Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Amazon Smart Home Skill for HomeSeer Install Instructions

Collapse
This topic is closed.
X
This is a sticky topic.
X
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Amazon Smart Home Skill for HomeSeer Install Instructions

    UPDATE 5/11/18: Amazon has updated the Alexa skill so you can now unlock your doors
    Previously Amazon would not allow you to unlock door locks. You can now go into the Alexa app and set up a PIN number for your locks. When requesting to unlock a door Alexa will prompt for your PIN code. This is now available and it does not require any updates to HomeSeer or the SmartHome skill.

    UPDATE 1/21/18: Amazon has updated the Alexa skill with more features and these are now available to HomeSeer users

    The new version 3 API adds some new features. To take advantage of all of the new features, HS3 version 3.0.0.398 or later is required.

    1) Locks are now supported. Amazon only allows you to lock doors, unlock is not supported. To ensure this works, edit the device in HS that has the Lock/Unlock buttons on it. Click the Status/Graphics tab and look for the Lock and Unlock values. Make sure the ControlUse property dropdown is set to "Lock" and "Unlock" respectively. While Unlock is not supported right now, it is supported with Google Home so go ahead and set it.

    2) Multi room support is available. In the Alexa app you can assign a Echo device to a room and then assign devices to that room. All devices that have a ControlUse with the Dim value set will be considered "Lights". You can then say "turn on the lights" and all the lights will be controlled. If you have a light that only supports On/Off, this will NOT be controlled. To override this, there is a new device property named "Is Light". Check this box and the device will then be considered a light. Make sure you re-discover your devices after setting this.

    3) Events can now be triggered. V3 adds "Scene" support. For this we consider an event a scene for Alexa. There is a new property under the event name (Voice Command). If you set this, you can then say "Alexa, turn on event_voice_command", like "Alexa, turn on my evening scene".

    4) Thermostat supports continues as before.

    5) Note that the discovery process now honors the user access feature in HS3. If you edit a device and only allow the user "bill" to access the device, then only the Alexa user bill will be able to control that device. By default, all devices are available to all users. But if you edit users for devices be aware that this affects the discovery process.

    You will need to unlink your current HS3 skill and then link again with the skill named "HomeSeer Smart Home Skill"


    [END UPDATE V3]

    UPDATE 9/2/16: Please update to HS3 version 3.0.0.318 or later (this version is REQUIRED, or this feature will not work). This update fixes some errors that were being generated on the Amazon servers due to some missing data. The update will insure that the service continues to function
    UPDATE 7/26/16: Smart Home Skill has been released by Amazon, instructions below have been updated

    (Previously was known as the Connected Home API, new name is "Smart Home Skill" per Amazon)

    HomeSeer Version 3.0.0.318 or later is required.

    Note, this feature works with any Alexa enabled device, such as Echo, Echo Dot, Echo Tap, Echo Show, Fire tablets, and Fire TV.

    To enable:

    1) Open your Alexa app on your mobile device and log in with your Amazon account.

    2) From the menu click "Smart Home"

    3) In the "Your Smart Home Skills" section if you see HomeSeer listed, it might be the development skill, disable it

    4) Click on "Get More Smart Home Skills"

    5) You will then see a list of skills, scroll the list until you see "HomeSeer" and click it

    6) A dialog will appear where you can log in, log in with your MyHS credentials for the account you want to use. If you only have one log in, use that. If you have a premium account use of your logins. Make sure the login you use is assigned to only ONE HomeSeer system. The system you assign is the system that the Echo will control.

    7) After you log in you may see a dialog that asks you to discover your devices. If you do not see this dialog, go back to the Smart Home section from the menu and click on the Discover Devices link.

    8) It will now discover all your HomeSeer devices that are controllable. It will only find devices that support ON/OFF/DIM and thermostats.

    To test a device named "light", you can now say:

    "Alexa, turn on the light"


    What is this?

    Amazon allows for voice control of HomeSeer devices using simple commands such as:

    "Alexa, turn on my lights"
    "Alexa, set my lights to 50 percent"

    This support allows for simple control of lighting devices. For more complex control of HomeSeer using the Echo, see the Amazon HomeSeer Skill Forum.

    The difference between this support and our Skill is that the skill requires you to say:

    "Alexa, tell HomeSeer to turn on my lights"

    Skills require the command to be proceeded with "Tell HomeSeer To" which can be cumbersome. That is not required with this support.


    Notes:

    Amazon issues a discovery request about once an error to catch any new devices added, so you may see a discovery request log entry that was not initiated by you.

    If your device names are unique, you do not need to include the location when controlling the device. If you have multiple devices with the same name, then you will need to include the first location (normally the "room"). If the room and name are the same, then include the second location (normally "floor").

    You can view the names of all your devices that it discovered in the Amazon App:

    From the App on your mobile device (or the web site), got into settings, then "Connected Home". Scroll down to the "Devices" section and you will see the names of the devices discovered. These are the names you can use to control the devices.

    If you add or delete any devices from HomeSeer, you should use the App to "forget all devices and groups". Do this from the settings are mentioned above. Then re-run the discovery.

    HomeSeer will include thermostats in the discovery even though Amazon does not support thermostats with this version. (Note that thermostat support has been added to their API and HomeSeer will be adding it an update). For now you can control a thermostat with the following command. Assuming your thermostat heat setpoint device was named "thermostat", you can say:

    "Alexa, set my thermostat to 72 degrees"

    If you would like to control other devices or events that are not discovered (say you want to lock your doors or arm a security system), you can use our Skill, or you can create virtual devices in HomeSeer. Create a virtual device, call it "Security", then create an event that detects this device going from Off to ON and set the action to arm your panel. Now you can say:

    "Alexa, turn on the security"
    Last edited by rjh; May 11, 2018, 01:05 PM.
    💁‍♂️ Support & Customer Service 🙋‍♂️ Sales Questions 🛒 Shop HomeSeer Products
Working...
X