                System Uptime: 1 Day 19 Hours 54 Minutes 24 Seconds
                IP Address: 192.168.1.102
                Number of Devices: 514
                Number of Events: 81
                Available Threads: 200

                Enabled Plug-Ins
                2.0.49.0: BLBackup
                2.0.22.0: BLOccupied
                3.0.6.0: Insteon
                3.4.5.0: IPThermostat
                2.17.0.19: MCSSPRINKLERSP
                1.1.17325.308: MyQ
                3.0.0.14: NetCAM
                30.0.0.36: RFXCOM
                3.0.0.2: UPB
                3.0.0.15: Vista Alarm
                3.0.0.36: X10
                3.0.1.130: Z-Wave

                Comment


                  #9
                  Discovery not yielding devices although "tell homeseer" works -- Solved

                  I disabled the smarthome "homeseer" skill and re-enabled it and now it works, discovering my devices...I should have tried that before posting the message above...

                  Comment


                    #10
                    @wkomorow - that was it!! I didn't have the home automation skill enabled. I now see on the original install page that the little images for "option 1 and option 2" are different.

                    So let's see if I have this right. There are two Echo skills:
                    * Homeseer
                    * Homeseer Home automation skill

                    The first one syncs the device list from homeseer to be seen as devices in Echo so they can be used with Echo routines.

                    The second one enables the voice "bridge" to command and control homeseer directly.

                    If I have that right, two questions:
                    1. How do you re-run discovery with skill 1? Do you need to disable, delete, and then re-enable? Or is there a better way?
                    2. Who owns the homeseer alexa integration page? Clearly I'm biased, but formatting and presenting the instructions this way (and with the 2 skill description in the "marketing blurb" at the top) is confusing. It would be so much clearer if the first heading section said "Introduction and Choices" and described both skills and what they're used for. Also that they are not mutually exclusive. Then point the reader to each section below for more detail. My $.02 anyway.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Glad it worked out. For the API -Alexa turn off ... - no need to relink -just tell Alexa to discover devices. It won't delete devices, but it will find any new devices, I need to remove "removed" devices in the Alexa app. I strongly recommend looking into routines and groups. Groups eventually will allow you to associate lights in a particular room with a particular echo device. So you will be able to go into the living room and say Alexa lights on - and your living room and only your living room lights will come on. You can also combine some Alexa features in the routines. For example Alexa good morning - turns on all my morning lights, gives me a weather, news, and traffic.

                      The skill - Alexa tell homeseer to ... is a really neat skill because it passes shat you say to homeseer to process.

                      Both are 'owned' by homeseer.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Alexa not getting all devices marked for voice (and some incorrect ones)

                        Here is the problem I am currently having, I believe it is with MyHS, but not sure.

                        For some reason the Alexa Homeseer skill is not getting all the devices that are setup for voice activation and it is getting some old ones that have recently been removed from voice activation.

                        I think this might be a MyHS problem since I also have Google home and it is also downloading the exact same devices as Alexa.

                        The more advanced "power users" Homeseer skill for Alexa gets everything right so far.

                        I have tried restarting homeseer. When I login to MyHS and connect to HS everything is correct by which I mean all the devices that are marked for voice are the same as they are when I log in to my local HS.

                        Any ideas on how to trouble shoot this? Why Alexa and Google home are not getting the correct set of devices marked for voice???

                        Comment


                          #13
                          My immediate thought would be to delete one of the errant devices and then rerun discovery to see if it comes back (at least in Alexa, I know nothing about google home). I noticed a change with Alexa behaviour of her not deleting old devices while discovery new ones.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Originally posted by wkomorow View Post
                            My immediate thought would be to delete one of the errant devices and then rerun discovery to see if it comes back (at least in Alexa, I know nothing about google home). I noticed a change with Alexa behaviour of her not deleting old devices while discovery new ones.
                            You mean delete in HS or “forget” in Alexa. I assume you mean forget in Alexa.

                            When I forget the errant devices in Alex they return on the next discovery even though they are not voice activated in HS. The errant devices are associated with a thermostat through the iPthermostat interface.

                            Then there are currently 4 devices that are not found by discovery even though they are voice activated in HS. A Schlage zwave lock and 3 garage doors through the MyQ interface

                            Comment


                              #15
                              I mean forget, but oddly I no longer see that as an option in my android alexa app. As far as I know, locks are not currently discoverable in the Alexa API for homeseer. I have no idea about garage doors. You could create a virtual device for the lock and run an event based on that device to open and close.

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