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Alexa

Devices show up in Alexa that you cannot do anything with

Hi

I am not sure if it is a bug or me not doing things right so let me try with a question first

I have installed the two Alexa skills in the Alexa app and it has worked quite OK for some months

But lately more and more "devices" show up in Alexa that come from Homey but they are useless because you cannot control them. It seems that some but not all devices get pushed to Alexa. I get devices like Door/Window sensors and Aeotec multi censor pushed to Alexa. None of them can be controlled by Alexa and I do not know of any way I can get any useful information from them. 

I could in principle ignore them but I cannot. They create problems because of the naming. I also have a Philips Hue bridge and a large 35 lights Hue installation which works really well and stable on the Hue bridge. I have not linked these to Homey. I keep those two separate. I have created groups in the Alexa app and put my lights in those. It all works well. I can say turn off Alexa turn off the Entrance. Well until the Entrance Sensor shows up pushed from Homey. Then I get "You have multiple devices with that name" issues. And then the fight starts disabling Homey devices or renaming them.

Why do I get door/window sensors pushed to Alexa as devices show up as switches in Alexa? I am fine with items being pushed that I can control like I have done with several virtual devices in Homey and that works well. But I cannot understand why the Aeotec sensors are pushed to Alexa. It is 7 sensors that suddenly showed up.

If I could query Alexa if the door or window is open it could be quite smart (renaming them to avoid name clash). Is there a smart feature that I  do  not know how to take advantage of? 

Or is it a bug I need to record on Github?
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Comments

  • I have the same issue; any word on this @Athom?
  • Oy1974 said:
    5. Be polite and give constructive feedback.?
  • Oy1974Oy1974 Member
    Oy1974 said:
    5. Be polite and give constructive feedback.?
    its very polite, and constructive feedback ;) because i show you a importent forum topic that you probely forget to read ;)
  • Oy1974 said:
    Oy1974 said:
    5. Be polite and give constructive feedback.?
    its very polite, and constructive feedback ;) because i show you a importent forum topic that you probely forget to read ;)
    I'm not really understanding what you are getting at...so for me it is not very constructive  :#
  • Oy1974Oy1974 Member
    In sort, did you read it? then you wil understand that this is a communty forum, and athom isn`t reading with us (well the do read i think ;) but wont join the conversation) exept @bram the so called communtie manager or something.


    So there are some point 1, 2, 3 ect whats gives you a idea where to get you answer from @athom.



    Constructive enough??? :)
  • So far for this conversation. Plz take the rest into PM talk. Rest of the off-topic posts will be deleted without further notice.
  • I have raised a bug report on github

    https://github.com/athombv/homey/issues/2711

    I had hoped for some dialog first. It is good that @JochemBroersen raised the Me-To post. It gave me the push to believe this is indeed a bug.

    And this forum is not a nice place to be for us customers!
  • I have raised a bug report on github

    https://github.com/athombv/homey/issues/2711

    I had hoped for some dialog first. It is good that @JochemBroersen raised the Me-To post. It gave me the push to believe this is indeed a bug.

    And this forum is not a nice place to be for us customers!
    Thnx Kenneth, I'll follow on Github and a agree to your comment...very hostile...
  • Nah. We are here to help u out. Do u both have both skills activated? Because i have only the latest skill activated and have no sensors in Alexa. No sensors that are of no use that is. So maybe we can narrow this down a bit?
  • Nah. We are here to help u out. Do u both have both skills activated? Because i have only the latest skill activated and have no sensors in Alexa. No sensors that are of no use that is. So maybe we can narrow this down a bit?
    I have both skills enabled; the smart home skill does not seem to work for my custom commands. The one with "Ask homey" does...which one is the last one? 
  • I use both skills.
    Whenever I can I use the simple skill to turn things on and off or set a level.
    But the “ask homey” skill is needed to enable getting answers back. For example I can say “Alexa, ask Homey about the Security Status” and Homey brilliantly answers via Alexa if some of the doors or windows are not locked. This is an Amazon limitation. Athom cannot create a skill that does it directly.

    So both skills have their place.

    It is not all devices on the Homey that create silly devices in Alexa. It is only certain devices so I think it is a simple bug in the selection criteria in either the core Athom or the plugin for the device. I have myself extended the Aeotec plugin but it was two of the already existing devices that show up on Alexa and not the ones I added (of which I only have one left).

    The work around is to disable the devices, not delete them, in the Alexa app. If you delete them they just show up again when you discover devices. Leave them disabled, then you can live with it. But I hope the new Athom major release update and the conversion of the plugs to new API rev fixes this. It is on github now as a bug. And until then follow my advice and disable the bogus devices in the Alexa app. That also fixes the name clash as Alexa will ignore them when they are disabled
  • This one 
    I got that one to. I use the command "Open Netflix" in Homey to start my beamer. When saying: "Alexa, ask homey to open netflix", the command works. When I say "Alexa, open netflix" it replies with "I couln't find any enabled video skills". Any other custom commands are met with "Sorry, I'm not sure"
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