Last Version That Supports Python 2 Plugins?

Will finally be updating from 7.2 soon but am not crazy about losing a bunch of my plugins in the initial upgrade.
What would be the latest update I can go to that won’t tank my older plugins?

Thanks,

Carl

2022.2

Great, thanks.

Carl

Which ones do you want and are not supported? I just upgraded to 2023.1 and had to a few that didn't work: Alexa-Hue Bridge, Tivo Network Remote, uniFiAP and UPS Battery and Monitor. From those 4 the one I miss the most is the Alexa-Hue Bridge. I know there is built-in Alexa support now but I wasn't aware that it required setting up the Reflector which I am not keen in doing since I want offline operation. Obviously I know that with Alexa there is no offline operation but still I prefer it to have no third party in the middle of my Alexa actions.

I spent some time on the Alexa-Hue Bridge plugin last night and I got it half working now. I still get few errors but I can turn things devices on/off even though Alexa says it's not responding. Maybe we can team up to update few other plugins if we have any of them in common? There is a lot of info on the web about Python 2 to 3 issues so it's usually not hard to find a solution.

UNIFI has a python 3 compatible plugin.

[jay (support)]

I know there is built-in Alexa support now but I wasn't aware that it required setting up the Reflector which I am not keen in doing since I want offline operation. Obviously I know that with Alexa there is no offline operation but still I prefer it to have no third party in the middle of my Alexa actions.

You do realize that as soon as your old Alexa devices (which work with local control) die you're going to be out of luck, right? I just had one of my original Alexa Dot's kick the can - whenever you ask it anything, it starts speaking but abruptly cuts off and reboots.

Unfortunately, Amazon's Alexa architecture doesn't allow for local control, so all skill commands have to be done through the internet, so the reflector is necessary.

You do realize that as soon as your old Alexa devices (which work with local control) die you're going to be out of luck, right? I just had one of my original Alexa Dot's kick the can - whenever you ask it anything, it starts speaking but abruptly cuts off and reboots.

Unfortunately, Amazon's Alexa architecture doesn't allow for local control, so all skill commands have to be done through the internet, so the reflector is necessary.

I am confused. I wasn't aware this was done locally but it makes sense since the Alexa-Hue Bridge was way faster then using the built-in Alexa integration. I did a little bit of digging and looks like this is called Local Voice Control and only certain devices have it. Initially it seemed like only 1st gen Echos have it but here it says that "1st & 2nd gen Echo Plus and original Show 10 feature local voice control, though all Echo devices have access to the emulated Hue feature when connected to the internet". So it seems I will be fine even when and if my original Echo dies as it will still work via "emulated Hue feature when connected to the internet". Of course this will require the newer Echos to have internet connectivity but that's something I already allow. And I couldn't see difference in speed between my 1st gen Echo and a newer Echo 4th gen that is not supposed to be using Local Voice Control. Having said that the newer Echo 4th gen wouldn't work without internet connection (red ring/I am having trouble understanding) but the Echo 1st gen continued to work so I guess it is using Local Voice Control. I also have a Philips Hue Bridge 2.0 with one Philips Hue LightStrip connected to it but I don't think that changes any of the above integrations. To take my confusion further this post suggests there is a settings page where I can enable Local Voice Control on my Echo but I couldn't find it and the last post even suggests this option might be gone?

But then things got even murkier on my research. This page says that the Echo 4th Generation, which is still beign sold, comes with Alexa-enabled device support for Zigbee. Will a 4th Gen Echo be able to control my Alexa-Hue Bridge Indigo devices and will this control be local or via Cloud? Clicking on the Certified Products links takes me to this page which lists the Philips Hue Bridge v11 and v2 as certified. Does this means the Echo 4th Gen talks to the Philips Hue Bridge via ethernet and the Philips Hue Bridge then sends the Zigbee command or does the Echo talk to the Zigbee devices directly? The just announced Echo Show 8 and Echo Hub also claim to have Zigbee functionality.

To add some final confusion to the subject I found this article from Sept 2021 that says that "Amazon is adding offline voice recognition to Alexa devices" and "According to Amazon, the feature will first be available on the 4th-generation Echo and the Echo Show 10, and will come to more devices in the future". I am not really sure if that is a resurfaced Local Voice Control or what as I don't seem to be able to find much more information about this feature.

I do prefer solutions that I have tried and tested rather than moving to something new. Simply because Indigo didn't support Python 2 anymore didn't seem like a good enough of a reason for me to remove the Alexa-Hue Bridge integration. I also subscribe to "If it ain't broke don't fix it" although in this case it was obviously broken although clearly it's the Alexa-Hue Bridge's plugin fault if Indigo removes Python 2 support. I also don't blame Indigo on this one since Python 2 is ancient and had to go hence why I decided to look at the plugin to see if I could make it work in Python 3. The final push was the fact that with kids in the house (and their friends) the Alexa-Indigo integration can be sometimes be misused so the plugin author added a variable that I can use to disable the integration if needed. I believe this is not possible with the new plugin since plugins can't be enabled/disabled in code.

The final comment is that I think the market is moving to more ML and voice recognition being done locally and on-device. From the release of iOS 15 which supported On-Device Siri to integrations on Home Assistant 2023.5 that allow Local Voice Control and now also on device Siri on Apple Watch series 9 and Ultra 2. So it didn't seem right to me to add the Reflector to my setup when the market is moving into the opposite direction with on-device virtual assistants.