Alexa issues and migrating to the new syntax

[MrBov (Andrew Bovingdon)]

Running OH3.2 via latest OpenHABian on a Pi4

I have been having a few issues with Alexa controlling lights since the last OH3.2 update… Voice notifications of doors opening etc. have been fine, but all my OH controlled devices are showing as unresponsive via Alexa… They all work fine via the OH app on my phone though.

After a bunch of digging, I think it’s because my zram was full, i.e. logs had loads of debug (not back to default) that were not getting updated even though time-stamp was changing. I have expanded their size and restarted everything. Things now seem to be back working… but…

1. Does that sound right, is the Alexa bit alone likely to stop because of full zram (for logs etc.) or has the restart alone sorted it and the zram bit was simply a red herring?

2. I did have zram0, zram1 and zram 2… since changing the sizes in /etc/ztab I now also have zram3, zram4 and zram5 with the larger sizes showing (via zramctl --output-all)… did I miss something or get the config wrong? Does it matter? How to tidy?

3. Been looking to move to the latest Alexa item config syntax… Do I simply add {alexa="Light"} to all my dimmers and {alexa=“Switch”} to the switches (give or take) in the default items file? That seems to stop everything working (both alexa and OH app). Do I remove the ["Ligthing"] and ["Switchable"] tags or do they remain? e.g.:

`Dimmer zwave_lights_lounge_table  "Living Room Table"  (gLoungeLights)  {alexa="Light"}  ["Lighting"]  { channel="zwave:device:1234abc8:node7:switch_dimmer1" }`

Still learning, so any quick pointers appreciated.

Andy…

[jeshab (Jeremy)]

@MrBov

After a bunch of digging, I think it’s because my zram was full, i.e. logs had loads of debug (not back to default) that were not getting updated even though time-stamp was changing. I have expanded their size and restarted everything. Things now seem to be back working…

While I can’t speak specifics related to zram configuration, I can say that the Alexa skill experience will be affected, especially in the Alexa app, if the performance on a given OH server is degraded.

The reason is that when you browse through your devices in the Alexa app, each device is generating a request to get its latest state from your OH server. If your server struggles to response in time, these devices will be determined as unresponsive on the Alexa side.

@MrBov

Been looking to move to the latest Alexa item config syntax… Do I simply add {alexa="Light"} to all my dimmers and {alexa=“Switch”} to the switches (give or take) in the default items file? That seems to stop everything working (both alexa and OH app). Do I remove the ["Ligthing"] and ["Switchable"] tags or do they remain?

Tags are no longer supported in OH 3.x. So you should remove them. As far as the metadata configuration, it should be added with your existing metadata configuration and not separate.

Dimmer zwave_lights_lounge_table  "Living Room Table"  (gLoungeLights) { alexa="Light", channel="zwave:device:1234abc8:node7:switch_dimmer1" }

[MrBov (Andrew Bovingdon)]

Doh… of course that’s how the syntax works… what was I thinking… thanks @jeshab.

Seems to be behaving itself with slightly bigger zram config and logging set to normal rather than debug… continuing to monitor…

Appreciate the guidance