Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Alexa synchronization with HomeSeer events and states

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Alexa synchronization with HomeSeer events and states

    Like many of us, I've linked my Amazon Echo units with my HomeSeer system (HS3Pro).

    And I've been successful in adding both HomeSeer 'skills' to my Amazon account.
    (That is Option #1 and Option #2 from Here)

    Further, for a bit of fun, I renamed the Alexa skills "Daphine" so that instead of saying, "Alexa, tell HomeSeer to do something.", I can say "Alexa, tell Daphine to do something."

    And this all works.

    But telling Alexa, to tell HomeSeer to do something is awkward and bulky.

    My Amazon Echo is also directly connected to my Philips Hue Bridge.

    So, I can control my "Living Room" lights via Alexa by two different ways:
    1) "Alexa, tell Daphine to turn on Living Room lights."
    2) "Alexa, Living Room lights on."

    Guess which one my wife likes better.

    And... by speaking from Alexa to the Hue bridge directly, we can easily control color and level of the lights. Even say things like, "Alexa, make the Living Room lights cooler.", and this all works very well.

    Further, I have 65 Z-Wave switches throughout the house, and 15 "5 scene" controllers, along with 80 Hue lights (requiring two Philips Hue Bridges). I've recently enjoyed making the 3-way, 4-way and even 5-way control circuits work very well using the "Linked" Z-Wave feature. This works much better than ANY of the previous ways I've tried to implement multi-way switches. The "Linked" feature is instantaneous, and keeps all the status indicators synced very nicely. A big THANK YOU to the HomeSeer folks that supported the linked feature!

    I also recently found out how to make those darn "5 scene" controllers work reliably. Either for controlling scenes, or just being extra buttons to activate events.

    For the first time since I bought the HomeSeer system, my home Z-Wave, and Hue lighting is working solid and reliable. (It is amazing how enjoyable the HomeSeer system can be when it just works.)


    But this now brings me to my problem.

    By having Alexa communicate directly with the Hue bridge the command is easier to say, and the lights change reliably, but that bypasses the HomeSeer system, and my Z-Wave switches.

    This results in the lights being on, but the Z-Wave switch that would control those lights being 'off'. Meaning the indicator on the switch is off, and to turn the lights off using the Z-Wave Switch, we have to 'turn the lights on using the Z-wave switch" so that the switch is now in the 'on' condition, THEN we have to "Turn the lights off using the Z-Wave switch." to make the lights go off.

    This upsets my wife. (And we all know that the success of a home automation system is in part based on spouse acceptance.)


    A Solution?

    I've tried many attempts at having the HomeSeer 'detect' when lights change, and then change the Z-Wave switch state appropriately so that the lights and the switches are in sync. But none of the things I've attempted have worked.

    For example, I can say, "Alexa, turn the Living Room lights on red." And the lights will turn on red, but when I detect the lights have turned on, and I set the Z-Wave wall switch to on, that triggers the HomeSeer event for that switch, and the lights turn on 'cool white' in this case. (This gets particularity tricky for the multi-way switch setups.)


    So, does anyone have any ideas or insight on how to synchronize the Amazon Echo and the HomeSeer system?

    I'm open to any suggestions/solutions from either the Amazon, Philips, or HomeSeer side.

    Suggestions? Solutions? Insights?

    Thanks in advance.

    #2
    I'm very interested to see a few solutions here .... I've just purchased a few Echos an Dots.. Haven't started trying to deploy

    Comment


      #3
      I use IFTTT's Alexa and Homes were integration for voice triggering home seer events.

      You trigger IFTTT on Alexa via "alexa, trigger x" ...and that will run a homeseer event.


      I.e.
      Alexa, Trigger TV Channel NBC
      Alexa, Trigger change bedroom TV to Xbox source



      Sent from my STV100-1 using Tapatalk

      Comment


        #4
        Using IFTTT to sync, a very interesting idea.

        The only 'downside' is the slighting awkward phasing of adding the 'trigger' to the command.

        I have worked pretty hard so far to make things easy for my wife.
        She can handle "Alexa, turn on the Living Room lights."
        She might not deal with IFTTT as easily. But it is worth exploring.

        Thanks for the suggestion!

        Comment


          #5
          Can't you use the Homeseer API VS the skill so you don't have to say "tell Homeseer"?? It would work the same as you have for your hue.

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by waynehead99 View Post
            Can't you use the Homeseer API VS the skill so you don't have to say "tell Homeseer"?? It would work the same as you have for your hue.
            Events not supported on HS app still ( I believe)

            Sent from my STV100-1 using Tapatalk

            Comment


              #7
              How about a virtual device that's configured so it looks like a light to Alexa. If the virtual device is named Living Room Lights, then when you say "Alexa, turn on the Living Room lights", you can have HS detect the change to the virtual device and run an event that turns on the lights and keeps everything synced.

              I haven't tried setting a virtual device to a color [like your "on red" example], so that might take some tinkering.
              Fred

              HomeSeer Pro 3.0.0.548, HS3Touch, Zwave 3.0.1.252, Envisalink DSC 3.0.0.40, WeatherXML, Z-stick, HS phone, Way2Call

              Comment


                #8
                The issue I have with a virtual device is I can not see how to set the color or the intensity. That would be great if we could figure out how to do it.

                "Alexa, set living room lights 65% brightness"
                "Alexa, turn living room lights blue"
                "Alexa, living room off"

                These commands all work with Alexa now.

                If someone knows how to create a HomeSeer 'virtual device' that would support the same commands that Alexa knows now, that would be great.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Brightness and on/off can be controlled/synced to HomeSeer. Just voice enable the Hue device in HS and then discover the homeseer devices on Alexa.

                  Alexa -> HomeSeer API -> Hue Plugin

                  For color, you would probably use the IFFTT route. I.e. "Alexa, Trigger Living Room Lights Blue" (and need a corresponding HS event that does that with some preset colors).

                  PS - I have 4 light modes for every room. Day, Night, and Bedtime. Each has their own colors (red at bedtime, orange in evening, bright white in day). This keeps the colors tuned and I rarely feel the need to adjust the color.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Well, I did try this...

                    Defining:

                    "Living room" as the HomeSeer handle.
                    "Living room lights" as the Hue handle.

                    So, my wife can say "Alexa, turn living room on." and it is like she pushed the wall button. This is good...

                    But, that does not control the light colors.

                    For that, she can say, "Alexa, turn the living room lights blue." and that works.

                    My trouble is still that she can say, "Alexa, turn the living room lights on." and that works, but bypasses the HomeSeer device. Meaning, the lights will turn on (via Hue), but the wall switch is off when the lights are on.


                    Closer, but not a win yet.

                    But thanks for the ideas and suggestions so far...

                    Comment


                      #11
                      I only use the Hue devices via HomeSeer (clear Hue config from Alexa so Alexa only controls the Hue device via HomeSeer (which will use Hue Plugin for control).

                      Just voice enable those devices and rerun discovery and you should see those lights.

                      Won't solve your color problem, but may solve your sync issue.

                      What Hue plugin do you use in HomeSeer?

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Originally posted by AgileHumor View Post
                        I only use the Hue devices via HomeSeer (clear Hue config from Alexa so Alexa only controls the Hue device via HomeSeer (which will use Hue Plugin for control).

                        Just voice enable those devices and rerun discovery and you should see those lights.

                        Won't solve your color problem, but may solve your sync issue.

                        What Hue plugin do you use in HomeSeer?
                        Understood...

                        But I have both Z-Wave switches and Hue lights already installed in my house.

                        I can easily control the lights directly from Alexa. Done.

                        But when I do that, it bypasses the Z-Wave switches.

                        So, if someone uses Alexa to turn on a light, then the corresponding Z-Wave switch is bypassed and does not turn on.

                        And that's the problem I'm trying to overcome...

                        Comment


                          #13
                          So, the 'solution' that I'm going with for now is to instantiate the lights and switches with voice command enabled from HomeSeer so Alexa can control them.

                          I've enabled for voice command;
                          - Hue 'rooms' in HomeSeer
                          - Z-Wave nodes that are switches

                          So, my convention is to create rooms in the Hue App. Such as, "Living room lights" (which consists of the 12 living room Hue bulbs). Further, I labeled the Z-Wave node that is the switch that controls that light group, "Living room."

                          So, to turn on/off the lights, one says, "Alexa, Living Room on/off." That turns the lights on to the default HomeSeer Scene for that light group (I'm using the JowiHue plugin to interface between the Hue lights and HomeSeer).

                          To modify the color or intensity of the lights, one says, "Alexa, Living room lights red." for example. This uses the Hue interface directly and bypasses homeSeer, but that's OK as it does not affect the status of the indicator in the Z-Wave switch.

                          So, "Alexa, Living Room on/off." passes through HomeSeer so the Z-Wave switch is in sync. And "Alexa, Living Room lights red." works to modify the characteristics of the light.


                          Not a perfect solution, but a start....

                          Comment


                            #14
                            One possible solution is to use my Echo helper set to local mode. This mode is experimental but reads the Alexa history page which the helper uses for Homeseer triggers & actions. When you ask Alexa to turn on a hue light, this text is also passed to my helper (without the need for any skills) which you can then use to set your z-wave devices.

                            For this to work, you do need Chrome running 24/7 hence the experimental banner.
                            Jon

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Why don't Homeseer devices support color control?

                              It seems to me this issue would be easily fixed if Homeseer exposed color control as a capability of the devices that support it. I'm not sure why they wouldn't indicate in the devices discovery response to Alexa. I'm facing a similar problem and have come to the disappointing realization that the dependency is on the Homeseer-Smart Home Skill.

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X