EvoControl - custom Alexa skill for Evohome

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  • philchillbill
    Automated Home Legend
    • Jan 2017
    • 590

    #31
    I'm at a point where it would be pretty easy to add support for multiple locations but I'd need a beta tester for that. Any volunteers?

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    • philchillbill
      Automated Home Legend
      • Jan 2017
      • 590

      #32
      EvoControl now handles multiple locations. Upon first-run (or whenever you use the update-configuration command), all locations returned by TCC are 'discovered'.
      Schedule 'A' automatic backup covers all your locations.

      Some example commands:

      Alexa, list my locations
      Alexa, select location 2

      When you have more than one location, a new button is added to the bottom right of the dashboard which allows location-selection by touch inputs.

      When you only have a single location, for privacy purposes the location address is not retrieved and you are only told you have 'a single location' when you list.

      All locations have full capability as regards schedules, activities/scenes, etc. However, a default zone association for the Echo you are speaking to is only possible for a single location (by design).

      Comment

      • philchillbill
        Automated Home Legend
        • Jan 2017
        • 590

        #33
        Amazon automatically kills all beta programmes after 90 days so the beta for EvoControl will end within the next 2 weeks. Many thanks to those who participated ! Please make sure the schedule data you have loaded to TCC is the data you'd like to be 'stuck with' when the skill goes offline Any feedback or suggestions for features/improvements is most welcome.

        What remains before this goes live in time for the Autumn/Winter heating season is to translate it fully to both German and French (at a minimum) and possibly Spanish/Italian. Any assistance from native speakers willing to help out is most welcome !

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        • philchillbill
          Automated Home Legend
          • Jan 2017
          • 590

          #34
          EvoControl is now fully translated into German — the website at https://smartskills.tech/evocontrol shows screenshots and example commands in German as well as English.

          I've opened a new beta (because I had a kind offer from somebody to test the multi-location capability) so if anybody wants to try it in German then let me know. I've written a full simulation environment for the skill so it can be tested with a JSON-sink and you won't even have to control your 'own' zones (useful, given that it's not exactly central-heating season currently).

          Comment

          • nealroberts20
            Automated Home Jr Member
            • Nov 2015
            • 17

            #35
            Evo control desktop screen also working on my Meta 10’ screen Portal (with built in Alexa).

            Comment

            • philchillbill
              Automated Home Legend
              • Jan 2017
              • 590

              #36
              The Undo command can now:
              • Undo a switchpoint-insertion when editing schedules by voice (this was the original/sole capability).
              • Revert things after a ChangeSetpoint command. So if you say "Alexa, make it 20 deg in the Office until 5 PM" and realise you meant the Garage and not the Office, "Alexa, undo" (and then of course issue the correct command).
              • Revert things after incorrect scene/activity activation. If you say "Alexa, activate WatchTV" and realise you really meant to activate "Bedtime", "Alexa, undo" (and then of course issue the correct command).

              Comment

              • nealroberts20
                Automated Home Jr Member
                • Nov 2015
                • 17

                #37
                Philchillbill - hoping my beta will last until the heating goes on! - so not really had a play with it so far unfortunately.

                Only thing I’ve noticed - portal can be used in landscape or portrait - evo control view/screen in portrait is just shown in landscape in centre of the screen at smaller scale rather than alter layout to suit new screen ratio - probably quite a bit of work involved in allowing for this change - but just thought I’d mention it so you’re aware.

                Looks great though, and will most definitely be up for joining when it goes live. 👍

                Comment

                • philchillbill
                  Automated Home Legend
                  • Jan 2017
                  • 590

                  #38
                  Originally posted by nealroberts20 View Post
                  ...portal can be used in landscape or portrait...
                  Can you try a command or 2 first in landscape and then again in portrait so I can see in the logs how Amazon is reporting the viewport profile for the portal? If it's correctly reported then I can certainly have a go at a portrait mode. The tiles on the screen are parameterised (by me) anyway for different landscape sizes so should not be too much work to handle portrait too.

                  Comment

                  • nealroberts20
                    Automated Home Jr Member
                    • Nov 2015
                    • 17

                    #39
                    Sure- done. Also emailed you a photo of what it currently looks like in portrait mode. 👍

                    Comment

                    • philchillbill
                      Automated Home Legend
                      • Jan 2017
                      • 590

                      #40
                      Originally posted by nealroberts20 View Post
                      Sure- done. Also emailed you a photo of what it currently looks like in portrait mode. 👍
                      Thanks. Unfortunately, the device is reporting HUB-LANDSCAPE-LARGE regardless of the orientation so I cannot detect when it's in PORTRAIT mode. Do other skills/apps resize/re-orientate correctly by any chance?

                      I'll keep an eye on this as Amazon might fix it in a firmware update for your device. In the past, other devices also reported wrongly and they have since been fixed.

                      Comment

                      • nealroberts20
                        Automated Home Jr Member
                        • Nov 2015
                        • 17

                        #41
                        Ah well, I appreciate you having a look - thanks.

                        Comment

                        • philchillbill
                          Automated Home Legend
                          • Jan 2017
                          • 590

                          #42
                          Zone display order now editable



                          EvoControl now has a button in the settings-screen footer that allows you to set and save the display-order for the tiles on the dashboard/activity screens.

                          Rather than dragging tiles around or tapping arrows, your choice is registered by tapping tiles in sequence to move them from an unset-row (bottom) to a set-row (top). When all tiles are in the top row, the SAVE button is enabled. There's a back-to-dashboard button to just abandon without saving. It's quite intuitive but any feedback from the beta testers is welcome.

                          If you have DHW then it will always be the first tile as that's its 'home spot' by design. Also, any offline TRVs will always be shown at the end of your dash, regardless of the requested ordering. Otherwise the new order will always be used.
                          Last edited by philchillbill; 10 September 2022, 05:12 PM.

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                          • philchillbill
                            Automated Home Legend
                            • Jan 2017
                            • 590

                            #43
                            EvoControl can now control Evohome via RF




                            EvoControl can now make use of a HGI-80 (or equivalent, e.g. SSM(R) or nanoCUL) connected via Domoticz to perform all skill tasks that are not schedule related (they don't work via RF, unfortunately). This means that you can use Alexa to control Evohome even when the TCC service is down. It also gives you the benefit of higher-precision zone temperatures (accurate to 0.1 deg instead of 0.5).

                            The account-linking page for the skill now has a tickbox for "I have a HGI-80 and Domoticz". If selected, 3 new fields appear on the form to allow you to enter a https URL that points to your Domoticz, plus the username and password for the associated proxy. The URL will normally be a DNS name pointing to a reverse-proxy via e.g. Apache or nginx but it can also be e.g. ngrok. Note that when you attempt to submit the form, my back-end will first verify that Domoticz responds correctly and also that it reports a connected USB device controlling Evohome. Unless it all checks out, the skill will not link.

                            As a one-time action, you will need to assign your Evohome zones (plus dhw if you have it) and the Controller Mode device (Evotouch) all to a Domoticz roomplan named 'EvoControl' (or 'Thermostats', your choice). During config refresh, EvoControl will always query Domoticz for any potential changes to that roomplan so if you get it wrong you have a reprieve.

                            When using RF, the skill's dashboard is populated by querying the device-list for that roomplan and mapping the returned Domoticz JSON to a data-structure that matches your usual TCC dashboard JSON 1:1. When controlling zone(s), the individual zone/Evotouch idxes as reported during discovery are used. It's all nice and snappy because RF/Domoticz will always be more responsive than TCC. The only downside is that Domoticz does not report the Until time for Controller Mode when set to either Eco or Away (which is strange, because it does report the Until for zone-overrides). So you will see the mode reported correctly on the skill's dashboard, but not for how long it is set if it's not permanent. Note this only affects displaying data and you can still set a time-restricted system-mode via the HGI-80.

                            If anybody wants to beta-test, let me know!
                            Last edited by philchillbill; 10 September 2022, 05:22 PM. Reason: New screenshot

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                            • philchillbill
                              Automated Home Legend
                              • Jan 2017
                              • 590

                              #44
                              EvoControl now has graphing capabilities



                              When connected via a HGI-80 or equivalent RF device, EvoControl can now draw temperature charts for each of your zones (setpoint / actual) for the past 24-hours. There's a new icon button that appears at the lower-right of the main dashboard screen that you first tap to set the normal tile-tap mode to 'graph' instead of 'schedule'. Then tap on a zone's tile to see the graph.

                              You can also ask for graphs by voice (e.g. "Alexa, show the Livingroom Graph") and can move sequentially to your next zone by saying "Alexa, Next".

                              This relies on Domoticz storing 5-minute snapshots of the actual/setpoint for each zone which it does by default. It could be done without a HGI-80/Domoticz by my back-end which could poll TCC every 10 minutes from a separate AWS Lambda instance and store the retrieved data in a database. I'd be interested in hearing if there's any interest in that.

                              There's a video demo at
                              The EvoControl custom skill can plot actual/setpoint temperatures over the last 24 hours when you have a HGI-80 in use.


                              Last edited by philchillbill; 5 February 2023, 11:09 PM.

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                              • philchillbill
                                Automated Home Legend
                                • Jan 2017
                                • 590

                                #45
                                User credentials no longer needed



                                EvoControl now has its own API key which can refresh indefinitely, meaning I can do a "normal" oauth flow to get user-accounts linked without any need to know/store login credentials.
                                That was necessary during the initial beta because the community API key requires a full login every 15 minutes.

                                In the new flow, I redirect you to a Resideo-owned login page (see above) where you authorize access to your system from the named 'app' EvoControl. This is all working well. I'm in the process of adding single sign-on using "Login with Amazon" so that the skill can be both installed and linked directly from my website (so-called app-to-app account linking). It should even make voice-forward account-linking (new!) possible where you just have to tell Alexa you want to link EvoControl (after having completed the Resideo flow, naturally). When that's working I'll close the current beta and start a fresh one so people can test the shiny new flow.

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