Alexa no longer discovering Indigo installed/managed devices

With regard to your ‘reload the plugin’, are you speaking of removing and reinstalling the Alexa-Hue Bridge?

I meant just reload it, as in going to the Indigo main menu Plugins > Alexa-Hue Bridge > Reload.

Some of the things discussed in this thread refer to creating another Amazon account and unplugging all the Echo devices, except the Echo Gen 1. That makes zero sense to me. I did delete all of the devices at the Amazon Echo site, and ran discovery from the Echo Gen 1 and it found all my Echo and Ring devices, but none of the emulated Hue devices. I just use Indigo Touch to do manual control of my Indigo devices (mostly Insteon and a couple of Z-wave).

Are you 100% certain it is an Echo Gen 1 - what firmware version is it (so we can double check against what other users have posted)?

I have found nothing that works so far and I do not have any context for the “non echo filtering’, nor have I found any reference to that in the plugin configuration. After using the Alexa Hue Bridge to integrate Echo into Indigo for several years, I appear to have undone that integration with a MacOS upgrade.

This was an addition to the plugin (see announcement for Alexa-Hue Bridge Version 3.0.26 dated 11th March 2018) which describes the feature. It probably isn't enabled if you don't know about it?

Thanks Jon.

GEN 1 Echo?

From one of your posts:

If you have 645584020 then that is the new version that no longer works with the plugin.

My Echo is Gen 1 hardware for sure, but the software version shows 647588720 which (others have indicated 1 echo dot is ver 641575220 and 1 was 644580520). If 647588720 is a version that is 'too new', is there a way to force a load of a previous version? I wouldn't have a problem buying another Gen 1 Echo or Dot, if that is needed, but I was pretty sure that this one was the original (i.e., it has the volume control ring). In fact, it was unable to to be used in a stereo group, when the Echo Subwoofer was released and I had to replace it with a Gen 2 Echo. I have a number of Echo Dots, but they are Gen 2 and Gen 3.

NON Echo Filtering:
Thanks for the info on the feature and no, I did not enable it.

RELOAD of Alexa-Hue Bridge:
I actually did an update to the latest version of the Alexa-Hue Bridge from the link on the Third Party plug-in listings.

Hi Sarah,

... My Echo is Gen 1 hardware for sure, but the software version shows 647588720 which (others have indicated 1 echo dot is ver 641575220 and 1 was 644580520). If 647588720 is a version that is 'too new', is there a way to force a load of a previous version? I wouldn't have a problem buying another Gen 1 Echo or Dot, if that is needed, but I was pretty sure that this one was the original (i.e., it has the volume control ring). In fact, it was unable to to be used in a stereo group, when the Echo Subwoofer was released and I had to replace it with a Gen 2 Echo. I have a number of Echo Dots, but they are Gen 2 and Gen 3.

Your firmware for the Gen 1 = 647588720 is the same as both of my Gen 1 Echos, so it should work.

RELOAD of Alexa-Hue Bridge:
I actually did an update to the latest version of the Alexa-Hue Bridge from the link on the Third Party plug-in listings.

What version of the plugin are you running - the latest is available from the Plugin Store: Alexa-Hue Bridge Version 3.0.35

Given that your issue started when you upgraded to Catalina and that your Gen 1 Echos have firmware that is known to work, I think something must have changed on your setup to cause the problem. It could be network (ethernet and wifi adapters active for example). Could your upgraded Mac have changed its IP address?

What does the Indigo Event Log output show when you reload the plugin?

Make sure you don’t have both Ethernet and WiFi enabled. One or the other, not both.

Make sure you don’t have both Ethernet and WiFi enabled. One or the other, not both.

Pray tell why? Does having 2 IP addresses create a problem?

Hi Sarah,

... My Echo is Gen 1 hardware for sure, but the software version shows 647588720 which (others have indicated 1 echo dot is ver 641575220 and 1 was 644580520). If 647588720 is a version that is 'too new', is there a way to force a load of a previous version? I wouldn't have a problem buying another Gen 1 Echo or Dot, if that is needed, but I was pretty sure that this one was the original (i.e., it has the volume control ring). In fact, it was unable to to be used in a stereo group, when the Echo Subwoofer was released and I had to replace it with a Gen 2 Echo. I have a number of Echo Dots, but they are Gen 2 and Gen 3.

Your firmware for the Gen 1 = 647588720 is the same as both of my Gen 1 Echos, so it should work.

(ethernet and wifi adapters active for example). Could your upgraded Mac have changed its IP address?

I’m pretty certain I have both active and have forever. See my reply to that admonition in the other post.

What does the Indigo Event Log output show when you reload the plugin?

I will need to suss that out and reply.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Make sure you don’t have both Ethernet and WiFi enabled. One or the other, not both.

Pray tell why? Does having 2 IP addresses create a problem?

Yes, for some things. I don’t recall if it’s specifically this plugin, but there have been reports over the years of multiple active interfaces breaking things in the Indigo ecosystem.

I will reiterate something Jon suggested a few pages ago: if discovery is not working even though you have an Echo 1st gen device, you can try moving the 1st gen echo device close to the computer that is running Indigo. I am not sure what it is because I have a strong wifi network with repeaters that are ethernet connected, but I can tell you from experience that it does make a difference! When I first got my Echo 1st gen from eBay, I did all my setup while it was plugged in in the same room as my server and everything went well. Then I moved it to a different room and controls were working fine. However, when I added a couple of devices later on the Echo gen 1 could not discover them. I have now permanently moved the old Echo to be close to my server and I have had no issues with discovery since then.

I seem to have discovered a new problem with Indigo/Alexa integration.
I was able to get up and running with the Gen 1 approach. But now a new issue has shown up.
I tried to add a couple of new actions to Hue-Bridge and could not get them discovered by asking Alexa to do it.
In the past I could also go to the Alexa IOS app and trigger discovery from there. But Amazon seems to have changed the way the app works.
I now says to discover Hue devices you need to register to use a Phillips skill and the registration process wants to identify a physical Phillips Hue Bridge.
Of course one of those doesn't exist when using Indigo. Seems like Phillips and Amazon are working hard to stop "free riders" on their system. Very unfriendly!

Anyone have any ideas about how to work around this one other than the promised Alexa Indigo skill?

To test, I have just added an Alexa device (Indigo device) and Alexa device (Indigo Actions) and it has worked fine.

What version firmware do you have on your Gen 1 Echo?

Try reloading the plugin (from the main Indigo Plugin menu) and try discovery again.

How did the message / speach appear about the Hue lights - when you did the discovery?

I was using 3.0.35 but when I reloaded it it started discovering the two new actions when asking Alexa to do the discovery.
I thought I remembered that those discoveries showed up in the Event Log when they happened. But I didn't see that.

For reference, my Echo 1 firmware is: 647588720

Thanks

... I thought I remembered that those discoveries showed up in the Event Log when they happened. But I didn't see that. ...

It should do if you have the option Log Discovery set in the plugin config.

It should do if you have the option Log Discovery set in the plugin config.

I don't see that option in the Alexa-Hue Bridge configuration. When I edit the Alexa-Hue Bridge, under "Settings", I see the name of the bridge, "Notes" (which is blank) and a button to "Edit Device Settings" and that's what I've used to set up all of my emulated devices. I can see no options to set logging.

I turned off WiFi from the Mac running Indigo and I've tried 'forgetting' all of my Alexa Devices and then I run discovery. All my devices are discovered, including the ones that emulate Hue bulbs, but even though they all appear to be discovered, when I try to control them through Alexa, I still get the "deviceN is not responding..."

By the way, I am running v3.0.35 of the Alexa-Hue Bridge and I just stopped and started it

Here are my most recent log entries, after stopping and starting the Alexa-Hue Bridge, then forgetting all Smart Home devices and running discovery from my Echo Gen 1 with the software version I previously posted:

Oct 19, 2019 at 11:01:51 PM
Reloading plugin "Alexa-Hue Bridge 3.0.35"
Stopping plugin "Alexa-Hue Bridge 3.0.35" (pid 992)
Alexa-Hue Bridge Alexa-Hue Bridge shutdown requested
Alexa-Hue Bridge HTTP server stopping...
Stopped plugin "Alexa-Hue Bridge 3.0.35"
Starting plugin "Alexa-Hue Bridge 3.0.35" (pid 25503)
Alexa-Hue Bridge Alexa-Hue Bridge initialising . . .
Alexa-Hue Bridge Plugin Host IP Address is discovered as: '127.0.0.1'
Alexa-Hue Bridge Alexa discovery request logging enabled
Alexa-Hue Bridge Warning Debugging enabled for Alexa-Hue Bridge:
Started plugin "Alexa-Hue Bridge 3.0.35"
Alexa-Hue Bridge Alexa-Hue Bridge initialization complete
Alexa-Hue Bridge 'Alexa-Hue Bridge 2' has 11 Alexa Devices published
Alexa-Hue Bridge Starting Hue Bridge 'Alexa-Hue Bridge 2' web server thread
Alexa-Hue Bridge Starting Hue Bridge 'Alexa-Hue Bridge 2' discovery thread as 'Auto Start Discovery' requested
Alexa-Hue Bridge Alexa-Hue Bridge 'Alexa-Hue Bridge 2' started: Host: 127.0.0.1 Port: 8184
Alexa-Hue Bridge Alexa-Hue Bridge checking network access by attempting to access 'www.google.com'
Alexa-Hue Bridge Alexa-Hue Bridge network access check to http://www.google.com successfully completed.

Still the same response from Alexa "DeviceN is not responding..."

Have you tried a double request?

By this I mean, when you say e.g. "Alexa turn on dining room light" and Alexa responds by saying "the device is not responding ...", try repeating the command and see if the command is actioned and Alexa replies "OK".

I have found recently that this happens after a discovery. This only needs to be done once for each device and then Alexa seems to then "remember" that the device works. I am not sure what is causing this.