Alexa commands work, but then 'XXXX is not responding'

Posted on
Wed Jan 24, 2018 11:20 pm
az138 offline
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Joined: Apr 06, 2016

Alexa commands work, but then 'XXXX is not responding'

Hi, first, I love this plugin and it is the primary interface for all of my home automation.

I have 16 different Alexa - Hue emulation devices that control Indigo action groups in my home. All of them work just fine, but after an hour or so if I try them I get an error message from Alexa saying that the device is not responding. If I reload the plugin everything goes back to working fine.

I am running version 3.0.23 . I have debugging turned on, and while there are a lot of messages, nothing is added to the log when I'm having this issue.

Has anyone else had this issue, or does anyone have any ideas on what to do to troubleshoot it?

One item to note is that I recently did a clean install of high sierra and restored my indigo config from backup. I think that is about the same time the problem started. I could configure Indigo from scratch but have over 50 devices and a lot of scenes, etc. so that would take a lot of time.

Posted on
Thu Jan 25, 2018 1:53 am
autolog offline
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Re: Alexa commands work, but then 'XXXX is not responding'

As you are using 3.0.23, have you defined your Amazon Echo devices in the plugin (new feature)? In any case when you issue a successful command after the plugin reload you should be able to see in the Indigo log which of your Echos is issuing the command to Indigo (either the Echo name or IP Address) . Make a note of this Echo. When the problem next occurs, go to the Echo previously identified and issue the command to it. If it works then, in my experience, all the other Echos will start working again.

How have you got discovery set-up?

Posted on
Tue May 01, 2018 11:55 am
TwitchCaptain offline
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Re: Alexa commands work, but then 'XXXX is not responding'

I have a similar problem. Alexa only works about half the time. I ask for a light or fan to turn on or off and it buzzes. I try again 10 minutes later and it's fine. This is totally hit and miss and very unreliable. I've been using this plugin for months (currently on 3.0.29) and it's never remained reliable.

Any ideas on how to make this work closer to 100% of the time? I see a new feature for "filter echos" but I find no place to actually identify them. Not sure if this feature would help anyway.

Thanks!

Posted on
Tue May 01, 2018 1:48 pm
jay (support) offline
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Re: Alexa commands work, but then 'XXXX is not responding'

What is your network configuration? Seems like a lot of the instability issues are due to network config issues.

Jay (Indigo Support)
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Posted on
Tue May 01, 2018 7:00 pm
TwitchCaptain offline
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Re: Alexa commands work, but then 'XXXX is not responding'

All Ubiquiti Unifi. 24 port switch, USG, two UAP-PRO's. I have all the internals fully graphed. The amazon devices (two echos in the house and a half dozen fireTVs) are on a wireless network in the same VLAN with the server. The server has two network connections, one of them is in a another private VLAN with all my cameras (going into securityspy). I've configured the Alexa bridge with the correct static IP so it doesn't try to asset itself in the private network. I haven't dug in the code much, so I'm really not sure what that IP setting controls, it just felt appropriate to set since I have one IP that leads to a network with no real clients.

Is there something specific I should look into as a possible source of the problem? When the echos can't reach Indigo, there are no logs, it's almost as though they just forget where to send requests. Then a few minutes later it's fine. In the meantime the echo is streaming music from the Internet and the fireTVs are streaming media from the same Indigo server, so network connections, otherwise, appear unaffected.

Thanks!

Posted on
Wed May 02, 2018 8:21 am
jay (support) offline
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Re: Alexa commands work, but then 'XXXX is not responding'

My suspicion, though it really is just a guess, is that when these temporary outages happen something is (perhaps temporarily) blocking UPnP and/or multicast broadcasts. These types of broadcasts often a source of issue with complex networks, where you have multiple hops between routers/bridges. Your network seems moderately complex, so that's where I'd focus some effort.

Oh - and the other thing that I suspect is an issue is having multiple interfaces enabled on your Mac. That's almost always a factor.

Jay (Indigo Support)
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Posted on
Wed May 02, 2018 11:44 am
TwitchCaptain offline
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Re: Alexa commands work, but then 'XXXX is not responding'

I'll fire up tcpdump on the WAPs and figure out what's not transferring. I agree that my network, as a whole, is moderately complex. The vlan/network/hardware connecting the echo to the server is not that complex though, so should be easy to flesh out with some packet captures. I can even try disabling the second interface on the server for a while to see if it helps. Thanks for the pointers!

Posted on
Wed Jun 06, 2018 12:08 pm
TwitchCaptain offline
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Re: Alexa commands work, but then 'XXXX is not responding'

This almost certainly appears to be a problem with the plugin. It's intermittently going into a bad state and not responding to commands. I'm not sure what debug info I can provide to help narrow it down.

This is what happens when I try to turn discovery on while the problem is occurring.
Code: Select all
   Alexa-Hue Bridge                sent "Alexa" Discovery on
   Alexa-Hue Bridge Error          Start Discovery action failed for 'Alexa': broadcaster thread couldn't start. Try restarting the plugin.'
   Alexa-Hue Bridge Error          Traceback (most recent call last):
   Alexa-Hue Bridge Error            File "plugin.py", line 1771, in startDiscovery
   Alexa-Hue Bridge Error              self.globals['alexaHueBridge'][ahbDev.id]['broadcaster'].start()
   Alexa-Hue Bridge Error            File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/threading.py", line 739, in start
   Alexa-Hue Bridge Error              raise RuntimeError("threads can only be started once")
   Alexa-Hue Bridge Error          RuntimeError: threads can only be started once
   Alexa-Hue Bridge                sent "Alexa" Discovery off
   Alexa-Hue Bridge                Stop Discovery . . . . . . . . . .
   Alexa-Hue Bridge                Stopping Hue Bridge 'Alexa' discovery threads as 'Turn Off Discovery' requested
   Alexa-Hue Bridge                sent "Alexa" Discovery on
   Alexa-Hue Bridge Error          Start Discovery action failed for 'Alexa': broadcaster thread couldn't start. Try restarting the plugin.'
   Alexa-Hue Bridge Error          Traceback (most recent call last):
   Alexa-Hue Bridge Error            File "plugin.py", line 1771, in startDiscovery
   Alexa-Hue Bridge Error              self.globals['alexaHueBridge'][ahbDev.id]['broadcaster'].start()
   Alexa-Hue Bridge Error            File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/threading.py", line 739, in start
   Alexa-Hue Bridge Error              raise RuntimeError("threads can only be started once")
   Alexa-Hue Bridge Error          RuntimeError: threads can only be started once


Reloading the plugin always seems to fix the problem. FWIW, I have discovery configured to never turn off, but it still does.

An Action type of "Reload Plugin" could be useful. In my case, I'd run it once a day on this plugin.

Posted on
Wed Jun 06, 2018 3:33 pm
jay (support) offline
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Re: Alexa commands work, but then 'XXXX is not responding'

You can restart any plugin. The ID of this plugin is "com.indigodomo.opensource.alexa-hue-bridge".

Jay (Indigo Support)
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Posted on
Fri Jun 08, 2018 2:09 am
Albatros offline
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Joined: Feb 07, 2015

Re: Alexa commands work, but then 'XXXX is not responding'

I am also having a problem and also getting the "XXX is not responding". This is my setup:

- Netgear Orbi Router connected to my Internet modem
- Netgear switch connected to the Orbi router - my mac mini with indigo on it is connected to this switch
- 2x Netgear Orbi satellites
- 1x Amazon Echo dot in de bedroom connected to Orbi Satellite 1
- 1x Amazon Echo gen2 in the living room connected to Orbi Router

When I ask the gen2 Echo in the living room to turn on lights I can get the message "XXX is not responding". When I ask a minute later it can just works. So it seems randomly working. What I can see in de Indigo log is when I make a command to the living room gen2 echo and it is working it is handled by the bedroom dot echo.

I have made two echo devices in Indigo. Any suggestions what is causing the issue. Thanks

Posted on
Fri Jun 08, 2018 4:18 pm
autolog offline
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Re: Alexa commands work, but then 'XXXX is not responding'

I am also seeing this from time-to-time but Alexa will respond on a second asking - not sure what the exact issue is that causes this and haven't had the time to investigate it further at the moment. :|

The situation you have with the request being spoken to one Echo and another Echo issuing the command to Indigo is normal AFAIK - It is just how the Alexa system works. :)

Posted on
Sun Jun 10, 2018 1:05 am
kwijibo007 offline
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Location: Melbourne, Australia

Re: Alexa commands work, but then 'XXXX is not responding'

autolog wrote:
I am also seeing this from time-to-time but Alexa will respond on a second asking - not sure what the exact issue is that causes this and haven't had the time to investigate it further at the moment.


+1

Maybe once/twice a week? Not big enough of an issue to troubleshoot in any meaningful way

Posted on
Sun Jun 10, 2018 2:19 pm
Albatros offline
Posts: 132
Joined: Feb 07, 2015

Re: Alexa commands work, but then 'XXXX is not responding'

For me it is quite often the case, so the the KAF and WAF is getting seriously down.

Posted on
Wed Jun 27, 2018 1:59 pm
TwitchCaptain offline
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Re: Alexa commands work, but then 'XXXX is not responding'

Creating a timer to restart the plugin every 3 hours has pretty much solved my problem. Very rarely do I get the dreaded double bong sound when trying to voice-control a light.

Posted on
Sun Jul 01, 2018 3:10 pm
sarahcat offline
Posts: 144
Joined: Apr 16, 2011

Re: Alexa commands work, but then 'XXXX is not responding'

I am also having a problem and also getting the "XXX is not responding". This is my setup:

- Netgear Orbi Router connected to my Internet modem
- Netgear switch connected to the Orbi router - my mac mini with indigo on it is connected to this switch
- 2x Netgear Orbi satellites
- 1x Amazon Echo dot in de bedroom connected to Orbi Satellite 1
- 1x Amazon Echo gen2 in the living room connected to Orbi Router

When I ask the gen2 Echo in the living room to turn on lights I can get the message "XXX is not responding". When I ask a minute later it can just works. So it seems randomly working. What I can see in de Indigo log is when I make a command to the living room gen2 echo and it is working it is handled by the bedroom dot echo.

I have made two echo devices in Indigo. Any suggestions what is causing the issue. Thanks


My setup is almost identical, with the exception of only one Orbi Satellite and a few more Echo devices.

From time to time, I hear this response from the Echo device, when trying to control an Indigo device. The reliable solution has been to simply stop the Indigo server and start it up again. That has fixed the problem every time. I noticed that Matt/Jay suggested that plug-ins can be individually restarted, but restarting the Alexa-Hue Bridge did not always work for me in the past. I find that the best result comes from restarting the Indigo server. I have not tried to determine the root cause of this problem, but it happens rather infrequently, so with a complex system, a glitch could occur as it seems to be doing. Since I only use the voice commands when I'm home and have access to the server, it's a pretty minor issue. Indigo Touch is my option at home until I restart the server and is what I always use when away from home.

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