Jon00 Homeseer/Echo Skill Helper for Homeseer 3 & Homeseer 4

[jon00]

I'd like to move to the older working 5.0.1.1 version of mono from the 5.12.0.226 version I'm on. I checked the mono site but it doesn't have any information on how to actually install older versions although it does show how to lock down a given version.

Has anyone put together something on how to get 5.0.1.1 loaded?

Do you have to remove the current mono first or will the install overwrite it?

Thanks

Sorry, I cannot assist with that. May be better to post in one of the main forums.

[Moskus]

Jon00, you're the champ and please forgive me for being stupid. I just don't know where to start...


Squeezebox does not support Alexa/Google Home yet, but I'm pretty sure I'm able to script support for playback control for multiple players by using your excellent helper. Perhaps I can even extend it to include playlist/album control, but that's not my priority now.


Here's what I'm thinking for control at the moment:
- Alexa, tell HomeSeer to press play in the living room
- Alexa, tell HomeSeer to press pause in the kitchen
- Alexa, tell HomeSeer to press next in the kitchen
- Alexa, tell HomeSeer to press previous in the bedroom
... etc.

What I need is either to grab the command and location separately, or just the entire phrase if it starts with press, and send it to a script.

Yes, I've read the documentation and I've used it before, but still I'm feeling lost. What do I need to do?

[jon00]

For the Alexa Text entry, use the word 'press'

Then if your script is called SBControl.vb add the following to the setup:

Run Script: SBControl.vb
Script Procedure: Main
Script Parameter: *

Provided you get a successful trigger with the word 'press', the entire sentence heard by Alexa will then be sent to the Main parameter of the script where you can parse the string as necessary.

Sub Main(ByVal AlexaText As String)
  hs.writelog ("Test","Alexa heard: " & AlexaText)
End Sub

[Moskus]

I tip my hat to you!
So simple, yet so very powerful.

jun-20 15:24:38 
Alexa test 
Input was: press play on bedroom 

jun-20 15:24:37 
Jon00_Alexa 
RunScript - ScriptParm: press play on bedroom

It works. The rest is easy.

[Mr_Resistor]

I tip my hat to you!
So simple, yet so very powerful.

jun-20 15:24:38 
Alexa test 
Input was: press play on bedroom 

jun-20 15:24:37 
Jon00_Alexa 
RunScript - ScriptParm: press play on bedroom

It works. The rest is easy.

Care to share your squeezebox controlling script? What commands does it accept/use/support? Would love to have this functionality.

[rotunnoe]

Invoking Jon00 Alexa Helper

Jon00, I was wondering if there is another way to invoke your script other than the Alexa text, perhaps from a virtual switch or some other Event? Here is why I'm asking. Lets say I'd like to know the outdoor light level from my 6 in 1 sensor on my porch. Currently I would say "Alexa, ask Homeseer my outdoor light level". She would then respond. Now with the advent of Routines, I can create a routine called "Outdoor Light Level." So idealistically I could say Alexa, what is the outdoor light level? She could then run a Homeseer trigger such a s a virtual switch or run an event that would lunch your helper app.

The goal of this would be not having to say "ask homeseer to" in every request.

Thank you for the app by the way. Its an amazing tool.

[jon00]

I understand what you are trying to do and yes you could run the helper via an event called by the Alexa Home Automation Skill. The problem is that you cannot just send something back to Alexa in this way. If you could, lots of people would be using Alexa as speaker clients for Homeseer. You will need to stick with the 'Ask Homeseer' method unfortunately.

[rotunnoe]

Darn. I was hoping that since you were able to make the call from the Alexa it would somehow find its way back to the same device. Oh well. Thanks for your reply

[grp]

Jon,

How would a Canadian go about developing a custom Skill to leverage your helper? How would one gain access to the Home Automation Skill in Canada? Any idea how long it will take to become available in Canada? How could one find out? Any advice would be greatly appreciated Jon!

[jon00]

I think you have more chance of going to the moon than HST creating a Home Automation Skill for Canada! The problem is that the US version uses a schema command which is now no longer allowed so they would need to re-write it and get re-certification for worldwide use. This could stop the existing skill from working during this process.

Many people have created their own dev skill (details here), however since the tutorial was written, the dev config pages have changed completely and I don't believe anyone has got it to work with the new setup. I'm not touching mine in fear of messing something up.

HST's guru on Alexa skills is Sgt. Shultz so he would be the best person to contact about this. If anyone does manage to get a dev skill working with the new setup, please post!

Being in Canada, you should be able to use a US Amazon account which would give you access to the skill.

[grp]

No luck with the Home Automation Skill in Canada...

I followed your suggestion, and created a brand new Amazon.com account, with a US address. This then allowed me to see the Homeseer Home Automation Skill in my list. I associated it with my myhs account without any issue. The problem came when I attempted to discover devices in my Alexa app. It went away for 20 seconds, and came back indicating that it could not find any devices. Now, when I use the Homeseer Smarthome Skill, it does successfully discover all my devices that have voice control enabled. I guess there must be something embedded in myhs account that indicates that I am canadian, and even though it lets me link the Home Automation Skill, it does not let me actually discover any devices.

I even went so far as to link the Smarthome Skill, discover the devices, unlink the Smarthome Skill, and link in the Home Automation Skill, and when I go to control a device, Alexa responds that the Server is not responding.

So, basically, it appears that I am pretty much stuck with the available Smarthome Skill for Canadians.

If you have any other advice, I would greatly appreciate it, but for now, I will stick to the more basic Smarthome Skill.

[jon00]

Hopefully langenet who has both a Canadian & US account will see this and advise.....

[langenet]

Yes, I use both the Homeseer skill (original) and the Homeseer Home Automation skill without issue. I've done this from day 1 before the skill was available in Canada. I used my amazon.com account to do this.

Now, I don't really use the alexa app. You can do all of the device discovery from amazon.alexa.com. I use reverb on my phone as well.

Robert

[grp]

Hi Langenet,

Thanks for adding your comments to the conversation I have been having with Jon00. I have taken your advice, and started working directly with the alexa.amazon.com website, rather than with my iPhone app. I setup a US Amazon account, and associated a US address to my echo device, so amazon has no idea that I am a Canadian. When I went into the Skills page, and filtered on homeseer, I saw all three of the available Homeseer skills. I selected the Home Automation skill, linked it to my myhs account, and then attempted to discover my devices. When the discovery process was over, it had not discovered any devices, and in my Smart Home page, it indicated that I had no skills enabled. So, it appears that it linked the Home Automation skill to my myhs account, but would not enable it. I tried this a couple of times, all with the same result.

So, I then decided to link the other two Homeseer skills (which are available to Canadians), and in both cases, those skills discovered my voice control enabled devices and events without any issues. Alexa still had the Home Automation skill linked to my myhs account, but it would never enable it.

I am quite bummed out about this because I really want to use the more sophisticated interaction capabilities that have been included in the Home Automation skill, and also wanted to leverage all the great work that Jon00 has put into his Alexa helper application, but at this point, I am not sure what to do next with respect to the Home Automation Skill.

What am I doing differently than you did? I literally started from scratch with the creation of a US amazon account, and the setting up of my echo. The only thing I have not done is changed the location of my homeseer server, as I use Dawn and Dusk in certain events. Is Amazon smart enough to know that my Homeseer system is setup for Calgary, AB, which is where I live? I highly doubt that.

Anyway, any advice as to what I might be still be doing incorrectly would be greatly appreciated. In the meantime, I think I am going to be forced to give up on the Home Automation Skill (which really pisses me off, as I hate to let tech beat me!! LOL!), and simply settle for the Homeseer Smarthome Skill.

[grp]

Just to clarify, I am currently using HS3 Pro Edition 3.0.0.435 (Windows 7 Professional 64bit). The more I read other people's posts, the more confused I get as to why I can't get the US only Home Automation Skill to work using the approach that I have taken.