Breakiing news: UK Amazon Echo works with Evohome!

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  • Conseils
    Automated Home Jr Member
    • Nov 2014
    • 31

    #91
    Sad to hear you had issues.

    We, four of us at the moment as the kid(s) are home from University, use Alexa and our Evohome Honeywell Skill.

    She works beautifully and all the time with no drop out, misses or unexpected behaviours (other than my 0.5C query ).
    We have a number of custom zone names set up which is just fantastic and now with 4 users it's really getting a work out.

    If it helps, our configuration is:
    BT Internet >75 MBps
    Netgear R8000 X6 Tri-band router
    1 Echo and 3 Dots
    Obviously the Honeywell gateway and Evohome with multiple valves

    Alexa struggles with the following named zones for us which no doubt is down to our particular dialect of English...
    Den
    Lair
    No problems with custom [Room/Zones] Upstairs, Downstairs and so on, added to the skill

    No fault of the Honeywell system of course that. As we work with (train) Alexa no doubt she (and we) will get better and better!


    Try listening to the 'Cards' and approving and rejecting as appropriate. I understand this assists with the training process of Alexa. It will also help you understand the room acoustics.

    I found, by accident with the youngest, that placing Echo DOT on an Ikea Billy Shelf is a sure way to stop it understanding anything! From the instructions I understand ("at least eight inches from any walls and windows") they need to be clear of walls and other surrounding reflecting surfaces. Though my Echo is 10 CM from one LCD monitor and 30 CM from another in a small room. Perhaps the open front aspect and softer plastic face on these items is easier on the acoustics than hard reflecting windows, walls or wooden box of a Billy shelf.

    Hope this helps?

    Originally posted by DBMandrake View Post
    Any advice on how to get IFTTT connected to Alexa ?

    After an hour playing around with the official Honeywell Alexa Skill on the echo dot I've sadly come to the conclusion that it's just not usable at the moment.

    Too many limitations and problems. For example:

    I made a group called All Rooms and when I ask Alexa to make a change to that group, not only does it take a long time and painfully adjust each zone one at a time with separate requests, more often than not one of the 6 zones fails to change, with an "Alert: Failed Zone Change" email cheerfully delivered to my inbox...

    In the hour that I was testing I received no less than 5 failed zone change alerts - so it's pretty unreliable. I've also been unable to figure out the correct wording to activate a quick action, and am aware that there is currently no way to cancel an override.

    Yet another problem was some overrides I made (including an all zones one) simply appeared not to work - Alexa said "OK" after the command but nothing changed on the controller, at least within 5-10 minutes.

    Then about half an hour later I noticed that all my zones were running at 20 degrees because it had belatedly actioned my all zones to 20 degree command at least 15 minutes late. Whoops.

    So, not useful to me as it stands, and I'm glad I only paid for an echo dot not an echo... (Spotify support is very good though, so it will get good use for that if nothing else, and I'm sure other skills will be found that are useful in the future)

    I think I'll give the IFTTT support a try instead as a bridge, if I can figure out how to connect it to Alexa...
    Last edited by Conseils; 19 December 2016, 02:43 PM.

    Comment

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

      #92
      Originally posted by Conseils View Post

      I found, by accident with the youngest, that placing Echo DOT on an Ikea Billy Shelf is a sure way to stop it understanding anything! From the instructions I understand ("at least eight inches from any walls and windows") they need to be clear of walls and other surrounding reflecting surfaces. Though my Echo is 10 CM from one LCD monitor and 30 CM from another in a small room. Perhaps the open front aspect and softer plastic face on these items is easier on the acoustics than hard reflecting windows, walls or wooden box of a Billy shelf.

      I've heard this a few times, and it's something they don't really mention as far as I've seen. But someone from Amazon has mentioned before that a high echo environment can sometimes cause problems as you mentioned.
      developer.honeywell.com | I work for Honeywell. API Evangelist. Views are my own.

      Comment

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

        #93
        One more update on the issues some of you are having with the skill "dropping out" and things not responding.

        I think I've narrowed down the problem, but it might be until after the 1st of the year until I can get it really solved, or at least minimized.

        In the meantime, if you experience the issue still, please continue to send me a PM with the approximate time you notice it and the email of your Honeywell account. It continues to help me prove my theory.

        For now to fix it, just unlink and re-link the skill as you have been doing.
        developer.honeywell.com | I work for Honeywell. API Evangelist. Views are my own.

        Comment

        • Conseils
          Automated Home Jr Member
          • Nov 2014
          • 31

          #94
          I noted the television advertisement for the Amazon Echo uses a high degree of 'Echo'.

          With my unit only 30 cm away I had anticipated it would kick in every time they use the wakeup word 'Alexa'.
          It turns out the Echo only activates on the last instance. So clearly they did do some (probably much) testing to make sure it didn't accidentally trigger during broadcast of the advert.

          P.S. not had the skill drop out to date (touches wooden desk). I will keep an eye on it over the next two weeks and drop you a message if it occurs.

          Comment

          • Mavis
            Automated Home Ninja
            • Oct 2014
            • 322

            #95
            Originally posted by jzwack-honeywell View Post
            One more update on the issues some of you are having with the skill "dropping out" and things not responding.

            I think I've narrowed down the problem, but it be until after the 1st of the year until I can get it really solved, or at least minimized.

            In the meantime, if you experience the issue still, please continue to send me a PM with the approximate time you notice it and the email of your Honeywell account. It continues to help me prove my theory.

            For now to fix it, just unlink and re-link the skill as you have been doing.
            You have already got my contact details but shortly after I messaged you, it dropped again. I will today unlink and relink again and see how long it lasts again.

            Comment

            • radar2016
              Automated Home Jr Member
              • Mar 2016
              • 43

              #96
              (For now to fix it, just unlink and re-link the skill as you have been doing.)

              I noticed my system had dropped out at around 4.00pm today.

              Comment

              • adamski
                Automated Home Lurker
                • Apr 2015
                • 8

                #97
                Amazon wouldn't let me post this review for Alexa / Evohome

                so I'll do it here instead...

                Alexa- you need a good talking too.

                Alexa, why aren't the devices responding? you and I are going to fall out soon. You and evohome are being unreliable and you may need to get a divorce.
                Evohome skill would get a five star review if it wasn't for these spats you two have. Maybe some councelling would help.

                Comment

                • Conseils
                  Automated Home Jr Member
                  • Nov 2014
                  • 31

                  #98
                  Helping Alexa

                  Have you been helping Alexa?

                  Originally posted by adamski View Post
                  so I'll do it here instead...

                  Alexa- you need a good talking too.

                  Alexa, why aren't the devices responding? you and I are going to fall out soon. You and evohome are being unreliable and you may need to get a divorce.
                  Evohome skill would get a five star review if it wasn't for these spats you two have. Maybe some councelling would help.

                  Comment

                  • Conseils
                    Automated Home Jr Member
                    • Nov 2014
                    • 31

                    #99
                    Hi, I think the skill dropped out today UK time at somewhere between 10:00 and 12:00.
                    Alexa says "Sorry the device or group Study is not responding"

                    I could still use my Raspberry Pi and my web interface to set the temperature, as it also logs every 10 minutes. I also know that the system has been up for all 10 minute polls of the system temperatures over the preceeding 24 hours. Internet is still running as I am posting here and Alexa was playing audio from 2 hour sound tack of Birds singing. If the internet drops out she stops playing the track and lets me know she is having problems (A week ago, I upgraded my Netgear router to fix the security hole they kindly popped in it for me and observed this behaviour ).

                    Compliments of the season

                    Cheers Conseils

                    Comment

                    • MrB
                      Automated Home Sr Member
                      • Oct 2015
                      • 80

                      Just to say my Evohome / Alexa link has dropped twice in last week.
                      A Disable/Enable of the Skill got it working again.
                      No settings are lost, and Alexa states devices are Offline.

                      Everything, individually, for Alexa and Evohome works fine.

                      Guess they've had a tiff

                      Comment

                      • Conseils
                        Automated Home Jr Member
                        • Nov 2014
                        • 31

                        Honeywell Total Connect Comfort Skills Drop Out

                        Same again here.

                        It's a real pain when you have two accounts in an Amazon Household. As I understand the configuration at the moment I have to drop the skill and re-attach it to both accounts. To date I have not lost any device names or groups, seems these are stored else where. I discovered this as I have been building some devices to interface directly to my Echo devices via the UPnP protocol with various names and groupings. These seem to behave the same way as the Honeywell Total Connect Comfort device names / groups. hence probably why they are not being lost. As I have 12 additional name / groups I am rather relieved not to have to recreate them.

                        Drop the skill and reconnect seems to fix the issue. Wonder if I can have Alexa do this for me!

                        Originally posted by MrB View Post
                        Just to say my Evohome / Alexa link has dropped twice in last week.
                        A Disable/Enable of the Skill got it working again.
                        No settings are lost, and Alexa states devices are Offline.

                        Everything, individually, for Alexa and Evohome works fine.

                        Guess they've had a tiff

                        Comment

                        • chris_j_hunter
                          Automated Home Legend
                          • Dec 2007
                          • 1713

                          have been watching this thread - very interesting ...

                          hope Google is watching, too, and taking the real life experience into account for their updates ...

                          do updates happen without people having to do anything - imagine they do, because of the cloud approach ... or ?

                          am very tempted to buy an Echo, and get it linked into our HA set-up ...
                          Our self-build - going further with HA...

                          Comment

                          • Conseils
                            Automated Home Jr Member
                            • Nov 2014
                            • 31

                            Alexa and Honeywell Total Connect Comfort Skills Drop Out Again.
                            I took care to check which of the two accounts in the Amazon household it dropped out on this time. It was my wifes Alexa account only, though I use the same Honeywell account for both.

                            Dropped the skill and reconnected it.

                            Comment

                            • g6ejd
                              Automated Home Guru
                              • Oct 2016
                              • 153

                              My Alexa has been running for 6-weeks and has never dropped out, could it be your ISP or WiFi environment. Have you tried re-siting it to see if the problem persists. BTW I have two accounts as well. What I want to know is how Amazon knew it was me when I opened a new Fire and it said are you... Clearly they record IP addresses against accounts.
                              Last edited by g6ejd; 12 January 2017, 12:55 AM.

                              Comment

                              • MrB
                                Automated Home Sr Member
                                • Oct 2015
                                • 80

                                Ditto - dropped again " device is not responding" - everything else in all the different worlds are fine.

                                Comment

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