HomeSeer Amazon Echo Skill Approved!

[rjh]

Yes, the HS default is location 1 is room and location 2 is floor. There is an option to swap those in HS and if you do that you will have to speak the floor as the room. We will be adding a check to handle that.

OK this is the first place I have seen a reference to Location 1 vs room. In my system I changed the labels a long time ago so I have no clue what they were originally. In the Alexa documentation it says:

light=Device | kitchen=Room | first floor=Floor |on=a button on the device

Here is what my section in the setup looks like.

[ATTACH]50500[/ATTACH]

So am I correct in assuming that Location 1 is what is listed as Room in all the docs. And if so then Location 2 must be what everyone is calling Floor. If this is indeed correct can we have the documentation changed to denote it is really Location1 and 2 since there is not telling what people have changed their configuration to? I am pretty sure this is all correct assumptions but I would rather not make assumptions.

[rjh]

Ok, this should help a little, I managed to find the list of device names and room names that are in the ver 1.0 skill that is live.

Again, we have gone through and added many more to this list, but the 1.1 skill is still in the queue for certification. But you can test with these.

Also, we are working with Amazon to create a skill that allows you to say any word, so no list will be needed. That will solve this problem!

For the rooms, the list is:

kitchen
dining room
bedroom
master bedroom
living room
basement
garage
outside
all rooms
shed
attic
hallway
foray
bathroom
guest bedroom
pantry
porch
deck
pool
room
laundry
family room

For the devices:

light
lights
door
doors
sensor
sensors
garage door
motion sensor
outside lights
outside light
sprinklers
partition
security panel
lamp
lamps
floor lamp
heat set point
cool set point
temperature
mode
pool lights
pump
pool pump
sump pump
coffee machine
device

As an example to set your heat, name your thermostat heat setpoint device to:

"heat set point"

Now you can say: alexa, tell homeseer to set the heat set point to 65 degrees.

[kuntakintay]

so far - cautiously optimistic...

Okay so I can get my dining room lights to turn on/off pretty reliably. However thats the only set of lights that I can get to work so far... Does it take a certain amount of time or is there a force refresh after you tweak the floor/room/device names for Echo to pick it up? Ill update post as I continue integration.

Ill keep playing - very excited this is finally available - all in time for us to impress our friends and family at xmas gatherings. Also means I need about 6 more of these echos as stocking stuffers.

Request for future releases:

New Rooms - Shop, Master Path, Kitchen Nook, Hallway, Front Patio, Back Patio, Entry, Laundry Room, Powder Room, Guest Bath, Master Bath, Guest Bathroom, Master Bathroom, Game Room, Play Room

(PS - Who was Golf Simulator Room for? I'm Jealous)

[kuntakintay]

I am definitely having some difficulties with certain rooms and devices.

If I set my device floor BLANK, room KITCHEN, device "Fan" I cant get it to detect it. But if I set another device floor BLANK, room KITCHEN, device "Cabinet Lights" this device works fine.

same thing for my Master Bedroom Fan and Lights...

Overall I am finding that anything not listed with "Lights" for a device name included, alexa cant find the device.

Any ideas?

Okay so I can get my dining room lights to turn on/off pretty reliably. However thats the only set of lights that I can get to work so far... Does it take a certain amount of time or is there a force refresh after you tweak the floor/room/device names for Echo to pick it up? Ill update post as I continue integration.

[rjh]

It will pick up room/device name changes immediately, it always asks for the list before it tries to parse the command.

Okay so I can get my dining room lights to turn on/off pretty reliably. However thats the only set of lights that I can get to work so far... Does it take a certain amount of time or is there a force refresh after you tweak the floor/room/device names for Echo to pick it up? Ill update post as I continue integration.

Ill keep playing - very excited this is finally available - all in time for us to impress our friends and family at xmas gatherings. Also means I need about 6 more of these echos as stocking stuffers.

Request for future releases:

New Rooms - Shop, Master Path, Kitchen Nook, Hallway, Front Patio, Back Patio, Entry, Laundry Room, Powder Room, Guest Bath, Master Bath, Guest Bathroom, Master Bathroom, Game Room, Play Room

(PS - Who was Golf Simulator Room for? I'm Jealous)

[rjh]

Keep in mind, this version works best with commands like:

turn off the lights in the kitchen

Turn off the kitchen lights probably will not work.

I am definitely having some difficulties with certain rooms and devices.

If I set my device floor BLANK, room KITCHEN, device "Fan" I cant get it to detect it. But if I set another device floor BLANK, room KITCHEN, device "Cabinet Lights" this device works fine.

same thing for my Master Bedroom Fan and Lights...

Overall I am finding that anything not listed with "Lights" for a device name included, alexa cant find the device.

Any ideas?

[kuntakintay]

Keep in mind, this version works best with commands like:

turn off the lights in the kitchen

Turn off the kitchen lights probably will not work.

You nailed it. This also resolved my "fan" device issues. If I say alexa turn off the fan in the kitchen (or master bedroom), it works great. If I say alexa turn off the kitchen fan it doesnt understand the question.

Thanks much.

[Gunneyk]

You can see what Alexa is hearing by checking settings in the app or on the web at http://echo.amazon.com/#settings/dialogs

Thank you for that hint. I was looking at the main list of requests in the Echo app and they never showed up. However if I go into Settings - History they are all there. We can't see what is passed to HS or what HS is trying to do or how it resolves it which would be really nice. I can see from the history that Alexa hears my phrases perfectly every time yet HS rarely gets it right. I was trying to get a light in my dining room to work thru the HS / Echo interface. Originally it was named "Dining Room Sconce" which obviously wouldn't work. It's Location was also called Dining Room. So I changed the device name to just Sconce and when I said "Alexa tell HomeSeer to turn on the Sconce in the Dining Room" she did and reported back that she turned on the Sconce in the Dining Room. I thought OK. Unfortunately I tried that exact same phase 6 more times and she states she doesn't recognize that device in my profile. If I look in the history she absolutely hears the word Sconce and that it is in the Dining Room. So I don't get it. Yes I can change the name to Light instead of Sconce but I have two issues with that. One is that I have another "Light" in the dining room so this idea of simplifying all the names hits a brick wall pretty quickly. Second, if Alexa and HS can get it right once why can't it do it repeatedly? Again I know Alexa is hearing it correctly so why can't HS do the proper thing each time? But anyway thanks for the tip about the history in the settings.

[Sgt. Shultz]

I can tell you no one was sadder or more surprised than me the old thread got deleted(big whoops..., huge...)..., all the instructions I wrote out for letting a user build his own skill and linking it to our echo interface were in there.

On the upside, we get to continue the conversation fresh.

[Gogs]

Is this why the 3rd party Echo integration threads were deleted? I thought HS didn't delete threads, or so I had been told. At least they should have been kept, but then the titles could have been updated to reflect they were threads about 3rd party integration, rather than HS native integration. I am not sure I buy that they were removed due to spam removals. Why would whole, long threads be deleted over handful of spam posts?

Otherwise, great for HS.

Also, it would be nice to be able to call Homeseer something custom, rather than calling it "Homeseer" during the verbal commands, in case someone has named their home automation something specific. Is that possible?

I have never known HST to delete threads, except of when Rupp gets over excited and managed to delete all Jonn00's threads, however that was a genuine mistake and they were re-instated from backup.

I believe all BBS systems automatically have a clean out automatically unless there is an archiving system - otherwise they would simply run out of space. However, for a complete thread to vanish I would ask the creator of the thread if he removed it.

[afmiller]

I have an event called lights, that is manually triggered. I've verified that myhs is connected through my iphone app, but when do the phrases below it doesn't work. Granted I am saying run the event lights. It can't find the device,

Run The Event {Event}
"Alexa, Tell HomeSeer to Run The Event All Lights Off"
Run The {Event} Event
"Alexa, Tell HomeSeer to Run The All Lights Off Event"

After testing more, the first option doesn't work, and the 2nd one runs sometimes, and I stress sometimes. I've tried talking fast, slow, speaking more clear with no luck.

Setup iftt and it works perfect, looks like this will be my solution for the time being I would love only to connect to homeseer, and not go through a 3rd party.

[Richel]

I have an event called lights, that is manually triggered. I've verified that myhs is connected through my iphone app, but when do the phrases below it doesn't work. ....

Setup iftt and it works perfect, looks like this will be my solution for the time being I would love only to connect to homeseer, and not go through a 3rd party.

Dittos.

Elliott

[dbmet]

I have an event called lights, that is manually triggered. I've verified that myhs is connected through my iphone app, but when do the phrases below it doesn't work. Granted I am saying run the event lights. It can't find the device,

Run The Event {Event}
"Alexa, Tell HomeSeer to Run The Event All Lights Off"
Run The {Event} Event
"Alexa, Tell HomeSeer to Run The All Lights Off Event"

After testing more, the first option doesn't work, and the 2nd one runs sometimes, and I stress sometimes. I've tried talking fast, slow, speaking more clear with no luck.

Setup iftt and it works perfect, looks like this will be my solution for the time being I would love only to connect to homeseer, and not go through a 3rd party.

Ditto times three


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Rotech]

I would love only to connect to homeseer, and not go through a 3rd party.

You should try Spud Kinect plugin. This will only interact with HS thru VR. It is very accurate.....

[Thrag]

Ditto times three

I wonder if IFTTT has an API for setting up triggers. Now that I finished adding automatic configuration of the Alexa HA Bridge for local lighting control, I am wondering if I can do something similar and script up pushing events automatically to IFTTT for people who'd rather use that service than the official or my unofficial Skill.