Integration with Amazon Echo

[jay (support)]

I wonder why the tap is so stellar while the echo only scores 3 of 5 (about). I hear the new dot has a new redesigned mic array that makes it superior to the 1st gen dot.

I don't believe that's the experience of any other users - certainly not me. Once I figured everything out, the only time I've had to rediscover is when I moved houses. If your dot works all the time but the echo doesn't then I'm pretty sure there's something wrong with your echo since I believe the firmware for them is the same.

[jay (support)]

With almost 300 posts in this thread, I'm finding it hard to tell if I should try to integrate with an Amazon Echo hooked up to a dedicated Insteon hub, having that hub AND Indigo "sharing" control of my Insteon network. I'm fascinated by the possibilities of the Echo, but since my entire house is run by Indigo (since v1), I don't want to jump yet if its not technically feasible, or if it will cause me more grief than it's worth.

I did take time to look through the Wiki trying to find a summary of the setup, but didn't see anything that summarizes all the tips and tricks posted in this thread. Has anybody put together a quick FAQ/How To document?

I've tried to keep the first post on the plugin thread up to date with any troubleshooting issues. I just realized it doesn't mention the hostname issue that some Mac OS X Server users have found so I'll add that.

Hi All,

Great that we have the plugin to integrate the Echo into Indigo. I've just bought an Echo and got it all up and running.

I'm considering buying some Phillips Hue kit, but I was curious how the Indigo bridge plugin might limit my options.

I appreciate that there is an Amazon imposed limit of 27 devices via Hue, and that's what we're emulating. Does this mean that if I buy a Phillips Hue hub I'm limited to a total of 27 devices or do I get another tranch of 27 devices to address (so 54?)

Cheers
Richard.

[jay (support)]

The short answer is yes, the Echo will find the devices on your Hue hub and will also find the Indigo devices published through the plugin.

The short answer is yes, the Echo will find the devices on your Hue hub and will also find the Indigo devices published through the plugin.

I apologize if this has been addressed somewhere in the past, but has anyone considered getting around the 27 device limit by configuring the plugin to create multiple "Hue emulators" that the Echo would see as different hubs?

Yes, exactly that. Just needs someone to do it, Jay does this have time at the moment.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

[jay (support)]

https://github.com/IndigoDomotics/alexa ... e/issues/1

Note, my preliminary testing showed that the Echo was too smart to allow multiple Hue hubs from the same IP address (but with different ports). That may have changed. However, with multihoming and virtual network interfaces on a Mac, one could conceivably create one hub instance per interface.

Sparker made met think of something, and maybe its been mentioned already. Short of Indigo 7 shocking the heck out of all of us and having native Amazon Echo/Dot support, maybe there is another hack we can take advantage of. I don't know enough about the Insteon Hub, but based on the videos, the natural language and capabilities with the Echo are better than the Hue. If we could create virtual devices, or maybe leverage scene's, on the Insteon Hub, could that serve as a trigger in Indigo to do other stuff? Im thinking of a workflow something like this :

1. Alexa, dim the kitchen lights by 10%
2. The Insteon hub has a scene that is tied to this command somehow (here's the magic hack??)
3. The scene is somehow tied to Indigo, so a trigger can occur in indigo, to do what we really want.

Again, high level thinking on this. Perhaps we dedicate a switch or two somewhere in the network that Indigo could be tied into as a receiver of state changes.

In short .. how do we hack the Insteon hub (or another well integrated hub) into serving as a trigger point for Indigo?

I didn't read this entire very long thread, but from what you wrote, I am already doing what you wanted. Just in a different way.
I use alexa/echo to control anything in Indigo with almost no limits. I use it in conjunction with IFTTT and Maker.
Basically I set up a PHP/CURL script that receives the commands from IFTTT/Maker and translates them into a URL that I call indigo with and Indigo responds in turn.
For dimming, what I did was to create 10 levels of dimming. 10% thru 100%. I created a variable that stores the DIM level (increments of 10). I created a IFTTT/Maker rule that I can change that variable with.
Then when I say "Alexa Trigger Dim Living Room Lights", it will set the living room lights to the level in the variable.
I don't dim that often, so 1 global variable for all my lights is fine, and I can just change it as needed.

Granted the dimming part of it is a pain and not ideal. I mainly did it just to prove to myself that I could do it. I am a programmer, I like messing around with this stuff.
Regardless of all that, I use the HUE/Echo plugin, so for at least 27 (or whatever that max number is) of my lights, dimming is much easier.

But I use Alexa to turn my alarm on, and a variety of other things. All with the help of IFTTT/Maker, and my PHP/CURL script.

george99, it sounds like you've found a way to get past the 27 device limit. I'm installing an Alexa constellation with 10 dots, 1 echo, 1 tap and 1 Amazon fire. Everything in different rooms (only 3 dots left to go). Is that right? I'm desperate to get more devices on my system. Every room has at least ceiling light, one or more lamps, control plug or two, and a ceiling fan. Several rooms have a ton more lights. 27 doesn't begin to cover it. Any tips?

Well just to clarify, The problem with using Alexa/IFTTT/Indigo together is if there is a variable to be set (such as dim level), you would technically have to create 100 rules for each dimmable light. 1 rule for each percent. I don't think that there is currently a way to treat the number as a variable in IFTTT/Maker. So each percentage would be a static command. You could do it like I did, or you could maybe to it by 10's, or whatever works for you. It's just not an ideal situation.

But dimming aside, it works great for on/off of lighting, alarm, etc. You can pretty much set it to do anything in indigo.

Actually no dimming is fine and a vast improvement over nothing. I have about 70 devices I want voice controlled and perhaps more than dimming would be ceiling fan speeds. There are a couple hundred devices on the property but many are sensors or digital controllers. The important feature is voice control in every room for lights fans and vampire power management.

Have you looked at Stringify? It is a newcomer challenger to IFTTT. It has a very nice visual flow designer and adds the missing "and T" so you can set up rules "If this and that and that and that ..."

Not sure it helps in this case, but worth a look.

Al,
Then you will be fine with IFTTT. Just say "Alexa Trigger Kitchen Lights On" or "Alexa Trigger Living Room Lights Off".
Or you could set it as a toggle. "Alexa Trigger Kitchen Lights".

Only issue I have noticed with IFTTT is that there is the occassional delay. I'd say 5 seconds at most. But usually its pretty decent within the "acceptable" range.