Alexa and Evohome

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  • mtmcgavock
    Automated Home Legend
    • Mar 2017
    • 507

    Alexa and Evohome

    Alexa is all paired up and working correctly; I know you can use it to do basic commands.

    Is there anyway to get Alexa to boost a zone for a period of time, say Bathroom to 25oc for X amount of minutes?

    Or can you do something through IFTTT?

    Want to set up a routine ideally so Alexa will do so many things at once.
  • garymtitley
    Automated Home Sr Member
    • Feb 2019
    • 59

    #2
    I have mine set up with Alexa,I just say Alexa set bathroom to 21 degrees,for example,it works.Never tried to set it for a time period,should work but not sure.

    Comment

    • DBMandrake
      Automated Home Legend
      • Sep 2014
      • 2361

      #3
      The Alexa integration can only set a basic override - eg until the next scheduled set point. You can't set a custom end time, nor cancel the override. (You can only override it back to the original temperature, but it still counts as an override for things like optimal start or optimal stop)

      To do a custom timed override you'll need something else. I don't think the IFFFT integration can do overrides with specific end times either.

      Comment

      • philchillbill
        Automated Home Legend
        • Jan 2017
        • 590

        #4
        The Alexa.ThermostatController Interface supports a schedule object with an 'until' or 'for' appended to the command. See https://developer.amazon.com/en-US/d...ontroller.html. I don't use the Resideo skill for TCC as I have my own Alexa skill that controls Evohome via a HGI-80 and I support this possibility because it's trivial to do so. I can also cancel this timed override with 'Alexa, resume thermostat schedule' which is also supported by the Interface.

        Are you sure Resideo don't support this? Their docs are (of course) lacking, but maybe the command is there nevertheless. Try "Set livingroom to 20 deg for an hour" and see if it tells you it's supported.

        Comment

        • mtmcgavock
          Automated Home Legend
          • Mar 2017
          • 507

          #5
          Originally posted by philchillbill View Post
          The Alexa.ThermostatController Interface supports a schedule object with an 'until' or 'for' appended to the command. See https://developer.amazon.com/en-US/d...ontroller.html. I don't use the Resideo skill for TCC as I have my own Alexa skill that controls Evohome via a HGI-80 and I support this possibility because it's trivial to do so. I can also cancel this timed override with 'Alexa, resume thermostat schedule' which is also supported by the Interface.

          Are you sure Resideo don't support this? Their docs are (of course) lacking, but maybe the command is there nevertheless. Try "Set livingroom to 20 deg for an hour" and see if it tells you it's supported.
          I've tried that, unfortunately it doesn't support it. Back to the drawing board.

          Comment

          • philchillbill
            Automated Home Legend
            • Jan 2017
            • 590

            #6
            Originally posted by mtmcgavock
            I've tried that, unfortunately it doesn't support it. Back to the drawing board.
            Bummer. I find that because I have the capability here and because it is instant (the HGI-80 does not have to wait for the TCC cloud to update things) I use it a lot.

            I was planning on releasing a custom skill for Evohome that would add many voice commands not supported by Resideo but am still waiting for an API key which I have all but given up on. What I could do instead is release a full-capability Smart Home skill that would rely on Domoticz controlling Evohome rather than doing this itself. I use a HGI-80 with Domoticz myself but it should also work with the web method or any of the homebrew RF solutions.

            This would support timed overrrides/boosts, setting all system modes, and even scenes: 'Alexa, activate bedtime' where you could define in the description field of a Domoticz scene what zones/setpoints that translates to. In other words, in the description field you add something like "bedroom1 20.5; bedroom2 20.0; bathroom 22.0; 15 mins." This is not actually performed by Domoticz, but the Domoticz UI is 'hijacked' so that during discovery, the name of the scene and those settings are loaded by the skill. The skill then sends a sequence of separate Evohome commands to Domoticz when you activate that scene by voice and these commands correspond with those settings. You could also have commands to e.g. lower or raise all zones by X deg for a certain duration. In the Smart Home paradigm, the possibilities are more limited than in the custom paradigm but the Alexa.ModeController and Alexa.ToggleController are quite flexible. I already have concepts like 'occupied' and 'vacant' as voice mappings to boost/lower zone temps for an hour so as not to always have to say "for an hour" or "for 60 minutes".

            Is this worth the effort? In other words, are most of the nerds on this forum also Domoticz users and Alexa owners? I already have a proven account-linking setup that's live with my published MediaServer skill that could be extended for this skill so I have all the pieces of the jigsaw and would just have to assemble it for a greater public.

            Comment

            • Lorrainem77
              Automated Home Lurker
              • Dec 2018
              • 2

              #7
              Originally posted by mtmcgavock View Post
              Alexa is all paired up and working correctly; I know you can use it to do basic commands.

              Is there anyway to get Alexa to boost a zone for a period of time, say Bathroom to 25oc for X amount of minutes?

              Or can you do something through IFTTT?

              Want to set up a routine ideally so Alexa will do so many things at once.
              You could use the Alexa routines to set the zone temperature, wait for the set period, and then set it back to another configured temperature. The drawback being the temperatures are fixed, so there is no "resume" to the schedule or back to the previous set point.

              Screenshot_20200915-223151_Amazon Alexa.jpg

              Comment

              • paulockenden
                Automated Home Legend
                • Apr 2015
                • 1719

                #8
                Originally posted by philchillbill View Post
                Is this worth the effort?
                Big time! I'd certainly use it.

                Comment

                • mtmcgavock
                  Automated Home Legend
                  • Mar 2017
                  • 507

                  #9
                  Originally posted by Lorrainem77 View Post
                  You could use the Alexa routines to set the zone temperature, wait for the set period, and then set it back to another configured temperature. The drawback being the temperatures are fixed, so there is no "resume" to the schedule or back to the previous set point.

                  [ATTACH=CONFIG]1602[/ATTACH]
                  That looks like not a bad easy solution. I shall give it a try

                  Just need them smart blinds now.....

                  Comment

                  • gordonb3
                    Automated Home Ninja
                    • Dec 2016
                    • 273

                    #10
                    Originally posted by philchillbill View Post
                    I was planning on releasing a custom skill for Evohome that would add many voice commands not supported by Resideo but am still waiting for an API key which I have all but given up on. What I could do instead is release a full-capability Smart Home skill that would rely on Domoticz controlling Evohome rather than doing this itself. I use a HGI-80 with Domoticz myself but it should also work with the web method or any of the homebrew RF solutions.
                    Just a note, the Web API method in Domoticz is near to being broken and as I've given up supporting the Domoticz port of my (old version) library it's just a matter of time before it will completely seize.

                    Comment

                    • philchillbill
                      Automated Home Legend
                      • Jan 2017
                      • 590

                      #11
                      Originally posted by gordonb3
                      Just a note, the Web API method in Domoticz is near to being broken and as I've given up supporting the Domoticz port of my (old version) library it's just a matter of time before it will completely seize.
                      Thanks for the heads-up. What is it about it that's nearly broken? Doesn't it just run the well-known TCC API calls under the hood?

                      Comment

                      • gordonb3
                        Automated Home Ninja
                        • Dec 2016
                        • 273

                        #12
                        Originally posted by philchillbill View Post
                        Thanks for the heads-up. What is it about it that's nearly broken? Doesn't it just run the well-known TCC API calls under the hood?
                        Yep.

                        Currently broken is the higher temperature resolution which is due to Honeywell having changed some of the responses on v1 API and at the same time having stripped the applied API key of its right to keep a session alive - i.e. you need to login again after a certain amount of time and the current implementation in Domoticz fails to detect correctly that the session is no longer valid.

                        About to break is the EMEA aka v2 API which is again related to API key rights. There's a new key but you can't simply swap it because it uses translated fields for both output and input.

                        Comment

                        • DBMandrake
                          Automated Home Legend
                          • Sep 2014
                          • 2361

                          #13
                          Originally posted by gordonb3 View Post
                          Yep.
                          Currently broken is the higher temperature resolution which is due to Honeywell having changed some of the responses on v1 API
                          Are you sure ? I'm still receiving high resolution temperature readings using the V1 API with Evohome python bindings. I use it for my graphing.
                          About to break is the EMEA aka v2 API which is again related to API key rights. There's a new key but you can't simply swap it because it uses translated fields for both output and input.
                          Ergh... where did you find this out ? Do you know if watchforstock is aware of this to update the Python bindings when the time comes ? (Still seems to be working at the moment, although I don't actively use the V2 API as I don't use any control functionality that would benefit from it)

                          Comment

                          • philchillbill
                            Automated Home Legend
                            • Jan 2017
                            • 590

                            #14
                            Originally posted by gordonb3
                            There's a new key but you can't simply swap it because it uses translated fields for both output and input.
                            Have you found this out by trial and error or did somebody at Resideo tip you off? Rather silly of them to break this with no likely reason other than to mess things up for the maker community. They benefit indirectly from the (free) development efforts of the open source community as it all goes towards making Evohome a more attractive product overall. Rather than hampering us they should be removing barriers...

                            Comment

                            • gordonb3
                              Automated Home Ninja
                              • Dec 2016
                              • 273

                              #15
                              Originally posted by DBMandrake View Post
                              Are you sure ? I'm still receiving high resolution temperature readings using the V1 API with Evohome python bindings. I use it for my graphing.
                              Yes, I'm sure. Session renewal right was stripped last December and I submitted a fix for that issue when the errors started popping up. Three months later they changed the HTTP return code on the explicit session renewal request and that causes the module to fail and keep trying to use the expired session ID. The fix to this never made it to Domoticz main line.

                              Originally posted by DBMandrake View Post
                              Ergh... where did you find this out ? Do you know if watchforstock is aware of this to update the Python bindings when the time comes ? (Still seems to be working at the moment, although I don't actively use the V2 API as I don't use any control functionality that would benefit from it)
                              The new API key is already in watchforstock's python binding. He got it from Joe Zwack who also submitted the necessary changes to correct for the renamed fields and values. As I was to receive my own API key I did not copy it at the time and kept using the one that watchforstock used before that time as well. I never did receive that key though and as communicating with the Domoticz project owner was already troublesome I decided to leave it as is because it actually works for most but somehow it is starting to block new users more frequently and consistently.

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