Alexa says all devices are not responding

Posted on
Mon Sep 23, 2019 4:04 pm
jay (support) offline
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Re: Alexa says all devices are not responding

fyellin wrote:
Four buttons, and a mini-USB power supply.

This is the device I always used for discovery, with no problems.

Is there a particular reason you're asking?


Yes. Unfortunately, that's a gen 2 Echo you have there. Gen 1 Echos only have 2 buttons on top and the outer ring of the top twists to increase/decrease the volume.

Jay (Indigo Support)
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Posted on
Mon Sep 23, 2019 4:19 pm
fyellin offline
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Re: Alexa says all devices are not responding

You are correct, and I had it backwards. I double checked. I was off by one.

I have a single Echo 2, and three Echo 3's. I have frequently the Echo 2 to perform discovery on my bridge. The last time was about two weeks ago. Does this no longer work?

Posted on
Mon Sep 23, 2019 4:33 pm
autolog offline
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Re: Alexa says all devices are not responding

If your firmware has been updated then you need a Gen 1.

Firmware is version can be determined via the Alexa iOS App. Go to Settings > Device Settings > <Your Device e.g an Echo Dot> > About > Device Software Version.
If you have 645584020 then that is the new version that no longer works with the plugin.

The solution is to get a Gen 1 Echo (not a plus) or Echo Dot from e.g. ebay. :)

Posted on
Mon Sep 23, 2019 4:52 pm
fyellin offline
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Re: Alexa says all devices are not responding

Okay. Will do.

Will I need to replace all my Echos with v1, or do I just need to do a (re-)discovery with the v1, and then the rest will work fine?

Thanks for your patience. I didn't realize that the issue was that v2's also had a software update, so that they no longer worked either.

Posted on
Mon Sep 23, 2019 5:51 pm
Barnman offline
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Re: Alexa says all devices are not responding

fyellin wrote:
Okay. Will do.

Will I need to replace all my Echos with v1, or do I just need to do a (re-)discovery with the v1, and then the rest will work fine?

Thanks for your patience. I didn't realize that the issue was that v2's also had a software update, so that they no longer worked either.

Just need the one gen 1 echo all the others will work once you have a gen 1.
Just got my gen 1 in today, anxious to get it back up and operational!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Posted on
Fri Sep 27, 2019 3:47 pm
fyellin offline
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Re: Alexa says all devices are not responding

Okay. I went and bought an Echo 1st Generation on eBay. It arrived today. Unfortunately, I'm still seeing the same thing.

I've rebooted the indigo server
I went online to have Alexa forget all devices.
I've unloaded the Hues bridge, left it off for fifteen minutes, and then restored it.
I've turned off the firewall on my Indigo device (it's still behind my router), just in case it was blocking any ports.

When I ask my "new" Echo 1st Generation to discover devices, it can't find anything. I don't find any indication that the bridge knew that discovery had happened. The logs are silent. [I've seen what discovery looks like in the logs before.]

I can still http: to the Indigo bridges. It identifies itself as the Alexa Hugh Bridge.

The Echo is running software version 635556820.

What else can I try?

Posted on
Fri Sep 27, 2019 5:01 pm
fyellin offline
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Re: Alexa says all devices are not responding

Ignore previous message.

It seems that my router, under certain circumstances, one of my router repeaters wasn't broadcasting UDP port 1900.

When I moved the Echo to be right next to the Indigo server (so that both would be talking to the same WiFi station), discovery worked fine.

Posted on
Sat Sep 28, 2019 1:51 pm
scs offline
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Joined: Nov 28, 2014

Re: Alexa says all devices are not responding

So, what's the root of the problem here? It seems Alexa is able to discover devices, but can't control them anymore.

Are the devices that it's cataloging somehow different than they were before? (color hue versus plain hue lights)

Or are the API commands it's using different than what was used before the Echo Fw update .

Anything fundamentally different in the network layer ?, for example ...different port?
Last edited by scs on Sat Sep 28, 2019 6:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Posted on
Sat Sep 28, 2019 6:32 pm
mgolden50 offline
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Re: Alexa says all devices are not responding

Like the rest of you, this issue is making me crazy. My whole system is built around integration of Indigo with Alexa.
I have 9 Dots throughout my home. All of them are Gen 2. I have 200 Alexa commands linked through 10 virtual HueBridge hubs in addition to 100 routines.

A couple of days ago I restarted my Mac and suddenly a system that had been solidly working for a year gradually expanded to it's present level just stopped working.

The Alexa app says for every saved device/action "Device malfunction" or "Server is unresponsive"
All non-Indigo Alexa functions seem to work perfectly!

I've:
updated the plugin
Rebooted the Mac
Tried discovering devices from the app and by Alexa voice request--(no new devices discovered)

I have never had a Gen 1 Echo device in the system when it was working.
I have ordered a Gen 1 device from eBay and will try it when it gets here in a couple of days.

Sure hope this issue can get resolved soon or I'll be going through a divorce!

Thanks,
Mike

Posted on
Sat Sep 28, 2019 8:17 pm
scs offline
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Re: Alexa says all devices are not responding

on a hunch , I captured a trace from my Mac Mini while asking the Alexa to turn on some lights ....
I expected the requests from 103 (the dot that originally discovered the devices) to be talking to the hue bridge , at port 8178 , but it's talking to port 80 , which is totally unexpected .
On my system I have something called PlexConnect running on port 80 , so Alexa's definitely barking up the wrong tree.
My question is , where was Alexa talking to before this latest FW update ? and is it possible to change the port on the Hue Bridge plugin to satisfy the new communication ? ...or is "she " talking with a new API, and it wouldn't matter anyway?

Lemme know what all think ?
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Last edited by scs on Sun Sep 29, 2019 5:48 am, edited 1 time in total.

Indigo 2022.2 w/ Insteon and Z-Wave lights and outlets
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Posted on
Sat Sep 28, 2019 9:12 pm
peszko offline
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Re: Alexa says all devices are not responding

I just can't resist commenting on this. This is exactly the reason that I stay away from cloud based automation. With indigo and modules that directly talk to indigo, I can just not upgrade (or even roll back) if a new release brakes something, but with cloud based devices and services if the company decides to change something or deprecate it, my whole setup can stop. With non cloud automation as long as it works, I can have it working at its latest state for a very long time. If for some reason Mat and Jay fold indigo, I can just keep my setup as is and its still going to work.

My 2 C. Sorry, just couldn't resist.

Posted on
Sun Sep 29, 2019 12:59 am
autolog offline
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Re: Alexa says all devices are not responding

scs wrote:
on a hunch , I captured a trace from my Mac Mini while asking the Alexa to turn on some lights ....
I expected the requests from 103 (the dot that originally discovered the devices) to be talking to the hue bridge , at port 8178 , but it's talking to port 80 , which is totally unexpected .
On my system I have something called PlexConnect running on port 80 , so Alexa's definitely barking up the wrong tree.
My question is , where was Alexa talking to before this latest FW update ? and is it possible to change the port on the Hue Bridge plugin to satisfy the new communication ? ...or is "she " talking with a new API, and it wouldn't matter anyway?


The issue with the new firmware and all of the newer Echo models is that, as you point out, they reply on port 80 and not the originating port e.g. 8178. As the plugin supports multiple Alexa-Hue Bridge devices, they need to have separate ports. This previously worked, in that Alexa replied to the originating port. It still does using the Gen 1 devices which is why it still works for those devices.

I have taken a look at how this might be resolved but it is proving to be problematic. I don't see a quick solution. :|

Posted on
Sun Sep 29, 2019 1:27 am
neilk offline
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Re: Alexa says all devices are not responding

peszko wrote:
I just can't resist commenting on this. This is exactly the reason that I stay away from cloud based automation. With indigo and modules that directly talk to indigo, I can just not upgrade (or even roll back) if a new release brakes something, but with cloud based devices and services if the company decides to change something or deprecate it, my whole setup can stop. With non cloud automation as long as it works, I can have it working at its latest state for a very long time. If for some reason Mat and Jay fold indigo, I can just keep my setup as is and its still going to work.

My 2 C. Sorry, just couldn't resist.


In this case it is a bit more nuanced, it is the local connection capability that is compromised by the firmware update, a native cloud integration would have kept working (at least to published API’s). A similar issue happened with the Harmony but Logitech did roll back. Of course you could choose not to update firmware for most devices but that could introduce other issues such as security. With Alexa you have no control over that and no obvious way to block updates as connectivity is needed, in this case it seems it is an unintended implication of an update that breaks a reverse engineered API that is no longer needed for the supported use cases.

On the general point I prefer a hybrid approach whereby mission critical local functionality will work without the cloud but enhanced convenience can (Honeywell Evohome, DSC Alarm, local Blue Iris etc). Moving forward it will become harder to be completely cloud free, and while AI based services such as voice control or image processing for security can be done locally these things rely on data to train the AI engines to be more effective and will be a lot more effort and resources intensive than a cloud service, and they may ultimately be less useful.

I understand and respect the choice and sentiment and many will recoil at the privacy implications alone, but it will mean swimming against the tide, and missing capability. My view for the benefit of reliable voice control the risk is worth it and we have a fail back to none voice control.

Posted on
Sun Sep 29, 2019 6:00 am
scs offline
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Joined: Nov 28, 2014

Re: Alexa says all devices are not responding

Here's what it looks like when I stopped all the services (PlexConnect. MacOS Server, Plex) answering to the http1.1 discovery broadcast :


it basically launches the SSDP broadcast , and it appears the HueBridge replied reporting it's at port 8178 , (no other responses) and then the Echo goes straight to port 80 , but there's no service there and Echo gets a reset (RST)
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Posted on
Sun Sep 29, 2019 7:07 am
autolog offline
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Re: Alexa says all devices are not responding

scs wrote:
Here's what it looks like when I stopped all the services (PlexConnect. MacOS Server, Plex) answering to the http1.1 discovery broadcast :


it basically launches the SSDP broadcast , and it appears the HueBridge replied reporting it's at port 8178 , (no other responses) and then the Echo goes straight to port 80 , but there's no service there and Echo gets a reset (RST)


Yes, I think that is the point. The Echo isn't responding to the given port (8178) but to port 80. The problem here is that it doesn't matter which Alexa-Hue Bridge sends the command it always get sent back to Port regardless as to whether it came from e.g. 8178, 8179, 8180 etc.

I have been experimenting, without success so far, to create a VLAN on the Indigo mac and then assign the Alexa-Hue bridge to that VLAN and for it to listen on port 80. I have had to modify the plugin code to enable this way of working. However, I have come across another problem which is that macOS won't let the plugin listen on port 80 unless it is running as a root user - it fails with a socket error 13 - permission denied. I have been struggling with the pfctl command to get the ports redirected but not making much progress at the moment. :(

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