Amazon Alexa

Posting this here too,

I think I have fixed the issue with discovery not working and a new interface zip is available for download at: https://github.com/davidwallis3101/HomegenieEchoBridge/

Hi, David.

I’m thinking about buying some kind of Alexa-powered device and want to know which one are you using: Amazon Echo or Amazon Echo Dot?
What are your use cases of Alexa in home automation area?

The echo has a better speaker, but the dot is nice and compact and cheap :slight_smile: I have a dot in my office for testing with and the echo down stairs in the living room :slight_smile: would recommend either :slight_smile:

1 Like

David,

Very happy to have found this program you wrote, but I’m afraid I’m clueless as to how to install it. Is it compiled for Windows only? I noticed a lot of ASP stuff in one directory.

I’m running on Ubuntu Linux on a PC.

I’ve been using habridge successfully, but it has no knowledge of homegenie, so setting up devices is quite laborious.

How do I install this?

Paul

I have habridge working with alexa and home genie. I wrote a little bit about it in the Homegenie for dummies document I posted a couple days ago. Perhaps that will help?

you download the zip and install it as an interface - no one else seems to be able to get it to work though which is odd, so if you want to try it, I’m using it here on a RPI… and works great - no need for ha-bridge or editing configs :slight_smile:

I haven’t tried it, but I recently bought a Echo Dot for future projects. What is possible to do with Alexa and HG?

David,
Never got your code to work on a RPi, now running HABridge on a separate RPi to make everything work with Alexa.
Would really like to get your code to work, so I can take out the middleman (HABridge).

You must have a specific software running on your RPi that makes it work.

I really dont!!

I will pull an image of my setup and see if that works for you… just need to setup somewhere to dump it :slight_smile:

Might be easier to continue this via email and then I can respond quicker and see if we cant work out why it doesn’t work for you.

Looked at the tread from the old forum. It is only possible to turn on/off switches and lights? Not possible to ask for temperature or humidity or such things?

Also wonder, I’ve read about other controllers using HA bridge, and I got the impression that you in some way need to expose either the controller or HA bridge to the internet so that the Alexa server can access it?

Is this needed or have I misunderstood things?

Kev, Yes, I’m using HAbridge now too, but would really rather not have to recreate all my devices by number.

The way it works is that your local echo device is the only thing that communicates with habridge (or a real hue bridge) so it is not exposed to the internet.

I’ve installed it, but if its little icon in the top right is supposed to change from dim to brighter, it’s not, and Alexa cannot “Discover” any devices.

Is there any logging I should look at?

have you installed the hgx file? the icon shouldnt change…

logging will be in /usr/local/bin/homegenie/log/homegenie.log if on a pi

David,

Wow, do I ever have a strange story to tell. I did find the logging in /usr/local/bin/homegenie/log/homegenie.log. It looked like EchoBridge was starting to pull the module info and build its data. Then I got the bright idea to disable it, and re-enable it. No change. Then I got the bright idea to delete the logs and restart w/o a client browser, to minimize the “noise” in the logfile. So I stopped HG, deleted the logs, and started HG again.

That’s when things got weird. I mean REALLY weird. There was all sorts of normal startup logging, and the usual ridiculous amount of crap involved with initializing the z-wave network. At this point, EchoBridge was in the disabled state. So … I fire up my browser to enable it and see what happens. IT CAN’T CONNECT! Since EchoBridge is disabled, I try restarting HAbridge, and startup fails. HUH?

After doing as much troubleshooting as I can think of, I save the current HG directory, reboot the server, and re-install HG. NOW I CAN CONNECT! HAbridge is also working again. I try messing about with copying some of the config files from the saved directory to the running HG directory, restart, and it’s broken again. Not only that, but it broke HAbridge as well. I stop HG, copy the clean files back, restore a 2-day-old backup and I’m running again.

SMH … I haven’t seen anything quite like this before, and I’ve done this sort of stuff for a living forever. Totally weird. I don’t mind messing with it now that I know to make a directory backup beforehand, LOL. I lost a few bits of config because I’m still in the active stages of converting from X10 to Z-Wave and a different software platform.

Paul.

Ah- YEAH I get you. I only have a few commands configured like “turn on all lights” and “turn off all lights” - putting all the nodes in individually to ha bridge would be a pain!

What I understand HA bridge is not as advanced as this? https://www.controlicz.com/Controls Only on/off?

If your using my code and HA bridge then it isnt going to end well…

All you need is my code installed, and UPNP disabled - also disable the SSDP service if on windows.

No, I shut down HA bridge first, of course. Disabling UPNP on Homegenie??? I do have it enabled (for no good reason, at this point). Will try that. Running on Ubuntu Linux on a large server.