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    Anyone using the Homeseer skill with Echo?

    I've been attempting to use the Homeseer skill through an Amazon Echo into HS3 to control RA2 lights.

    I can use the native API just fine. As in "Alexa, turn off Office Ceiling" where "Office Ceiling" is one of my device names.

    I can also use the Homeseer skill to do the same, "Alexa, tell Homeseer to turn off the Office Ceiling". That works.

    Supposedly, according to the HS3 website, I should be able to use the skill for this:

    "Alexa, tell Homeseer to turn off all the lights in the office"

    But that doesn't work. I've asked in the Homeseer Skill forum:
    http://board.homeseer.com/showthread...=1#post1262926

    I'm wondering if there's something going wrong with how the RA2 plug-in is handling control of the devices? This is what shows up in the HS3 log:

    Code:
     Sep-03 10:11:53 PM         TTS    Speak (json:):OK, I will turn off all lights in the office   
     Sep-03 10:11:53 PM         Info    Heard: yes   
     Sep-03 10:11:47 PM         TTS    Speak (json:):Please confirm turn off all lights in the office?   
     Sep-03 10:11:47 PM         Info   Heard: turn off all lights in the office
    But the Echo squawks back with "That command was not found on the device."

    I can, of course, control the devices individually. But I can't do whole room at once. For the sake of simplicity I tried using the same structure on a room that I know has only one device in it. It also fails with the command not found error.

    What am I missing here? Or are the docs wrong and there's some other approach I should be using with the Homeseer skill?

    And note, I'm asking about using the Homeseer skill (Alexa, tell Homeseer) and NOT the native smart home API.

    #2
    Matt,

    It work with the group setting in the apps of alexia.

    Follow the setup of alexia: http://forums.homeseer.com/showthread.php?t=180033

    After you discover devices you need to create the group you want in the alexia apps

    So if you want to use "all office light" the name of the group need to have "all" in the name.


    Originally posted by wkearney99 View Post
    I've been attempting to use the Homeseer skill through an Amazon Echo into HS3 to control RA2 lights.

    I can use the native API just fine. As in "Alexa, turn off Office Ceiling" where "Office Ceiling" is one of my device names.
    M
    I can also use the Homeseer skill to do the same, "Alexa, tell Homeseer to turn off the Office Ceiling". That works.

    Supposedly, according to the HS3 website, I should be able to use the skill for this:

    "Alexa, tell Homeseer to turn off all the lights in the office"

    But that doesn't work. I've asked in the Homeseer Skill forum:
    http://board.homeseer.com/showthread...=1#post1262926

    I'm wondering if there's something going wrong with how the RA2 plug-in is handling control of the devices? This is what shows up in the HS3 log:

    Code:
     Sep-03 10:11:53 PM         TTS    Speak (json:):OK, I will turn off all lights in the office   
     Sep-03 10:11:53 PM         Info    Heard: yes   
     Sep-03 10:11:47 PM         TTS    Speak (json:):Please confirm turn off all lights in the office?   
     Sep-03 10:11:47 PM         Info   Heard: turn off all lights in the office
    But the Echo squawks back with "That command was not found on the device."

    I can, of course, control the devices individually. But I can't do whole room at once. For the sake of simplicity I tried using the same structure on a room that I know has only one device in it. It also fails with the command not found error.

    What am I missing here? Or are the docs wrong and there's some other approach I should be using with the Homeseer skill?

    And note, I'm asking about using the Homeseer skill (Alexa, tell Homeseer) and NOT the native smart home API.

    Comment


      #3
      No, I'm not asking about using the built-in command. I'm specifically asking about using the Homeseer skill. Which supports quite a lot more features than just on/off/dim.

      Another question might be how to call scenes from either interface.

      Comment


        #4
        It takes a little time to get Alexa to understand the "tell HomeSeer to..." commands. Try stopping after "to" for a while. Alexa will reply "blah, blah, HomeSeer system, blah, blah". Then give the command. I did that for a few days then it was able to understand me when I put it all together.

        Comment


          #5
          Originally posted by mikaluch View Post
          It takes a little time to get Alexa to understand the "tell HomeSeer to..." commands. Try stopping after "to" for a while. Alexa will reply "blah, blah, HomeSeer system, blah, blah". Then give the command. I did that for a few days then it was able to understand me when I put it all together.
          If you look at the log entries I posted you'll notice that Homeseer is getting the phrase. I've had the Alexa devices for a while now, and various other voice recog systems dating as far back as the 1980's. So, yeah, voice recog can be tricky to learn. Got that down already.

          So it's not the recognition part, it's Homeseer turning the command to control all lights in a room into actual device commands.

          The question here is whether HS3 has the ability to do this with lights on the plug-in?

          Comment


            #6
            Matt,

            You will have to address this question to HS. I don't think this is a plugin issue. If you can control with the plugin and do events everything else HS do you should be able to do it.

            Originally posted by wkearney99 View Post
            If you look at the log entries I posted you'll notice that Homeseer is getting the phrase. I've had the Alexa devices for a while now, and various other voice recog systems dating as far back as the 1980's. So, yeah, voice recog can be tricky to learn. Got that down already.

            So it's not the recognition part, it's Homeseer turning the command to control all lights in a room into actual device commands.

            The question here is whether HS3 has the ability to do this with lights on the plug-in?

            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by DonMor View Post
              Matt,

              You will have to address this question to HS. I don't think this is a plugin issue. If you can control with the plugin and do events everything else HS do you should be able to do it.
              First, I don't know who 'Matt' is, but I'm Bill...

              Since I don't have any other lighting devices configured in HS3 there's no other way for me to test for that.

              I'm open to suggestions as to how to debug this further.

              Comment


                #8
                Sorry Bill,

                I did test with the echo with the group and light along, everything work so I would like to help but the echo skill is not my background, you should post this in the echo board.

                If you have any issue with my plugin I'll be very happy to help but this is not a plugin issue.

                Originally posted by wkearney99 View Post
                First, I don't know who 'Matt' is, but I'm Bill...

                Since I don't have any other lighting devices configured in HS3 there's no other way for me to test for that.

                I'm open to suggestions as to how to debug this further.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Originally posted by wkearney99 View Post
                  First, I don't know who 'Matt' is, but I'm Bill...



                  Since I don't have any other lighting devices configured in HS3 there's no other way for me to test for that.



                  I'm open to suggestions as to how to debug this further.


                  Bill,

                  I think the HomeSeer Echo API handles groups but I don't think the older HomeSeer Echo skill does. I think putting the tell HomeSeer in front of the phrase routes it to the older skill and you won't be able to use the Echo groups with that. I did not install the HomeSeer API. I set up events to handle the group's and I use the original skill for that. Events allow us to use recognized phrases so it can be a lot simpler to use voice recognition.

                  I hope this help you.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Right, I'm specifically talking about the Homeseer Skill and NOT the built-in Smart Home toolkit.

                    There's pros and cons to each kind of interface. Especially if more than just on/off/dim commands are needed.

                    With the Echo interface I'd have to create a lot of groups using the Alex app. Which it tedious, at best. Using the Homeseer skill I should be able to do this without as much effort.

                    This also leads to sending commands to use Lutron scenes, not something you can do at all via the Echo interface.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      I use the groups and only groups in Echo for lights, without any "tell homeseer to". Even if it is a single light I want to control I make a group in the Alexa app. I use "tell homeseer to" for events - garage door, ceiling fans and such. That was the way it was originally set up about nine months ago and it has worked all along.

                      I never kept up with the new skill, old skill, new api, old api. I guess it probably works because I don't know any better.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Right, the smart home api allows for eliminating one step, the 'tell homeseer' part. And, in exchange you get only a limited number of ways to control devices. That's great, if that's all you're after.

                        But I'm not asking about the native Alexa smart home interface. I'm asking about the Homeseer skill.

                        It's especially relevant when thinking in terms of the other RA2 features like scenes, events and timeclock modes. For those you're not going to be able to call them via the native Alexa interface. At least not without doing something like treating them as dumb light switches via virtual devices. Which is do-able, but also not without hassles and limits.
                        Last edited by wkearney99; September 7, 2016, 08:00 AM.

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