Api
@Rameses: One thing I'd love to get closure on is 'formalising' the API.
I write Alexa skills for a living and I want to release a non-affiliated skill to control Evohome, but I don't want to put in the development effort if an unofficial API key can be revoked at any moment. The official Alexa support to date is very basic. You can query the setpoint/actual and adjust the setpoint and that's it. With my skill you can edit and query schedules, save and restore entire named schedule-blocks (to e.g. switch between a day-shift and night-shift), delay or pull forward things like going to bed or getting up (Alexa, delay bedtime by 20 mins; Alexa, I want an early rise tomorrow by 45 mins). There's a concept of scenes, which simply map to named setpoint groups (Alexa, activate watching TV). Plus some energy-saving helpers like Alexa, what rooms have heat demand? It's all user customisable and groups/scenes can all be named to the customer's desire (by voice). If you have more than one Echo then you can omit the zone name in the command as there is an 'assumed' default zone for each Echo unless a specific zone is named in the command.
None of this is rocket science - in the end, the skill code just queries and modifies the JSON data that's already sitting in the Resideo cloud. But it does clever things with that data in a manner that's really easy for a customer to use. It's a custom skill rather than the smart home skill that Resideo provides for Evohome, which explains why it can do a lot more. I'd like to make it available under a freemium model if an API key is a realistic proposition. The API is 'there' anyway and it's used under the hood by the Android and iPhone apps. Surely it's low hanging fruit for Resideo to leverage that API investment and open Evohome/TCC to the maker community?
@Rameses: One thing I'd love to get closure on is 'formalising' the API.
I write Alexa skills for a living and I want to release a non-affiliated skill to control Evohome, but I don't want to put in the development effort if an unofficial API key can be revoked at any moment. The official Alexa support to date is very basic. You can query the setpoint/actual and adjust the setpoint and that's it. With my skill you can edit and query schedules, save and restore entire named schedule-blocks (to e.g. switch between a day-shift and night-shift), delay or pull forward things like going to bed or getting up (Alexa, delay bedtime by 20 mins; Alexa, I want an early rise tomorrow by 45 mins). There's a concept of scenes, which simply map to named setpoint groups (Alexa, activate watching TV). Plus some energy-saving helpers like Alexa, what rooms have heat demand? It's all user customisable and groups/scenes can all be named to the customer's desire (by voice). If you have more than one Echo then you can omit the zone name in the command as there is an 'assumed' default zone for each Echo unless a specific zone is named in the command.
None of this is rocket science - in the end, the skill code just queries and modifies the JSON data that's already sitting in the Resideo cloud. But it does clever things with that data in a manner that's really easy for a customer to use. It's a custom skill rather than the smart home skill that Resideo provides for Evohome, which explains why it can do a lot more. I'd like to make it available under a freemium model if an API key is a realistic proposition. The API is 'there' anyway and it's used under the hood by the Android and iPhone apps. Surely it's low hanging fruit for Resideo to leverage that API investment and open Evohome/TCC to the maker community?
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