Alexa voice commands not always running

[Steve Q]

I have noticed that sometimes my voice commands to Echo are not executed even when she answers "OK". I have tracked this down to certain x10 events. I have a few events that turn on lights for an hour. These events are triggered by a virtual Alexa device (dining room lights v3, living room lights v4, etc). So when I say "Alexa, dining room lights on", the event runs, the lights turn on, then turn off an hour later. However, if I want to retrigger the lights for another hour, and I say "Alexa, dining room lights on", the lights do not come on even after repeated attempts. The HS3 log shows that the command has been received and executed by CAPI. The event however is not triggered.

However, if I say "Alexa, dining room lights OFF" then "Alexa, dining room lights ON", the lights come on as they should. This behavior is repeatable across several events. It appears that Alexa and/or CAPI thinks the device is ON and therefore ignores the request.

This only happens with my x10 devices. Z-wave devices/events behave properly.

Rich, can you look into this?


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[randycboone]

I have noticed that sometimes my voice commands to Echo are not executed even when she answers "OK". I have tracked this down to certain x10 events. I have a few events that turn on lights for an hour. These events are triggered by a virtual Alexa device (dining room lights v3, living room lights v4, etc). So when I say "Alexa, dining room lights on", the event runs, the lights turn on, then turn off an hour later. However, if I want to retrigger the lights for another hour, and I say "Alexa, dining room lights on", the lights do not come on even after repeated attempts. The HS3 log shows that the command has been received and executed by CAPI. The event however is not triggered.

However, if I say "Alexa, dining room lights OFF" then "Alexa, dining room lights ON", the lights come on as they should. This behavior is repeatable across several events. It appears that Alexa and/or CAPI thinks the device is ON and therefore ignores the request.

This only happens with my x10 devices. Z-wave devices/events behave properly.

Rich, can you look into this?


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Just an suggestion here, but I do similar things. Can you confirm that an action is taken when the lights turn off, to also turn off the virtual device?

[Steve Q]

Alexa voice commands not always running

Just an suggestion here, but I do similar things. Can you confirm that an action is taken when the lights turn off, to also turn off the virtual device?

Yes, when I say "Alexa, dining room lights OFF", the virtual device does turn off, and the lights also turn off if they are on. I think my issue is a trigger issue. I am using the trigger "If device changes and becomes on". So if the virtual device is already on, it will not trigger. I guess all I need to do is to add "turn off the Alexa virtual device after 1 hour" as an event action.

Steve Q


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[vasrc]

Yes, when I say "Alexa, dining room lights OFF", the virtual device does turn off, and the lights also turn off if they are on. I think my issue is a trigger issue. I am using the trigger "If device changes and becomes on". So if the virtual device is already on, it will not trigger. I guess all I need to do is to add "turn off the Alexa virtual device after 1 hour" as an event action.

Steve Q

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Just so I don't have to worry about the virtual device getting out of sync with the actual controlled device or event, I create all of my Echo virtual devices that control events as:
0=OFF, 50=Mid, 100=ON. The first thing I do in the event is set the status of the virtual device back to Mid. This way I can turn it ON and OFF with the Echo as often as I want.

Z

[randycboone]

I guess all I need to do is to add "turn off the Alexa virtual device after 1 hour" as an event action.

Steve Q


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Yes, that's what I was getting at. When the light automatically turns off following the one hour, then the virtual device should be set to "Off" as well.

[cheeryfool]

Alexa voice commands not always running

Yes, when I say "Alexa, dining room lights OFF", the virtual device does turn off, and the lights also turn off if they are on. I think my issue is a trigger issue. I am using the trigger "If device changes and becomes on". So if the virtual device is already on, it will not trigger. I guess all I need to do is to add "turn off the Alexa virtual device after 1 hour" as an event action.

Steve Q


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Have you tried "the device had its value set and is not equal to Off"? I think this should capture any changes that are not to the off state, if that helps with what you are trying to achieve.

[Steve Q]

Have you tried "the device had its value set and is not equal to Off"? I think this should capture any changes that are not to the off state, if that helps with what you are trying to achieve.

Thanks, I must admit, I have not experimented much with the HS3 triggers. Early on, I tried several different triggers, but I found that some did not work consistently. So I have always used the "changes and becomes" trigger. The "had its value set" trigger has always been difficult for me to understand. But I will try it.

Steve Q


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[Steve Q]

I think I will use hs.setdevicebyref(123,0,False) to set my virtual Alexa devices to OFF at the end of each day. This will set the Alexa virtual devices to OFF without triggering any events. This should take care of the times when other events turn off Alexa controlled devices.

This may also be a way to use a "mute" command via Alexa. I have tried using Alexa to send an IR mute command to my sound system. Because you must say on or off to Alexa, it gets out of sync easily. I think resetting the virtual device value to 0 every time could eliminate the sync issue.

Steve Q


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[vasrc]

I think I will use hs.setdevicebyref(123,0,False) to set my virtual Alexa devices to OFF at the end of each day. This will set the Alexa virtual devices to OFF without triggering any events. This should take care of the times when other events turn off Alexa controlled devices.

This may also be a way to use a "mute" command via Alexa. I have tried using Alexa to send an IR mute command to my sound system. Because you must say on or off to Alexa, it gets out of sync easily. I think resetting the virtual device value to 0 every time could eliminate the sync issue.

Steve Q
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Returning it to Off (0) only works if you only want to turn something On (100). If you want to turn it Off as well it won't register a change of state since it's already Off (ie Off to Off). This is why I default to a "mid" position for many of the Echo virtual devices. Volume control is one that needs something in addition to Off or On, since you may need it to turn On (UP say) or Off (down) multiple times.

Z

[rayvino]

varsic, can you please post a screen shot of where and how you configure your 50 = Mid status for the Alexa Virtual Devices?

[vasrc]

varsic, can you please post a screen shot of where and how you configure your 50 = Mid status for the Alexa Virtual Devices?

Sure

[vasrc]

And the Events it's attached to:

[Steve Q]

This is an interesting approach. I don't know how the blinds work. Do you need to say "Alexa, blinds on" more than once? Do they open part way?


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[vasrc]

This is an interesting approach. I don't know how the blinds work. Do you need to say "Alexa, blinds on" more than once? Do they open part way?


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I have "dumb" Hunter Douglas blinds, so it's all or none. I can stop it by saying the opposite command, but the timing isn't the best (ie it's probably already up or down .. I suppose if I wanted partial movements I could program a stop X seconds after an Up/Down command, but since I only want it up or down, I don't need that.

Blinds aren't the best example, Volume control is better as you get one volume up/down change per command. My Onkyo doesn't do %volume like the Sonos does, so you have to use On (Up) or Off(Down) commands. I can't use Virtual Dim devices for it like I do for the Sonos (ie Set Sonos Volume to 50%). If you do us Dim, EasyTrigger is your best friend with it's set device to device action.

Z

[Steve Q]

Something is killing my HS3 X10 plugin. It may be related to Alexa, but I'm not sure. X10 stuff stops responding. Restarting the plugin always fixes it. I will keep trying to figure out what is causing the problem.


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