Major Cool

[wkomorow]

I just enabled it and it is works for me. I need to do some poking around, but it discovered 34 devices. It is fast and seems to require less enunciation to be understood.

I think Wade's new skill is a slight bit faster (all this is in milleseconds anyway).

As I said major cool and an amazing job. Congratulations.

My last word is WOW.

[Rube Goldberg]

Agree on cool factor. Got this new API link up and running without any problems. For events I have created some virtual devices as the trigger and they are working well, just needed some logic to keep track of control states between lighting scene modes and managing the "off" resets.

I have also been using the other Skill link for a couple of weeks and it too is working well - a big help has been using the phrase recognition triggers on events. I'll probably use a mix of both approaches, with the API for common items, to avoid the "tell Homeseer to" pre-phrase and the Skill for less frequent items so I don't clutter my system with too many virtual devices and middleware type tracking events.

I had stopped using VR on HS a few years ago due to mic placement and noise issues but the Echo seems to have really solved that; I can talk to it from across rooms (open floor plan) and it is responding well with no false positives when the TV is on or when having conversations.

[wkomorow]

I am also using virtual devices to control events. But I use two - stairs and stairs kill. Turn on stairs - which turns several lights on then turns the virtual device off, and turn on stairs kill which turns the devices off and then the virtual device off. This way my virtual devices are always in an off state and ready to respond to on.

I also am using a variety of solutions - skill version 1 (understands events great), skill version 2 (great for statuses), the api (for simple on and off as well as changing the thermostat) and Ifttt for interaction with my location.

I am impress with how good the api (and the skills for that matter) work. I read somewhere that at CES echo was everywhere, but was not itself a featured item. Developers showcased their products via echo VR.

This is all evolving. What I do notice is the API seems to recognize my natural speech a lot better. For the skill set, I tend to exegerate my words a bit to get better recognition.

[Rotech]

Hey guy can some help me with this situation. I have a device called "lamp light" that I the beginning it worked ok (using api). Now when I try to turn them on echo say there are several devices with this name . The other that I have is "powder room light and under cabinet light" what do I do in this case?

[wkomorow]

Take a look under the Alexa app settings connected devices to see what Alexa thinks it is called. If it is weird, tell her to forget the device and then to rediscover your devices. I am getting 100 percent accuracy. You may have to include the room.

[Rotech]

Take a look under the Alexa app settings connected devices to see what Alexa thinks it is called. If it is weird, tell her to forget the device and then to rediscover your devices. I am getting 100 percent accuracy. You may have to include the room.

Found a letter in the the word light that was misspelled thanks for the tip. Can you explain in what cercumstances you need to create groups in the Alexa app?

[wkomorow]

You gave me something new to play with and actually simplified things for me - thanks. I haven't tried groups but I will now. In homeseer I have an event to turn on the stairs and upstairs bedroom light. I run the even before going to bed and when I come downstairs in the morning. I created a virtual device that I can turn on called stairs. It triggers the event then reverts to the off state. I have another virtual device called stairs killed to turn them off. But, I can just create a group to control them - alexa run going to bed on. I could also imagine coming home and tell alexa to turn on the kitchen, hall and living room lights with a group call i'm home. alexa i'm home on.

[wkomorow]

Just tried it - I created a "Living Room" group - works great - instantaneous. It has problem with phrases. So I created a group bed - turn bed on - for the stairs and bedroom lights.

[Rotech]

Just tried it - I created a "Living Room" group - works great - instantaneous. It has problem with phrases. So I created a group bed - turn bed on - for the stairs and bedroom lights.

So your saying that if you creat a group called "test" and add let's say 2 devices (lamp light and hall way light). You would have to say Alexa turn on "test" and it will turn on both devices? Is that's how it works?

[wkomorow]

It does - I did one called Living room (4 devices( and one called bed (3 devices) and both work perfectly and instantly. I tried calling one group "going to bed" and Alexa did not like it. You need to keep it simple. Any devices can be in multiple groups. Give it a try, you can always delete the group by clicking on it and going to the bottom of the page and click delete.

[cbhous]

I am blown away!
I installed the latest beta release and it went off without a hitch. Checked the Voice Command on a couple of devices and created another couple of virtual devices for events. I linked Amazon Echo to my Homelier account, asked Alexa to discover my devices and after just a few seconds she found them all.
"Alexa turn on the backyard lights" Shazam they are on. "Alexa turn the kitchen lights off" Bam! The lights are off. All the other devices work great also! Boy am I spoiled. I am going to have to be stay away from the BUY button on Amazon but I could sure want some more control devices and maybe a couple of those Amazon Puck things $$$.

Thanks Guys, A Great Job!

[drmcp]

I agree great job, this is what i have dreaming of for years with my home automation system

https://youtu.be/7gLk90i68VE

I am blown away!
I installed the latest beta release and it went off without a hitch. Checked the Voice Command on a couple of devices and created another couple of virtual devices for events. I linked Amazon Echo to my Homelier account, asked Alexa to discover my devices and after just a few seconds she found them all.
"Alexa turn on the backyard lights" Shazam they are on. "Alexa turn the kitchen lights off" Bam! The lights are off. All the other devices work great also! Boy am I spoiled. I am going to have to be stay away from the BUY button on Amazon but I could sure want some more control devices and maybe a couple of those Amazon Puck things $$$.

Thanks Guys, A Great Job!

[mloebl]

Working incredibly well here too... great job guys!

[Gogs]

Arrived here this morning and was fully working and on good talking terms with HS3 within a couple of hours.

one of the best things to hit HS for a long time

[randycboone]

I've created a group for "Outside Lights" and included all exterior lights. I can say, "Alexa, turn on the outside lights" or "Alexa, turn off the outside light" and they all come on or off at the same time. I have several other similar groups.

With the virtual devices, I've added to each of them a third status called "Neutral" and have the events which are triggered by these devices, return the device's status to "Neutral" when all other commands have been run. This way, I can use the "Alexa, turn the <device> on" or "Alexa, turn the <device> off" at any point and not have to worry about whether the status was last "on" or "off".

Randy

PS. For the record, I'm in Canada where the Echo isn't officially supported, or available, yet. I've had to work around a couple issues with it.