Breakiing news: UK Amazon Echo works with Evohome!

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  • G4RHL
    Automated Home Legend
    • Jan 2015
    • 1580

    #46
    I am still struggling with Echo and find that if I limit devices to Evohome and Bose SoundTouch all is OK but add lighting, even with different named rooms, chaos seems to prevail. Plus for some reason around 04:00 a.m. today Echo switched on the BBC News and I had to go to find out what the voices were. Thought it was somebody talking outside. There was nobody and nothing to trigger Echo and I have no settings to switch things on like that. If it can do that then one wonders if there is a risk it may trigger something to come on that you really don't want or could be a danger. I suppose I need to do yet another factory reset to play safe.

    Comment

    • Mavis
      Automated Home Ninja
      • Oct 2014
      • 322

      #47
      I haven't had time to sort mine yet but thinking about it, putting one thing into a group would not work as even though you won't be asking Alexa for it by its original name, it would still exist in the item list so still have the potential to confuse.
      This weekend I am going to sit down and rename my existing items and delete in Alexa the things that I don't want or need to pare the list down - I think when I first imported everything there were at least 80 items.

      BTW just asked Alexa to add boots to my shopping list and she added poop!

      Comment

      • G4RHL
        Automated Home Legend
        • Jan 2015
        • 1580

        #48
        Well the poop could be for the garden. When I first tried out Siri I asked it where a particular part of my anatomy was and it told me it was with a neighbour 2 doors away!

        When I added Hue, LightwaveRF and Evohome I had over 200 items listed. I agree creating groups does not cure the problem as the device still exists elsewhere. It is though an Amazon problem and not an Evohome one. Not sure of the answer other than very very careful consideration of what you really want Echo to operate and the names to apply. It would be nice if SmartThings was all embracing so you just loaded that into Echo. By the way I note Evohome still can't be added to SmartThings.

        Comment

        • radar2016
          Automated Home Jr Member
          • Mar 2016
          • 43

          #49
          I find all this puzzling ,If you require ALEXA to do something unless she asks you a question you must preface it with "ALEXA" yet there are times when she wakes up seemingly by herself, as we have no close neighbours it cannot be that she heard another voice.

          With regard to the BBC News had you used that previous and then told her to STOP, I was playing music told her to stop, some time later she continued playing from where it left off.

          I think it has a way to go before she can be taken seriously, perhaps a link to IFTTT, in the mean time it is a bit of fun

          Comment

          • G4RHL
            Automated Home Legend
            • Jan 2015
            • 1580

            #50
            Yes, I had been using her to listen to the BBC News but that was at 17:30 the night before and I stopped her at 18:00. She stayed shut up until 04:00 a.m. when on her own she activated the news again. What I would not want her to do is increase the temperature in a room in the early hours of her own volition. The potential to do that seems to be there though. Were someone to instruct her to "switch the iron on" etc. then one sees the risk that could lie ahead if that is the last instructions and she activates it. Not that I would even consider having such a function but I am sure there are some who would. People do some daft things without thinking.

            Since writing the above I have checked the log in The Alexa app. It shows that the time I asked her to switch the news on was 17:02 and that I asked her to switch off at 17:55 and she did and remained off until the early hours of the next morning. There is nothing in the log after the switch off command to trigger a switch on. I have reported it to Amazon.
            Last edited by G4RHL; 4 December 2016, 11:00 AM. Reason: Additional info

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            • Mavis
              Automated Home Ninja
              • Oct 2014
              • 322

              #51
              Originally posted by G4RHL View Post
              Yes, I had been using her to listen to the BBC News but that was at 17:30 the night before and I stopped her at 18:00. She stayed shut up until 04:00 a.m. when on her own she activated the news again. What I would not want her to do is increase the temperature in a room in the early hours of her own volition. The potential to do that seems to be there though. Were someone to instruct her to "switch the iron on" etc. then one sees the risk that could lie ahead if that is the last instructions and she activates it. Not that I would even consider having such a function but I am sure there are some who would. People do some daft things without thinking.
              The iron situation is a serious possibility. All my work surface kitchen sockets are LWRF and I had noticed last week that one of the free ones was always switched on which was strange, even after knowing that I had switched it off - as usual I was blaming hubby. It turns out that when we had the new boiler fitted, I had moved the kettle temporarily over to the other side of the kitchen, set a timer for the mornings and lazily not set an end time. If anything had inadvertently been plugged into there then potentially there could have been problems. Luckily for me I don't iron

              Comment

              • jzwack-honeywell
                Automated Home Jr Member
                • Jan 2016
                • 36

                #52
                Originally posted by radar2016 View Post

                Getting back to my problem I notice all my devices are listed as "OFFLINE" is this correct, but then why would they be "ONLINE" unless they were being called.
                I'm trying to track down instances of this problem, do you mind sending me a PM with your TCC account email address? I'll look at our Alexa logs and see why we marked your devices as offline in Alexa.
                developer.honeywell.com | I work for Honeywell. API Evangelist. Views are my own.

                Comment

                • victorp1612
                  Automated Home Jr Member
                  • Jun 2016
                  • 24

                  #53
                  Originally posted by jzwack-honeywell View Post
                  I'm trying to track down instances of this problem, do you mind sending me a PM with your TCC account email address? I'll look at our Alexa logs and see why we marked your devices as offline in Alexa.
                  I lost control of my evohome through Alexa and was getting the ' Device x is not responding ' . I disabled and re-enabled the skill, ran a discovery and it's back working.
                  Is this the expected behavior when devices are marked as offline ( Where can I check this ? ) - Happy to PM TCC mail account if needed.
                  Last edited by victorp1612; 9 December 2016, 01:16 PM. Reason: Typo

                  Comment

                  • chrisgare
                    Automated Home Guru
                    • Dec 2013
                    • 182

                    #54
                    Originally posted by jzwack-honeywell View Post
                    I'm trying to track down instances of this problem, do you mind sending me a PM with your TCC account email address? I'll look at our Alexa logs and see why we marked your devices as offline in Alexa.
                    I had this happen a couple of weeks back when all the Evohome actuators wen off-line. Other stuff was OK. It was corrected by disabling the skill and rediscovering the devices. Sorry I can't remember the exact day this occurred.

                    Comment

                    • radar2016
                      Automated Home Jr Member
                      • Mar 2016
                      • 43

                      #55
                      Originally posted by victorp1612 View Post
                      I lost control of my evohome through Alexa and was getting the ' Device x is not responding ' . I disabled and re-enabled the skill, ran a discovery and it's back working.
                      Is this the expected behavior when devices are marked as offline ( Where can I check this ? ) - Hope to PM TCC mail account if needed.
                      Where can I check this ? This is in the Iphone ALEXA app-Home- Smart Home. All found devices are listed if online nothing else appears.( If offline {OFFLINE} is attached to each one.

                      Comment

                      • jzwack-honeywell
                        Automated Home Jr Member
                        • Jan 2016
                        • 36

                        #56
                        Originally posted by victorp1612 View Post
                        I lost control of my evohome through Alexa and was getting the ' Device x is not responding ' . I disabled and re-enabled the skill, ran a discovery and it's back working.
                        Is this the expected behavior when devices are marked as offline ( Where can I check this ? ) - Happy to PM TCC mail account if needed.
                        Yeah, so here is how it works.

                        When you run initial discovery yourself, that's when we register all the names, zones, etc. In the background, Amazon re performs that discovery every so often. Part of that is checking online/offline status. If at that point we show your evohome gateway offline, we mark all the zones offline. You'll see this in your Alexa app where it will say "(Offline)" next to the device name.

                        In theory that should only be temporary, once you clear the alert either they should come back online on the next background scan (every 10-20 minutes or so) or you can press "Discover Devices" again and it should clear.

                        I've tested it working myself (so have many others), but I could have missed some scenario where it doesn't! So any info any of you can provide would be helpful. Specific times are better! That way I can look at our Amazon logs and see exactly what we sent to Alexa. Then hopefully track it down and fix it!!
                        developer.honeywell.com | I work for Honeywell. API Evangelist. Views are my own.

                        Comment

                        • Conseils
                          Automated Home Jr Member
                          • Nov 2014
                          • 31

                          #57
                          I have been attempting to get Alexa to recognise temperatures with decimal points...
                          I have a small study and the overshoot is significant if I can't get decimal temperatures.
                          Alexa 'card' has correctly understood, which points to logic in the Alexa skill on the Honeywell side.

                          Setting the system to Fahrenheit (based on a zero reference of water, and ammonium chloride freezing) really isn't a solution ;-).

                          Cheers

                          P.S. Best Alexa 'Skill' to date in the UK - Really use it to save money, it's even easier than using my own Evohome Raspberry PI web app. server.

                          Comment

                          • forza11
                            Automated Home Lurker
                            • Dec 2016
                            • 4

                            #58
                            I am still on the US alexa service, meaning i can't use the native honeywell skill but i can use IFTTT which I have now configured for some basic tasks with the evohome. Is anybody familair with both and if so, would you recommend the honeywell skill over ifttt in terms of usability? I'm ok with the ifttt commands but they arent really natural (alexa, trigger x), my girlfriend isnt going to use it this way...

                            Comment

                            • Conseils
                              Automated Home Jr Member
                              • Nov 2014
                              • 31

                              #59
                              IFTTT - Alexa

                              It might be hard to say, I can't find IFTTT as a 'Skill' with the UK version of Alexa. So comparison could be tricky by someone UK side.
                              I have read Amazon will now move you over to the UK version if you wish, though I understand you will have to re-establish the skills. You will also loose any Skills that are not registered for use in the UK, which from what I can tell is quite a few; including I believe IFTTT.

                              The Alexa - Honeywell 'Skill' works well and has been solid for us (2 adults and a child).
                              The Named Zone Grouping in the Alexa - Honeywell 'Skill' is really very handy as you can have other named groups. e.g. 'Upstairs' or 'Jill's Settings'....
                              The best bit is as our usage of the house is now dynamic. With one at Uni and another soon to be. So 'Jill's Room' can actually be set quickly to any room she is currently using as an office, as the kids move to Uni and back again! Just awesome, almost like 'Hot Desking' at home. If I can just get Alexa to do it, that would be Icing on the cake.

                              Zone / Room name 'Den' only works if we are very clear with Alexa.
                              Zone / Room name 'Lair' really doesn't work with Alexa reliably (my sons preferred room name).
                              I will probably fool about with some phonetic room spellings to see if I can improve 'Lair' for him.

                              We have to set up the 'Skill' in both 'Adult' accounts in the 'Amazon household'. The child(s) accounts are useless as best I can discern, more of a guest account perhaps. I can see advantages and disadvantages to the two adult accounts in an 'Amazon household'. Advantage is you can have unique names, disadvantage you have to ask which account is active if the names are different. If you only set the Skill up in one account you have to switch to that account. As each Echo or Dot runs largely independently at the moment they remember which account they are set to. Now if you move to a common area though, say the Dining Room you have no idea who has set what account, hence the issue.

                              I think in the main, as the heating system is a household operation and Amazon seem currently configured to individual(s) service(s) there is a clunk or two, as things don't mesh too well occasionally.

                              I would love to get IFTTT going as it would bridge some of the gaps for a while.

                              P.S. I have found Firefox dire with the Echo management App, it effectively hangs after a couple of minutes. In around 14 years, this will be the first time I recommend using Microsoft Edge for something for a while at least :-(

                              Conseils - Possibly an Echo - Evohome Evangelist..... ;-)
                              Echo, Dots, Pi's, Evohome and other bits

                              Originally posted by forza11 View Post
                              I am still on the US alexa service, meaning i can't use the native honeywell skill but i can use IFTTT which I have now configured for some basic tasks with the evohome. Is anybody familair with both and if so, would you recommend the honeywell skill over ifttt in terms of usability? I'm ok with the ifttt commands but they arent really natural (alexa, trigger x), my girlfriend isnt going to use it this way...
                              Last edited by Conseils; 10 December 2016, 04:18 PM. Reason: Typo

                              Comment

                              • Conseils
                                Automated Home Jr Member
                                • Nov 2014
                                • 31

                                #60
                                P.S. I would think the Alexa - Honeywell 'Skill' is in the US version as well.
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                                P.P.S. I noticed you can change the Language now between English (UK), English (US) and German in the Settings | Language option of the Alexa App...
                                Perhaps this the 'Skill' and the voice are all you really wanted?

                                From what I read this is not the same as changing the devices registered Locale. Changing the local had to be done 'manually', at least for the moment.
                                Of course that could change, due to data protection and other legal framework influences. 'Caveat emptor' though....
                                Last edited by Conseils; 10 December 2016, 04:38 PM. Reason: Added Honeywell.com link

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