Quote Originally Posted by gordonb3
I get that. That wasn't the point though. On topic is Phil's Alexa bridge and the suggestion to use Domoticz as an intermediate to communicate with Evohome through any of the supported "hardware". My comment was about the integrated Web API method being unmaintained *and* showing issues due to changed policies on the Honeywell side.


@philchillbill:
I don't know what methods you'd like to implement in your Alexa bridge, what programming language you use and if you can already communicate with Domoticz, but I have a project named dzEvo on GitHub that allows specifying zone names rather than numeric IDs as well as alternate methods for specifying setpoint and `until` time. Maybe you could use (parts of) it to get a jump start.
Thanks for the offer, much appreciated. I already have two skills for Alexa running in my personal account for about 2 years now. One is a custom skill written in nodejs and using my own nodejs bindings to the TCC API. The other is a Smart Home skill written in Python that interfaces with Domoticz through JSON calls and controls my Evohome setup through the HGI-80 integration in Domoticz. I wrote those Python bindings myself as they talk to Domoticz and not TCC.

I originally planned on releasing the custom one as it allows changing and querying schedules by voice and supports scenes. However, the lack of my own API key from Resideo to date has stopped me as I'm not investing more time into a dead end. Also, the 'worry' that a spoken command might not make it to the TCC cloud because of some token or comms glitch always looms and a skill only has 8 sec by definition to do its thing and die, so there's no hanging around to retry. Downside of custom skills is also that the whole voice model has to be handcrafted so it would have been en-US and en-GB only.

The advantage of having Domoticz in the loop is that there is a command buffer between Alexa and TCC as it were. Domoticz can do the TCC comms retrying if need be. When I originally did the Smart Home skill via Domoticz the potential commands were more limited compared to my custom skill (but still MUCH better than the Resideo skill) but some time back Amazon introduced the Toggle, Mode and Range Controller Interfaces and they are actually quite versatile so I've added per-zone mode controls and also scenes. With the advantage that Smart Home skills support any spoken language that I write up an Amazon store-description for (which is a *lot* less work than translating a voice model).

I already have a live account-linking oauth flow that I wrote myself for my 2 published skills MediaServer and LMS-lite (for Logitech Media Server) so that concept can be hijacked for an Evohome skill too. By targeting the Domoticz interface to Evohome I avoid TCC altogether when a HGI-80 or one of the homebrew RF equivalents is used. That's a smaller user base but at least it removes depending on the whims of Resideo. I'll put it together in the next few weeks and then ask here for a few beta testers.

Cheers again!