Cortex voice control using Amazon Echo

[chris_j_hunter]

Neil -

just had a quick look into AWS Lambda, via ...

http://docs.aws.amazon.com/lambda/la...g/welcome.html

did your four hours or so include getting to grips with it for the first time, as a novice, or were you already into it ... ? ?

just trying to gauge how long we might need !

last experience of such things was with the Met.Office DataPoint facility - which took a while, especially the overlay side of things, 'though seemed all v.easy once did get into it ...

Chris

[spellinn]

Neil -

just had a quick look into AWS Lambda, via ...

http://docs.aws.amazon.com/lambda/la...g/welcome.html
did your four hours or so include getting to grips with it for the first time, as a novice, or were you already into it ... ? ?

It was my first time, plus I've never programmed in Python before (I do know C, PHP etc), so there's been a small learning curve on the syntax differences. The Echo SmartHome SDK provides some Lamba templates you can use to get going quickly.

Once I have something resembling a fully working skill I'm happy to upload the code to Github so others can reuse it.

There will be some changes that Idratek will need to make to their API support for it to be provided as a downloadable "marketplace" skill for Echo..mainly allowing Oath2 authentication tokens against the WebAPI, plus a way of registering your API endpoint address so the Lambda code knows where to send the API calls.

It's still very early days though.

Cheers

Neil

[chris_j_hunter]

that would be good ...

we've learnt that interacting with Cortex in various ways is a good thing - flexibility, for freedom of action in various circumstances ...

showed your video to SWMBO, and the BBC one on 'Echo, and got a positive response ...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-37356534

Chris

[chris_j_hunter]

Neil -

any news, any more successes ?

have been watching the EvoHome / Echo thread in the Heating Control forum - seems less than smooth, 'though perhaps for a range of reasons ...

Chris

[spellinn]

Neil -

any news, any more successes ?

have been watching the EvoHome / Echo thread in the Heating Control forum - seems less than smooth, 'though perhaps for a range of reasons ...

Chris

Decided to resurrect my initial PoC code as we now have an Echo on every floor so voice control of Cortex is becoming an increasing nice to have.

Amazon have made some useful additional to the Smarthome API since I last looked at this which will simplify the bridge between the Amazon and Cortex APIs.

Will hopefully post back some useful working code here at some point.

Regards

Neil

[chris_j_hunter]

can well imagine multiple Echo could be useful ... our automation of lights, taps, heating, machines, etc, all works fine, generally, but being able to cover exceptions via voice would be very handy - as when occasionally not wanting lights to come on when enter a room (someone dozing, say), or wanting a jug rather than a bucket filled with water, or extra bath water when soaking away, etc, etc ...

looking forward to code examples - it being much easier to adjust than write anew, especially when starting from scratch !

one query - is communication to / from Cortex via WiFi, or hardwired ... and, if the former, does it give issues ... ask because we have tablets communicating with Cortex via WiFi, and lock-ups are more than seldom - cure is always to simply off / on the tablet's WiFi connection, but has to be done manually ... our feeling is it's an Android WiFi issue, rather than Cortex, but it's difficult to be sure ...

Chris

[spellinn]

one query - is communication to / from Cortex via WiFi, or hardwired ... and, if the former, does it give issues ... ask because we have tablets communicating with Cortex via WiFi, and lock-ups are more than seldom - cure is always to simply off / on the tablet's WiFi connection, but has to be done manually ... our feeling is it's an Android WiFi issue, rather than Cortex, but it's difficult to be sure ...

Chris

The communication to Cortex from the Amazon cloud is via your internet router, so whether its WiFi or hard-wired will depend on how the PC Cortex is running on connects to your home network.

My Corex PC uses WiFi and I dont have any issues or latency.

Cheers

Neil

[chris_j_hunter]

thanks ...

we do find WiFi fragile - our set-up includes several Android tablets & their cameras, iOS devices, laptops, desktop, and the Cortex PC, all going via three Devolo WiFi hubs on a dLan network, and via a Genexis router ... and, every month or two or three, we find we have to manually off / on the router and/or the dLan hub and/or the Wifi hubs ...

our impression is all issues are related to inadequate buffer management, leading to jams, in one or other of those devices ... but who knows !

and most times we off / on any of those, we find we also have to off / on the WiFi connection on some or many of the tablets ...

there's lots of variation in what & when & how-often, so it seems to be impossible to get a clear view of what the problem is ...

on top of which the Cortex PC WiFi connection now & then becomes what it calls Limited, or just plain disconnects ... no idea what Limited means (Googling hasn't helped), or why the disconnect ... either happens very irregularly - several times in as many days, through to not for months & months ...

we do have an Ethernet network, but the darned fans in the switches are just too noisy, plus the tablets can only connect via WiFi ...

[AikenDrum]

Hi,
I've also been busy hooking up Idratek to Alexa and it is working fairly well, even setting lights by percentage - the Smart Home skill helps. Also means that I can use Alexa schedules to trigger idratek and others with the same alarm.
I've had to hard code my IP address and login - would be great to get oAuth support or even some way to pull data from an alexa list - happy to share code if any interest.
Cheers
A

[M.Harrison]

Hi all - I'm looking for info relating to using my Alexa with my Cortex - Can anyone please offer any advice