Alexa Control of Device Groups

Posted on
Thu Dec 15, 2016 1:22 pm
oneklakes offline
Posts: 3
Joined: Dec 14, 2016

Alexa Control of Device Groups

Hi All,

I have my Alexa-Hue Bridge up and running and was able to publish all of my various Insteon switches and modules to it. Alexa recognized all of them and I can control each of them individually.

The next thing I wanted to do was to control all of my house lights so that I can turn them on and off as a group (similar to the old X-10 all lights on/off). So I followed the Indigo Wiki and created a Device group called "House Lights", added all of my lights to it and then published it to the Bridge. Alexa discovered it just fine and recognizes "Turn On/Off" commands for it too.

The problem is that the device group doesn't respond to Alexa's commands! Do I need to set up a separate trigger or action in order to get Alexa to control the Device Group? or did I just omit something basic when I set up the Device Group?

I'm sorry if this is a relatively simple question, but it's got me stumped :(

Thanks

oneklakes

Posted on
Thu Dec 15, 2016 3:01 pm
jay (support) offline
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Location: Austin, Texas

Re: Alexa Control of Device Groups

I think I'm missing something. This:

Alexa discovered it just fine and recognizes "Turn On/Off" commands for it too.


Seems to directly contradict this:

The problem is that the device group doesn't respond to Alexa's commands!


If it recognizes the on/off, then I don't understand what it's not doing...

Jay (Indigo Support)
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Posted on
Thu Dec 15, 2016 4:55 pm
oneklakes offline
Posts: 3
Joined: Dec 14, 2016

Re: Alexa Control of Device Groups

Hi Jay,

Sorry for the confusion.

What I meant was that Alex responds to the turn on/off commands as if everything is working ("OK") but none of the devices actually turn on or off.

Here is excerpt from the log:

Dec 15, 2016, 12:44:28 PM
Alexa-Hue Bridge Set on state of device 1178800132 to True
Virtual Devices sent "House lights" on
Sent INSTEON "Front lights" off
Sent X10 "Lanai lights" off
Sent INSTEON "Laundry Light" off
Sent INSTEON "Vanity Light" off
Sent INSTEON "Dining Picture Light" on to 0
Sent INSTEON "Hallway Lights" on to 0

Dec 15, 2016, 12:45:11 PM
Alexa-Hue Bridge Set on state of device 1178800132 to False
Virtual Devices sent "House lights" off
Sent INSTEON "Dining Picture Light" off
Sent INSTEON "Front lights" off
Sent INSTEON "Hallway Lights" off
Sent X10 "Lanai lights" off
Sent INSTEON "Laundry Light" off
Sent INSTEON "Vanity Light" off

Thanks for reviewing this.

oneklakes

Posted on
Thu Dec 15, 2016 5:35 pm
jay (support) offline
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Joined: Mar 19, 2008
Location: Austin, Texas

Re: Alexa Control of Device Groups

Note the first log entry (apparently when you told it to turn on). It's turning everything in the group off. When you save a Device Group the first time, it saves the current state of each device in the group as the on state (even if it's off) - check the 3rd paragraph of the Device Group docs.

Set all the devices in the group to what you want them to be when the group goes on, then edit the group and select the "Check to update all device states" checkbox and then Save. That will update all the device states to be whatever you have them set to. Basically, it "learns" what the on state of a device group should be for each device in the group.

Jay (Indigo Support)
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Posted on
Thu Dec 15, 2016 6:37 pm
oneklakes offline
Posts: 3
Joined: Dec 14, 2016

Re: Alexa Control of Device Groups

Hi Jay,

Success! Much appreciated!

oneklakes

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