Use of Switch vs Light

Posted on
Sun Jun 27, 2021 4:09 pm
Colly offline
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Re: Use of Switch vs Light

Just had a play about with this tonight and if I’m understanding the issue correctly there is an easy fix. I added a “light” which is really a Fibaro module to the Alexa plugin using the “switch” option. Then I went to the Alexa App and changed it to be a light, now I can say “Goodnight” to Alexa and all lights switch off.
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Posted on
Mon Jun 28, 2021 12:53 am
neilk offline
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Re: Use of Switch vs Light

Works perfectly and thanks for figuring it out.

Kind of logical once you found it, but I was sure I didn’t see an option like that earlier, that is my excuse anyway !

Neil

Posted on
Mon Jun 28, 2021 1:32 am
Colly offline
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Re: Use of Switch vs Light

Glad it worked for you. Great to have Alexa back working with Indigo.

Posted on
Mon Jun 28, 2021 5:46 am
CBowles offline
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Re: Use of Switch vs Light

jay (support) wrote:
Ah, I see. In Alexa, any device that is dimmable is considered a light, others that only support on/off are considered switches (at least in terms of their UI apparently). In Indigo, we have a similar construct: DimmerDevice and RelayDevice respectively. We publish those devices to Alexa based on their definitions. DimmerDevices support both PowerController and BrightnessController Alexa interfaces. RelayDevices only support the PowerController interface since you can't send dim commands to them.

Apparently, Alexa assumes that only the former is a light. I'm not sure that changing the subtype of a RelayDevice to be "LIGHT" will solve the issue or if Alexa is looking specifically at whether the device has the BrightnessController interface. If it's the former, and I'll try testing that, then we can most likely make that work. If, however, it's the latter, then I'm not sure we can do anything about it (since a RelayDevice in Indigo will throw an error if you try to set the brightness on it).


Hey Jay,

Firstly, a huge thank you for getting the native Alexa integration implemented. I've ditched the Alexa Hue Bridge and taken the plunge and all appears to work OK after making virtual devices to accommodate a few actions I needed.
However, I had bother with Alexa Groups and lights too. In the old Hue based plugin, everything was a light whereas now, my dimmable lights (Aeon) are 'dimmers' whereas non-dimmable light switches and lamps on a plug-in switch are not considered lights.
Let's say I'm in the bedroom and say 'Alexa, turn the lights off', with the old plug in it just worked. Now, it replies 'A few things share the name lights, which one did you want'?.
I'm guessing it was because there are switches and plugins called '<room name> lights'.
Although the solution above worked for me, it would be good if one could override the device type from switch or plugin and change it to bulb in Indigo so Alexa picked it up as a light. I'm guessing this would then work OK?

Cheers,

Chris
--

Posted on
Mon Jun 28, 2021 7:00 am
neilk offline
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Location: Reading, UK

Re: Use of Switch vs Light

Colly wrote:
Glad it worked for you. Great to have Alexa back working with Indigo.


It is indeed, I really appreciate the efforts especially from Jon in keeping it going and for the guys in doing what I know is an insane amount of plumbing to pull this off. It always felt we were one change from Amazon away from it falling over, or for my aged Echo to move to that cloud in the sky.

I was also kicking myself as to how I didn't spot this, I checked and the option only exists in the app not in the web portal and I did all of the migration on my Mac.

@Jay - it may still be useful to have this as an option as it is of course an extra step but it is entirely workable this way. I will also do a little write up on the use of the groups and rooms as it appears people may not be aware of this, and it makes a big difference on usability and making the invocations even more natural.

Posted on
Mon Jun 28, 2021 8:57 am
jay (support) offline
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Re: Use of Switch vs Light

CBowles wrote:
Although the solution above worked for me, it would be good if one could override the device type from switch or plugin and change it to bulb in Indigo so Alexa picked it up as a light. I'm guessing this would then work OK?


viewtopic.php?p=203829#p203829

neilk wrote:
@Jay - it may still be useful to have this as an option as it is of course an extra step but it is entirely workable this way.


Yep, I'll definitely still figure out how to get it done on our side if possible.

Jay (Indigo Support)
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Posted on
Tue Jun 29, 2021 4:12 am
CBowles offline
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Re: Use of Switch vs Light

jay (support) wrote:
CBowles wrote:
Although the solution above worked for me, it would be good if one could override the device type from switch or plugin and change it to bulb in Indigo so Alexa picked it up as a light. I'm guessing this would then work OK?


viewtopic.php?p=203829#p203829

neilk wrote:
@Jay - it may still be useful to have this as an option as it is of course an extra step but it is entirely workable this way.


Yep, I'll definitely still figure out how to get it done on our side if possible.


Hey Jay,

Despite setting all switches and plug-ins to lights in the the Alexa App, I'm still having bother with Alexa Groups not responding correctly to 'Alexa, turn the lights off'
I still get 'a few things share the name lights., which one do you want?'
As I mentioned in my previous post, it used to work fine with the old Hue based plugin but not with the new native implementation.
Any ideas?

Cheers,

Chris
--

Posted on
Tue Jun 29, 2021 6:31 am
neilk offline
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Location: Reading, UK

Re: Use of Switch vs Light

CBowles wrote:
jay (support) wrote:
CBowles wrote:
Although the solution above worked for me, it would be good if one could override the device type from switch or plugin and change it to bulb in Indigo so Alexa picked it up as a light. I'm guessing this would then work OK?


viewtopic.php?p=203829#p203829

neilk wrote:
@Jay - it may still be useful to have this as an option as it is of course an extra step but it is entirely workable this way.


Yep, I'll definitely still figure out how to get it done on our side if possible.


Hey Jay,

Despite setting all switches and plug-ins to lights in the the Alexa App, I'm still having bother with Alexa Groups not responding correctly to 'Alexa, turn the lights off'
I still get 'a few things share the name lights., which one do you want?'
As I mentioned in my previous post, it used to work fine with the old Hue based plugin but not with the new native implementation.
Any ideas?

Cheers,

Chris
--


Chris,
If you can get the devices to respond via the full name and long form invocation (or indeed from within the Alexa app) then this is likely nothing to do with the Indigo end, but that in recreating the groupings then mappings are a little messed up. I needed to recreate my groups as deleting everything also removed them (and I am still having skills re-enable themselves but that is a different story). I would check the following :-

1) That you have at least one light defined in the group you wish to control and that it can be controlled explicitly via it's name (devices should not be in more than one group)
2) Add the appropriate Alexa to the group that should control the light (presuming you have more than one). Each group must have at least one Alexa device included as that is how it maps to the lights to control

My suspicion is that the light and the alexa you wish to use are not in the same group.

It is working fine with the new plugin across 5 different rooms now with the mappings working correctly.

Neil

Posted on
Tue Jun 29, 2021 7:58 am
jay (support) offline
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Re: Use of Switch vs Light

CBowles wrote:
Despite setting all switches and plug-ins to lights in the the Alexa App, I'm still having bother with Alexa Groups not responding correctly to 'Alexa, turn the lights off'
I still get 'a few things share the name lights., which one do you want?'


As @neilk mentions, this message is from Alexa, not from Indigo. It is Alexa indicating that what you are speaking isn't explicit enough in terms of identifying what to turn off. Alexa will sometimes ask something like (paraphrase) "I found a device named BLAH BLAH, is that what you meant?". If you respond in the affirmative, then Alexa will map what it believes you said to the device she recommended. That map appears to be cached at least until you remove the target device (and possibly longer).

All of this is to say that the issue isn't with Indigo but rather with Alexa trying to figure out what the target of your command is. We can't influence that in any way - all we do is tell Alexa about the devices that you've configured to be discovered by the name you specify. Any confusion by Alexa in terms of targeting the right device (or group as the case may be) is completely out of our hands.

Jay (Indigo Support)
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Posted on
Thu Jul 01, 2021 7:04 pm
CBowles offline
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Re: Use of Switch vs Light

Thanks guys,

All understood regarding the message coming from Alexa rather than Indigo.
As suggested, I deleted the Problem Groups in the Alexa App and recreated them and hey presto, it works!
Despite deleting all the Hue plug-in based devices, it does appear there is some cacheing at the Alexa end.

Thanks again for the pointers, All sorted now and the new, native Alexa integration is and works great!

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