Node-Red/Alexa integrations: alternative approach

I've been having problems with duplicate devices in Alexa using the the Node-Red node-red-contrib-amazon-echo integration in this thread: https://forums.indigodomo.com/viewtopic.php?f=133&t=23486&hilit=node+red+alexa I was seeing duplicate devices being created, and unreliable behaviour.

There is an alternative which masquerades as a Wemo integration rather than Hue, and so far it seems more robust. It doesn't allow dimming, but it's usable for my purposes. Worth taking a look here: https://flows.nodered.org/node/node-red-contrib-wemo-emulator

And if anyone knows how to truly delete non-existent devices from Alexa permanently, I'd love to know. It keeps rediscovering my old emulated Hue devices, even though they haven't existed for days.

After disabling the plugin, I think I had to delete everything using the Alexa app then re-discover. It was a while ago that I purged out all my old Alexa-hue plugin devices, but I remember thinking the same thing you are... how are they back!

Some stuff may purge out after giving it some time. I think Jeff Bezos has to personally sign off on the action.


Jay did a write-up that includes some steps that may help with clearing out your echos.... (The first step is for configuring the plugin, steps 2-7 are for clearing out device data)

1. In the plugin settings, select Override Host IP Address and enter the IP address of the Indigo Server Mac. The plugin can normally figure it out, but apparently in Catalina the IP address discovery the plugin uses doesn't work properly. Using this setting bypasses the automatic IP discovery and uses the IP address specified.
2. Unplug all echo devices. Wait a few minutes.
3. I would also delete the Alexa app on all iOS (or other) devices that have it - I don't know how/when the app's device cache gets updated (see below), but this would hopefully ensure that its cache gets deleted.
4. Forget all your existing devices. Conflicting reports here on the most effective way to do this, but I believe that going to https://alexa.amazon.com/ and forgetting all devices from there may be the most reliable way. While there, I'd go ahead and delete any groups and scenes you have. The goal here is to basically force Amazon to forget about all smart home devices you have everywhere. There does seem to be some caching between their site and each echo device, which is why you want to do it on the website with all other possible cache locations disabled. Again, wait a few minutes.
5. Reinstall the Alexa app on your iOS (or other) device.
6. Plug in your Echo Gen 1 ONLY - leave all the rest unplugged.
7. Add it to the Alexa app as necessary (if, for instance, you just acquired one). If it's not new to you, you may not need to do this.
8. Make sure you have the plugin installed and running and make sure the bridge device is in discovery mode.
9. Tell your Echo Gen 1 to discover devices.

Full topic is here: https://forums.indigodomo.com/viewtopic.php?f=208&t=23076