Integration with Amazon Echo

Posted on
Sat Dec 30, 2017 1:02 pm
jay (support) offline
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Re: Integration with Amazon Echo

RAID5 wrote:
Does this ASKindigo thing work or is it a abandoned project?
Is there maby another alternative?


No idea. Give it a spin if you want to try it out. You'll need a dev account on Amazon among other things.

Jay (Indigo Support)
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Posted on
Sat Dec 30, 2017 3:20 pm
RAID5 offline
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Re: Integration with Amazon Echo

I downloaded plug-in Alexa Hue Bridge, it work just like I wanted with one limitation, only 20 devices. But I still have 5 more before I hit the limit. Thanks for your response.


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RAID5 "A happy Swede addicted to automation"

Posted on
Sat Dec 30, 2017 3:38 pm
ELWOOD offline
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Re: Integration with Amazon Echo

The 20 device limit is per amazon account. If you start a second amazon account you can add 20 more devices. I have two accounts with 4 Dots on the main floor assigned to
one account and two dots on the second floor assigned to the second amazon account.

Elwood

Posted on
Sat Dec 30, 2017 5:31 pm
Colorado4Wheeler offline
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Re: Integration with Amazon Echo

ELWOOD wrote:
The 20 device limit is per amazon account.


That cannot possibly be right, I have 75+ devices on my Alexa setup with just a single Amazon account. The limit is 20 devices PER BRIDGE, so you simply create as many bridges as you need in Indigo to utilize as many device as you want.

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Posted on
Sat Dec 30, 2017 6:51 pm
akimball offline
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Re: Integration with Amazon Echo

I’ve got 26 or 27 per bridge on some of my 5 alexa-hue bridges...if the limit is 20 per bridge I must have several devices not accessable. I admit to not having tested a few. Thanks for the tip, I’ll check it out. I never get a warning like “max devices reached” when adding devices.

Tip. Love groups. I have a tray ceiling in the bedroom.... alexa sometimes turns it on when I say “alexa turn on the tray”. But more often than not, alexa says “sorry i can’t find a device named train,” or I can’t find a device named tree.” Solution: two additional groups named “train” and “tree” each containing the device “tray.” It never fails now.

Recently I read that alexa can now handle ‘routines’. I hope that means we can chain together commands... need to research. Would be nice to say “alexa turn on the tv and turn off the kitchen.”

-Al

Posted on
Sun Dec 31, 2017 6:02 am
autolog offline
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Re: Integration with Amazon Echo

Just to clarify the situation with the limit of the number of devices allowed on an Alexa-Hue Bridge.

Previously (prior to release 3.0.10) the limit was 27. In release 3.0.10 this limit was reduced to 20. The release notes state:
Updates:
Impose a new limit of 20 Alexa devices per Alexa-Hue Bridge in order to ensure that Alexa discovery works.
Existing Alexa-Hue Bridges with more devices may work but should be re-configured to 20 maximum.

The plugin will convert any V2 Alexa-Hue bridge that has more than 20 Alexa devices but a warning will be issued.

Documentation has been updated to reflect this change.


The reason for the change is that the limit of 27 was in fact due to to the size of the message being sent rather than a specific device count limit. Too large a message and discovery doesn't work. Prior to release 3.0.10, the key used by Alexa to identify devices was an Indigo device Id (held in 4 bytes). On release 3.0.10 this was changed to a longer 64 character hash key in order to support Indigo actions as well as Indigo devices. This increased the message size and so the limit had to be reduced. I think 21 or 22 might have worked but I chose 20 as it is nice round number and gave a bit of headroom with regard to message size.

Hope this clarifies the situation. :)

Posted on
Sun Dec 31, 2017 6:10 am
autolog offline
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Re: Integration with Amazon Echo

RAID5 wrote:
I downloaded plug-in Alexa Hue Bridge, it work just like I wanted with one limitation, only 20 devices. But I still have 5 more before I hit the limit. Thanks for your response.


You can create multiple Alexa-Hue Bridge devices with a limit of 20 per Alexa-Hue Bridge. So you are not limited to how many devices you use. :)

ELWOOD wrote:
The 20 device limit is per amazon account. If you start a second amazon account you can add 20 more devices. I have two accounts with 4 Dots on the main floor assigned to
one account and two dots on the second floor assigned to the second amazon account.


As @Colorado4Wheeler said the 20 device limit is per Alexa-Hue Bridge device and not per Amazon Account. I have 48 devices controlled by Alexa, specified on four Alexa-Hue Bridge devices and running on one Amazon account. :)

Posted on
Sun Dec 31, 2017 6:22 am
autolog offline
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Re: Integration with Amazon Echo

akimball wrote:
Tip. Love groups. I have a tray ceiling in the bedroom.... alexa sometimes turns it on when I say “alexa turn on the tray”. But more often than not, alexa says “sorry i can’t find a device named train,” or I can’t find a device named tree.” Solution: two additional groups named “train” and “tree” each containing the device “tray.” It never fails now.

You can do this without Groups in the Alexa-Hue Bridge. Just add a new Alexa device with an Alexa name "train" and select Indigo Device "tray" as the related device. Repeat again with Alexa Device named "tree". I have, for example, a lamp called "Jons lamp". To help Alexa, I have also added the Alexa device "Johns lamp" to point at Indigo device "Jons lamp" - This handles the situation where Alexa can't spell my name all the time. :wink:

akimball wrote:
Recently I read that alexa can now handle ‘routines’. I hope that means we can chain together commands... need to research. Would be nice to say “alexa turn on the tv and turn off the kitchen.”
I now also use Alexa Routines to use more natural speech. Previously I would say "Alexa turn on dining room curtains" to close them. With Routines I say "Alexa close dining room curtains" and likewise "Alexa open dining room curtains" to open them. I also have a routine "Watch evening TV" which turns on the TV and turns off and dims lamps. :)

Posted on
Sun Dec 31, 2017 10:23 am
Colorado4Wheeler offline
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Re: Integration with Amazon Echo

autolog wrote:
I now also use Alexa Routines to use more natural speech. Previously I would say "Alexa turn on dining room curtains" to close them. With Routines I say "Alexa close dining room curtains"


Now there's an excellent reason for me to read this forum, I get to learn new stuff. I'm opposite, I turn OFF to close and turn ON to open but if I can change the language then WOOT! That will make it more in line with a lot of Siri's commands (which I prefer).

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Posted on
Tue Jan 02, 2018 8:28 am
Dewster35 offline
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Re: Integration with Amazon Echo

So I almost thought I had the room thing figured out. My thought was that certainly when waking it up and firing up all those microphones it would have a big current draw, but I do not have a zwave device that reads in anything lower than 1 watt. Not to mention I have to poll when I'm in that room, which created flooding communication.

Someone needs to come up with an integrated z-wave device that can prefix the alexa smart device command based on the room it is in!

Posted on
Wed Jan 03, 2018 9:32 am
Jamesb offline
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Joined: Nov 28, 2017

Re: Integration with Amazon Echo

Not sure where to put this..... Im after Alexa ask me a question and await an answer is this possible? ie.. I have woken up went into the kitchen and On triggering the motion sensor Alexa will ask “do you want to run a scene” ie open up... is this possible to have Alexa wake, prompt a question, and await a response?

Posted on
Thu Jan 04, 2018 1:47 pm
kwijibo007 offline
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Location: Melbourne, Australia

Re: Integration with Amazon Echo

Jamesb wrote:
Not sure where to put this..... Im after Alexa ask me a question and await an answer is this possible? ie.. I have woken up went into the kitchen and On triggering the motion sensor Alexa will ask “do you want to run a scene” ie open up... is this possible to have Alexa wake, prompt a question, and await a response?


What you’re suggesting would be awesome!

Unfortunately the only way to interact with Alexa is by using the wake word. There’s no way for Indigo to to trigger Alexa to prompt a question. Hopefully this will change in the future.

Posted on
Fri Jan 05, 2018 9:41 am
jalves offline
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Re: Integration with Amazon Echo

Would it be possible to do this by having whatever trigger you use to sense the entrance to the room respond by having Indigo speak "Alexa"? That would at least put her in listening mode.

Running Indigo 2023.2 on a 24" iMac M1), OS X 14.4
Jeff

Posted on
Fri Jan 05, 2018 9:48 am
eme jota ce offline
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Location: SW Florida

Re: Integration with Amazon Echo

kwijibo007 wrote:

Unfortunately the only way to interact with Alexa is by using the wake word. There’s no way for Indigo to to trigger Alexa to prompt a question. Hopefully this will change in the future.


For no reason other than amusement, your post lead me to have the Indigo Sonos plugin announce, "Alexa. What's the temperature outside?" because there's no reason these voices shouldn't be able to speak amongst themselves. :wink:

It kind of worked. Alexa replied with the temperature and summary of day's weather, but she hushed the sonos voice after it said "Alexa. What's the temp." Alexa does not, however, hush the Sonos system that is tied to the TV via Playbar, so there's more room for amusement and complete sentences using that zone to have a dialog with her...

Posted on
Fri Jan 05, 2018 11:29 am
akimball offline
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Location: Sandy, Utah

Re: Integration with Amazon Echo

Amusement...
Give smart home device Alexa firmware and a speaker/microphone...disable the dualband channels (rf and power line), then sit back and listen to the new audio mesh network created as devices speak up and repeat packet data.......

Motion Detector “Hey everybody! I have detected motion in the dog house!”
Repeater A, “Hey everyone… dog house motion alert!”
Repeater B, “There’s motion in the dog house!”
Repeater C, “Motion in the litter box!”
Repeater D, “What?? Alert all modules, data collision.”
Repeater A, “I clearly heard the motion was in the dog house.”
Repeater B, “I’m changing my vote for the cat box.”
Repeater C, “Help me In-di-gobee, you’re my only hope!”
Indigo-bee, “Turn on the dog house heat blanket, clean the litter box, we can’t be sure…and send growl to Master Controller that cat did his duty......maybe.”

...okay, so I’m easily amused. :)

-Al

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