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Is there any way to tell HS to not send Location 1 to the Echo?

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    #16
    Originally posted by sirmeili View Post
    Because that requires I say "Alexa, Ask the house to" isntead of just "alexa, ...."



    I wanted to have some of my more "simple" devices (lights, fans) just work through the connected api instead of the skill api.



    The Skill is great for complex things (like my wife asking where I am if I'm driving home from Tampa), but for simple things, I think my family would adopt it more if they didn't have to say "Ask the house to".


    I did try the Alexa skill but it wasn't approved for the Uk market at the time, trying use the workarounds were so painful, and unsuccessful.

    And the ability to turn on a device with the least number of words spoken is a benefit of decoupling the verbal interpretation from HomeSeer, or whatever smart system one might be using.

    I may not have bothered with Alexa for home control without something like ha-bridge to 'bridge' the technologies. 'Turn on the mirror' is better than 'tell homeseer to turn on the mirror in the bathroom'. Even better would be just to state the words 'mirror', or 'chandelier', or 'ceiling', without the 'turn on/off' commands, and the light would just toggle.






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      #17
      Originally posted by Duomi8 View Post
      I did try the Alexa skill but it wasn't approved for the Uk market at the time, trying use the workarounds were so painful, and unsuccessful.

      And the ability to turn on a device with the least number of words spoken is a benefit of decoupling the verbal interpretation from HomeSeer, or whatever smart system one might be using.

      I may not have bothered with Alexa for home control without something like ha-bridge to 'bridge' the technologies. 'Turn on the mirror' is better than 'tell homeseer to turn on the mirror in the bathroom'. Even better would be just to state the words 'mirror', or 'chandelier', or 'ceiling', without the 'turn on/off' commands, and the light would just toggle.






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      Either that or have Amazon setup the word 'turn' as a wake word. 'Turn on light'. [emoji4]




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        #18
        Originally posted by Duomi8 View Post
        Either that or have Amazon setup the word 'turn' as a wake word. 'Turn on light'. [emoji4]




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        That would be as bad as "computer". I tried that after Amazon released it. Lasted about 15 minutes.

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          #19
          Originally posted by waynehead99 View Post
          That would be as bad as "computer". I tried that after Amazon released it. Lasted about 15 minutes.


          I have put a feature request into Amazon, imagine just saying 'turn on lights', Echo's new name is 'Turn'. Quite a nice name [emoji4].

          Also just 'lights on/off', or 'music on/off', with url settings for each. All optional of course.


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            #20
            Originally posted by sirmeili View Post
            I have no problem using the Skill, but are you saying you wrote your own Connected Home API for Homeseer (so you don't have the need to say "Ask homeseer")?

            I have the skill so I can say "Alexa, ask the house to....", but I was trying to put some of the more common devices on the API so we can say things like "Alexa, turn on the Kitchen Ceiling Fan", but it keeps adding the Location 1 to my devices which means I can either say "Ceiling Fan", which I Have a lot of, or "Kitchen [location 1] Ceiling fan".

            If you did create your own Connected Home API, please share how you did it
            Yeah, I wrote my own skill using the Alexa Smart Home Skill API. The way I did it, I have to manually update the skill when I add new devices, unlike the Homeseer smart home skill, which figures it out automatically. But... I can do whatever I want with the custom skill... name devices how I want (even different from how they're named in HS3), use multiple names for a single device (if different people in the household like to call devices by different names), control the responses of commands, command the execution of HS3 events, etc. You can even combine it with commands that communicate with other systems, not just your HS box. Like, I have commands in the same skill that communicate with IFTTT... as long as the system you want to control has a public API to for it.

            It's definitely a lot more work compared to just using Homeseer's skill, but if you're up for it, it's so much more flexible. As for how to setup something like that, there's a lot of tutorials and blogposts, both in the Amazon developer portal and by third parties. But I might be able to write a tutorial that's specific to HS3, if people want.

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              #21
              Originally posted by DevinH View Post
              Yeah, I wrote my own skill using the Alexa Smart Home Skill API. The way I did it, I have to manually update the skill when I add new devices, unlike the Homeseer smart home skill, which figures it out automatically. But... I can do whatever I want with the custom skill... name devices how I want (even different from how they're named in HS3), use multiple names for a single device (if different people in the household like to call devices by different names), control the responses of commands, command the execution of HS3 events, etc. You can even combine it with commands that communicate with other systems, not just your HS box. Like, I have commands in the same skill that communicate with IFTTT... as long as the system you want to control has a public API to for it.

              It's definitely a lot more work compared to just using Homeseer's skill, but if you're up for it, it's so much more flexible. As for how to setup something like that, there's a lot of tutorials and blogposts, both in the Amazon developer portal and by third parties. But I might be able to write a tutorial that's specific to HS3, if people want.
              Is this using the the "Ask Homeseer" skill or the one that doesn't require it? I have the "ask homeseer" one worked out using Jon00s helper, but using the one that doesn't require "Ask Homeseer" is what has me tricked up.

              If you have a way to set it up manually for the "Alexa, turn on [device]" I would love a tutorial on that even if I had to manually set it up and change it from time to time.

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                #22
                Originally posted by sirmeili View Post
                Is this using the the "Ask Homeseer" skill or the one that doesn't require it? I have the "ask homeseer" one worked out using Jon00s helper, but using the one that doesn't require "Ask Homeseer" is what has me tricked up.

                If you have a way to set it up manually for the "Alexa, turn on [device]" I would love a tutorial on that even if I had to manually set it up and change it from time to time.
                No, it's not a general skill that requires the skill name. It's setup using the "Smart Home Skill API" which does not utilize the skill name ("ask homeseer to...").

                The only limitation is that you cannot make up your own utterances (like you can with general skills that require you to say the skill name). Instead, with the SmartHome skill API, you're limited to the built-in utterances:

                "turn on device"
                "dim device to 25%"
                "lock/unlock device"
                "set temperature to 70 degrees"
                etc.

                But as far as actions you take, it can be anything that has a cloud API. In the case of HS3 stuff, it would be any action that you can do using HS3's JSON API.

                An example of this would be creating an event in HS3 called 'Bedtime' which does... whatever. I have a hardcoded device in the SmartHome skill with the name 'Bedtime Mode', configured as a 'SWITCH' device type (which allows me to use the utterances 'turn on' and 'turn off') and its id is the same as the event id in HS3. That allows me to say "Alexa, turn on Bedtime mode", and the result of that executes the HS3 JSON method which executes that event.

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                  #23
                  Originally posted by DevinH View Post
                  No, it's not a general skill that requires the skill name. It's setup using the "Smart Home Skill API" which does not utilize the skill name ("ask homeseer to...").

                  The only limitation is that you cannot make up your own utterances (like you can with general skills that require you to say the skill name). Instead, with the SmartHome skill API, you're limited to the built-in utterances:

                  "turn on device"
                  "dim device to 25%"
                  "lock/unlock device"
                  "set temperature to 70 degrees"
                  etc.

                  But as far as actions you take, it can be anything that has a cloud API. In the case of HS3 stuff, it would be any action that you can do using HS3's JSON API.

                  An example of this would be creating an event in HS3 called 'Bedtime' which does... whatever. I have a hardcoded device in the SmartHome skill with the name 'Bedtime Mode', configured as a 'SWITCH' device type (which allows me to use the utterances 'turn on' and 'turn off') and its id is the same as the event id in HS3. That allows me to say "Alexa, turn on Bedtime mode", and the result of that executes the HS3 JSON method which executes that event.
                  In that case I would love a tutorial

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                    #24
                    "Yes, Please!" (tutorial/guide)
                    Computer: CUK Intel NUC7i7BNH
                    Op System: Windows10 Pro - Work Station
                    HS Version: HS4 Pro Edition 4.2.19.0

                    Plug-Ins: AK Weather 4.0.5.25,APCUPSD 3.3.2.3,BLBackup 2.0.63.0,BLEditor 2.0.11.0,BLGData 3.0.55.0,BLOccupied 2.0.28.0,BLShutdown 1.0.6.0,Blue-Iris 3.1.3.33206,Device History 3.2.0.2,EasyTrigger 3.0.0.76,Harmony Hub 4.0.14.0,iRobot 5.22.41.1,JowiHue 4.0.8.7,Nest 3.0.0.34,NetCam Plugin 1.0.0.5,PHLocation2 3.0.0.64,Pushover 4.0.10.0,Random 3.0.0.2,Restart 1.0.0.7,Ring 1.0.0.9,SDJ-Health 3.1.1.3,Sonos 3.1.0.59,Sonos4 4.0.1.12,UltraCID3 3.0.6681.34300,UltraMon3 3.0.6554.33094,UltraNetCam3 3.0.6413.20219,Unifi 4.0.32.0,Zigbee 4.0.11.0,Z-Wave 4.0.3.0, and Jon00 scripts.

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                      #25
                      ok, I'll put something together over the weekend

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                        #26
                        Originally posted by sirmeili View Post
                        In that case I would love a tutorial
                        So I put together a tutorial. It ended up being a bit lengthy (25 printed pages), so I was hoping you'd be willing to review it... maybe go through it and make sure it's all comprehendable and without too many errors before I post it to the board.

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                          #27
                          Originally posted by DevinH View Post
                          So I put together a tutorial. It ended up being a bit lengthy (25 printed pages), so I was hoping you'd be willing to review it... maybe go through it and make sure it's all comprehendable and without too many errors before I post it to the board.
                          Sure. I PM'd you my email address.

                          Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

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                            #28
                            Originally posted by DevinH View Post
                            So I put together a tutorial. It ended up being a bit lengthy (25 printed pages), so I was hoping you'd be willing to review it... maybe go through it and make sure it's all comprehendable and without too many errors before I post it to the board.
                            Is tutorial available?

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