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Author Topic: Any feedback for Alexa's Smart and Custom Skill  (Read 11506 times)

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Offline Ashok

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Any feedback for Alexa's Smart and Custom Skill
« on: September 26, 2016, 09:15:05 am »
Please post any feedback related to Alexa's Smart and Custom Skill here.

Offline d.kiran

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Re: Any feedback for Alexa's Smart and Custom Skill
« Reply #1 on: September 26, 2016, 09:39:21 am »
I am going to be "that guy" and ask the question.

What Scene name do I use if I want to turn off my AC (or HVAC) ?

I don't see anything that is relevant except for "Heat Off" which is kinda odd when it is 95 outside :-)

Offline Ashok

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Re: Any feedback for Alexa's Smart and Custom Skill
« Reply #2 on: September 26, 2016, 11:08:06 am »
@ d.kiran,

I am going to be "that guy" and ask the question.

What Scene name do I use if I want to turn off my AC (or HVAC) ?

I don't see anything that is relevant except for "Heat Off" which is kinda odd when it is 95 outside :-)

If you would like to turn off only the AC then we can directly talk to Alexa and turn off the AC ( Alexa Turn off "AC Name") and if you want to enable or disable the Scene then it has to go through Almond skill (Alexa start Almond and activate "Scene name")

Offline d.kiran

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Re: Any feedback for Alexa's Smart and Custom Skill
« Reply #3 on: September 26, 2016, 12:19:44 pm »
Hi Ashok,

Thanks. I have two thermostats that are combined in a scene. There are no Alexa compatible scene names that say "Turn Off AC ".

What's the echo compatible name that I should use for a scene that turns off the AC

Offline Ashok

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Re: Any feedback for Alexa's Smart and Custom Skill
« Reply #4 on: September 26, 2016, 03:39:16 pm »
@ d.kiran,

Hi Ashok,

Thanks. I have two thermostats that are combined in a scene. There are no Alexa compatible scene names that say "Turn Off AC ".

What's the echo compatible name that I should use for a scene that turns off the AC

If you don't see any Echo compatible scene name, then try to create a new one, which should also work. Moreover, if your intention is only to turn off an AC then say "Alexa Turn off "AC Name" same thing with another one.

Offline d.kiran

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Re: Any feedback for Alexa's Smart and Custom Skill
« Reply #5 on: September 26, 2016, 08:08:45 pm »
@ d.kiran,

If you don't see any Echo compatible scene name, then try to create a new one, which should also work. Moreover, if your intention is only to turn off an AC then say "Alexa Turn off "AC Name" same thing with another one.

Alexa does not support "Turn Off" commands for thermostat. The Turn Off class is supported only for switches and lights. So I cannot use "Turn Off AC"

Also, as per your suggestion. I created a scene named "Turn off AC". This scene name is not supported by Alexa. The alexa icon on the scenes does not show up. So this does not work as well.

The problem is simple. In the list of scene names that you have loaded on Alexa, there is no scene that can be used to Turn off AC. Can I request you/Securifi add a Scene name called "Turn Off AC" in Alexa ?




Offline mparadis

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Re: Any feedback for Alexa's Smart and Custom Skill
« Reply #6 on: September 26, 2016, 08:29:06 pm »
Does your thermostat support on / off for act through the almond? I don't have ac but my I thought they only turned on / off based on their settings, i.e. if above 73 degrees then cool.

Offline Ashok

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Re: Any feedback for Alexa's Smart and Custom Skill
« Reply #7 on: September 26, 2016, 09:24:26 pm »
@ mparadis,

If the AC is connected to a binary or power monitoring switch, it is possible.

Offline d.kiran

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Re: Any feedback for Alexa's Smart and Custom Skill
« Reply #8 on: September 26, 2016, 09:35:04 pm »
@Ashok - Generally most HVACs are regulated by thermostat not via a power switch.

@mparadis - it works for me. My Iris thermostat does turn it off or turn on.

Offline mparadis

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Re: Any feedback for Alexa's Smart and Custom Skill
« Reply #9 on: September 27, 2016, 10:56:46 am »
@D.kiran gotcha.

Also my skill set added many additional items once I set it up which is great.

How about some sort of alias for device names? The alias can apply only in the app for the user that set it not on the almond device and here is my reason. I have several almond devices. One is at my parents. I have some devices at my parents that are the same name as devices at my own home. I don't want to change the name on the almond because then it shows up on everyone's app that way (and they only have their one almond) but I can't use the devices by voice without a work around. So if I say turn on Family Room Lights, it might turn on my parent's lights and not mine etc etc or ask for clarification. Also, I find I will likely be renaming many devices any way to make them easier with Echo but some will still end up being the same. Ideally the alias would be applied in the Almond App and could be carried over to the Echo, otherwise a way to add an alias in the Alexa / Echo app would be great (don't know if this is possible through the skill or not).

Otherwise it seems to be working very well and very quickly.

Offline d.kiran

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Re: Any feedback for Alexa's Smart and Custom Skill
« Reply #10 on: September 28, 2016, 10:48:40 am »
I have several almond devices. One is at my parents. I have some devices at my parents that are the same name as devices at my own home. I don't want to change the name on the almond because then it shows up on everyone's app that way (and they only have their one almond) but I can't use the devices by voice without a work around.

Let me make sure I understand this. Do you have the multiple Almonds tied to the same connect.securifi.com account? While the Alexa skill can't accept aliases, you can create a group in alexa.amazon.com and name that group what you want. But this is an interesting use case.

@Ashok - Were you able to ask your developers to see if they could add a scene called "Turn off AC" ?

Offline mparadis

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Re: Any feedback for Alexa's Smart and Custom Skill
« Reply #11 on: September 28, 2016, 06:04:49 pm »
@d.kiran Yes I have two Almond+'s and an Almond 2015 (potentially others as well that can't be discussed in this thread) and they all show up in all of my apps (iOS, android, different devices; as they should). When I have Alexa discover my home devices it discovers all applicable devices connected to my Securifi account, this includes one set of devices that are at another residence entirely. I can "forget" them in the Alexa app but every time I run discovery I'd have to do it again. Also, if I wanted to use other echo devices like at my parents' house they wouldn't be present. Now my parent's only access the Almond+ and its devices that are at their residence so they don't want devices named "Parent's Living Room Lights" or "Mom and Dad's Front Door" so they use names like "Living Room Lights" and "Front Door" which are device names I also use at my residence. Ideally an alias would allow me to change / assign a different name in my Almond App that only applies to my account and could be continued in other services such as Alexa / Echo and IFTTT and anything else that Securifi may add in the future. Yes I could create a group name for each individual light but that would still be frustrating / overlapping AND is a lot of extra work  ;D. As I said I am excited almost all devices work now with Alexa, which is fairly unique in the HA market still, I believe. And the other additions are pretty useful. I don't have kids but could see setting up devices as "kids" devices so I can control when I want to conserve bandwidth / mess with my friends!

Also @ashok, it isn't generally recommended to hook up window AC's to binary switches because powering off the AC condenser can cause long term issues. I was just trying to understand how the AC d.kiran had worked with the thermostat he had. Also, that is why support for the AC IR blaster is pretty neat though I admittedly haven't purchased one yet.

Offline d.kiran

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Re: Any feedback for Alexa's Smart and Custom Skill
« Reply #12 on: September 28, 2016, 06:49:36 pm »
My thermostat has a "Mode Off" button that I can use, so I use that extensively. Since it's just the two of us, we have seen substantial savings in TX by turning off the thermostat when we don't need it rather than having it at a set temperature. (about 30% savings easily).

I tried using nest, but it did not work too well (and the interface for Nest Thermostat in Almond is a nightmare).  Anyway here you go. This should give you a frame of reference on how I turn off my thermostat

Also, I might not have been clear earlier, I don't have a Window AC unit


Offline mparadis

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Re: Any feedback for Alexa's Smart and Custom Skill
« Reply #13 on: September 28, 2016, 08:11:01 pm »
Thanks d.kiran was just checking. Seems like it should be something that could be done through Alexa then. I have heard that Nest (while great independently) is terrible through most HA "systems" because people want to control it more but it is best left to learn its own "schedule" and patterns and base its usage on that. So Nest/Google set limitations for what can be done in other non-nest apps with it. For some people that works well, for others it doesn't. I know a few users have also had bugs or issues with their specific Nest with Almond+.

Offline mparadis

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Re: Any feedback for Alexa's Smart and Custom Skill
« Reply #14 on: September 28, 2016, 08:33:15 pm »
@ashok should we be disabling the other Almond Skill to use this? Is that why I am getting a few duplicates? I have the "Almond Connected Dev One" still active as well.

 

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