Securifi Community Forum

Sensors and Home Automation => Home automation => Topic started by: Ashok on September 26, 2016, 09:15:05 am

Title: Any feedback for Alexa's Smart and Custom Skill
Post by: Ashok on September 26, 2016, 09:15:05 am
Please post any feedback related to Alexa's Smart and Custom Skill here.
Title: Re: Any feedback for Alexa's Smart and Custom Skill
Post by: d.kiran 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 :-)
Title: Re: Any feedback for Alexa's Smart and Custom Skill
Post by: Ashok 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")
Title: Re: Any feedback for Alexa's Smart and Custom Skill
Post by: d.kiran 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
Title: Re: Any feedback for Alexa's Smart and Custom Skill
Post by: Ashok 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.
Title: Re: Any feedback for Alexa's Smart and Custom Skill
Post by: d.kiran 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 ?



Title: Re: Any feedback for Alexa's Smart and Custom Skill
Post by: mparadis 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.
Title: Re: Any feedback for Alexa's Smart and Custom Skill
Post by: Ashok on September 26, 2016, 09:24:26 pm
@ mparadis,

If the AC is connected to a binary or power monitoring switch, it is possible.
Title: Re: Any feedback for Alexa's Smart and Custom Skill
Post by: d.kiran 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.
Title: Re: Any feedback for Alexa's Smart and Custom Skill
Post by: mparadis 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.
Title: Re: Any feedback for Alexa's Smart and Custom Skill
Post by: d.kiran 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" ?
Title: Re: Any feedback for Alexa's Smart and Custom Skill
Post by: mparadis 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.
Title: Re: Any feedback for Alexa's Smart and Custom Skill
Post by: d.kiran 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

(https://i.sli.mg/YnRboa.png)
Title: Re: Any feedback for Alexa's Smart and Custom Skill
Post by: mparadis 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+.
Title: Re: Any feedback for Alexa's Smart and Custom Skill
Post by: mparadis 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.
Title: Re: Any feedback for Alexa's Smart and Custom Skill
Post by: Ashok on September 28, 2016, 10:18:16 pm
@ d.kiran,

Yes, and we can create any Scene name we want and that should work with out any concerns.
Title: Re: Any feedback for Alexa's Smart and Custom Skill
Post by: Ashok on September 28, 2016, 10:20:33 pm
@ mparadis,

Ideally, it should still work and there shouldn't be any issues. However, please do disable the Dev and also the Almond skill and then re-enable it only Almond skill.
Title: Re: Any feedback for Alexa's Smart and Custom Skill
Post by: d.kiran on September 28, 2016, 11:01:28 pm
@ d.kiran,

Yes, and we can create any Scene name we want and that should work with out any concerns.

@Ashok - We cannot choose any name we want if we want to use Alexa/echo. There are a list of Alexa compatible names in the Almond App marked by a special icon. If I chose a scene name that is not in the list, then Alexa will not recognize that scene name. If Alexa could recognize any scene name then why is there a special icon in the app to show Alexa compatible scenes.

Therefore I am requesting you to add "Turn Off AC" or "AC Off" or "HVAC Off" to the list of scene names that are supported by Alexa.
Title: Re: Any feedback for Alexa's Smart and Custom Skill
Post by: Ashok on September 29, 2016, 08:57:48 am
@ d.kiran,

@Ashok - We cannot choose any name we want if we want to use Alexa/echo. There are a list of Alexa compatible names in the Almond App marked by a special icon. If I chose a scene name that is not in the list, then Alexa will not recognize that scene name. If Alexa could recognize any scene name then why is there a special icon in the app to show Alexa compatible scenes.

Therefore I am requesting you to add "Turn Off AC" or "AC Off" or "HVAC Off" to the list of scene names that are supported by Alexa.

It is not exactly true that only the Alexa compatible names which are provided by Almond app would work and others won't. The list what we gave is mostly used and meaningful scene names, so that it would be easy for a user to select rather than providing a new name. When we give a new name, the icon won't be displayed, but it would work just fine. Our testing team already it with the names which you suggested, they worked with out any concerns.
Title: Re: Any feedback for Alexa's Smart and Custom Skill
Post by: d.kiran on September 29, 2016, 09:49:58 am
@ d.kiran,

It is not exactly true that only the Alexa compatible names which are provided by Almond app would work and others won't. The list what we gave is mostly used and meaningful scene names, so that it would be easy for a user to select rather than providing a new name. When we give a new name, the icon won't be displayed, but it would work just fine. Our testing team already it with the names which you suggested, they worked with out any concerns.

None of those are working for me. Which channel should I connect to ? "Connected Dev" or the regular "Almond" ?
Title: Re: Any feedback for Alexa's Smart and Custom Skill
Post by: d.kiran on September 29, 2016, 01:01:24 pm
Alright, so I removed both the skills from my Alexa and reconnected the Almond skill, not the dev one. Then it started working.

Also, the text in your app is confusing.

It says

"If you want this scene name to be compatible with Amazon Echo Voice Control, Click Next. If not, just enter the name in the Text box below and click Done" .

Don't you think this sentence is misleading ? It clearly says you need to select a scene name if you want it to be compatible.
Title: Re: Any feedback for Alexa's Smart and Custom Skill
Post by: mparadis on September 29, 2016, 03:22:31 pm
I think those are the 50,000 ish that they had to submit for "confirmed function" or similar. Any scene name should work as long as the Echo can understand it.
Title: Re: Any feedback for Alexa's Smart and Custom Skill
Post by: d.kiran on September 30, 2016, 08:08:19 pm
I think those are the 50,000 ish that they had to submit for "confirmed function" or similar. Any scene name should work as long as the Echo can understand it.

That does seem to be the case. However, the text on the App is misleading. It very clearly indicates that you have to click next and choose a name for it to be compatible with Alexa.

 I think this has to be changed.
Title: Re: Any feedback for Alexa's Smart and Custom Skill
Post by: mparadis on September 30, 2016, 08:27:40 pm
I agree with the text, I didn't read much into because I was aware of this limitation from the beginning but thinking like someone who wouldn't be aware of that yes it is definitely confusing.
Title: Re: Any feedback for Alexa's Smart and Custom Skill
Post by: d.kiran on September 30, 2016, 08:32:12 pm
Since I am the only one having problems with Alexa, I guess this is a user error.

With the Dev channel, I was using "Turn On Family Room Light" and "Turn Off Family Room Light" without any problems. However, after removing that and connecting the new Almond Smart Home Skill, Alexa says that the Turn Off command is not supported by this device.

The only way I can turn on and Off the Dimmer switch is by saying "Alexa Dim Family Room Light to 50%" . Earlier, this command used to work in addition to "Turn on" and "Turn Off" . Why was this removed ?

FWIW, the device here is a Linear WD500Z dimmer switch. I have not changed anything except removing the Dev channel. At this point, I am unable to get the Dev channel connected back again.