Alexa integration "Device unresponsive" flaky command response

cw-kid · October 23, 2020, 3:04pm

Here is a “Dim Items” code exanple for HA Bridge.

Change the device number 80 to that of your own device.

http://Vera-IP/port_3480/data_request?id=action&output_format=json&DeviceNum=80&serviceId=urn:upnp-org:serviceId:Dimming1&action=SetLoadLevelTarget&newLoadlevelTarget=${intensity.percent}

dustintodd · October 23, 2020, 3:26pm

cw-kid:

http://Vera-IP/port_3480/data_request?id=action&output_format=json&DeviceNum=80&serviceId=urn:upnp-org:serviceId:Dimming1&action=SetLoadLevelTarget&newLoadlevelTarget=${intensity.percent}

That did it! Thanks.

therealdb · October 23, 2020, 3:44pm

It will work for roller shutters (or thermostat) as well

Alexa , set X to Y

droy · October 24, 2020, 1:50pm

I also went back to using ha-bridge on a pi 3B and my brain still waits for the “hub is unresponsive” response but instead there is an instant action response. Glad to see its still being supported!
@cw-kid Thank You for the Dim Items code. I’m not sure why that just wouldn’t be included by default.

I still have my thermostats in the cloud and based on @therealdb response I’ll test bringing them in locally also.

Thanks again for all the efforts around the ha-bridge and VERA support.

Miguel_Chivata_Pinzo · October 25, 2020, 12:40am

Hello everyone, I hope to get help from you, I have bought a raspberry to migrate my devices to node-red and get a solution to Alexa’s response. the node-red code works perfect and fast.

run these commands so node-red always starts after a power outage

node-red-start (for node -red to start as a service)
sudo systemctl enable nodered.service (so that node-red always starts from a reboot.

but node-red starts and alexa voice commands stop working unless i run this command and restart node-red

node-red-restart

and everything works again.

Apparently node-red crashes and does not start correctly after a reboot because it does not detect vera, since the wifi takes time to connect and I suppose it starts node-red first. I attach logs after restarting raspberry.

Do any of you have any solution to this? or some way to run the restart command after a while.
2020-10-24-193117_1360x768_scrot|690x389

dustintodd · October 30, 2020, 2:14am

Is it possible for Alexa to be updated with the current device state? Or is that not a capability the Vera - ha-bridge setup provides?

cw-kid · October 30, 2020, 2:43am

I’m not sure, I can’t remember, I don’t think so.

I dont use HA-Bridge anymore for Alexa. In fact I don’t even use Alexa, I have Google Home speakers in each room.

What happens if you ask Alexa “what is the thermostats current temperature” or “is door X open”.

It never even worked with the official Vera skill for Alexa or the Google Home service.

I can ask Google Home for the thermostat temperature, but ask it if a door or window or roller shutter is open she is clueless and responds “Sorry it looks like that device hasn’t been setup yet”.

However I can ask Google Home for the status of lights and appliance plugs, that seems to work and she tells me if its on or off.

Ezlo need to update them for Vera hubs, which is unlikely.

And their own new Ezlo integration for voice assistants I havent started testing properly yet.

And the local HA-Bridge I am going to say no it’s not possible, but don’t quote me on that, because I am not sure.

I’d have to search and read about it again.

Search this forum and have a look at the Github issues / discussions.

cw-kid · October 30, 2020, 3:18am

There is also an FAQ here.

Is this it? I’ve no idea how up to date and accurate these are.

Q: Can voice commands other than: ON, OFF and DIM/BRIGHT be used?

A: NO, the ha-bridge emulates a Philips HUE bridge. The interactions between a Philips HUE and and Amazon Echo are determined by Philips and Amazon. They are not changeable by the ha-bridge, so only: ON, OFF and DIM/BRIGHT verbal commands are available.

Q: Can I get Alexa to respond with information, like temperature or device state?

A: NO, the ha-bridge emulates a Philips HUE bridge. The default response by Alexa for Philips HUE is ‘OK’ and is not changeable by the ha-bridge.

cw-kid · October 30, 2020, 3:53am

@Miguel_Chivata_Pinzo

How did you initially install and setup node-red on the Pi ?

I followed these instructions here for installing node red on my Pi.

I am not using the Alexa node however. I am using the MIOS node though.

Can you post the contents of the nodered.service file located in /lib/systemd/system/

Mine looks like this:

# systemd service file to start Node-RED

[Unit]
Description=Node-RED graphical event wiring tool
Wants=network.target
Documentation=http://nodered.org/docs/hardware/raspberrypi.html

[Service]
Type=simple
# Run as normal pi user - change to the user name you wish to run Node-RED as
User=pi
Group=pi
WorkingDirectory=/home/pi

Nice=5
Environment="NODE_OPTIONS=--max_old_space_size=512"
# uncomment and edit next line if you need an http proxy
#Environment="HTTP_PROXY=my.httpproxy.server.address"
# uncomment the next line for a more verbose log output
#Environment="NODE_RED_OPTIONS=-v"
#ExecStart=/usr/bin/env node $NODE_OPTIONS red.js $NODE_RED_OPTIONS
ExecStart=/usr/bin/env node-red-pi $NODE_OPTIONS $NODE_RED_OPTIONS
# Use SIGINT to stop
KillSignal=SIGINT
# Auto restart on crash
Restart=on-failure
# Tag things in the log
SyslogIdentifier=Node-RED
#StandardOutput=syslog

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Looks like your having a problem starting the mios-server ? Not the node-red-contrib-amazon-echo

therealdb · October 30, 2020, 6:12am

Nope. To be honest it’s not that complex, but it seems the development has stopped.

I have routines mapped to scenes or code to accomplish the same thing.