My OH-configuration has a parameter that stores the volume of rainwater in liter in
the cistern. Is it possible to configure this item so that Alexa reads this parameter when asked âwhat is the volume of rainwaterâ? Does somebody have an example that works?
It works perfectly for âtemperatureâ and âhumidityâ, but these parameters are predefined. I assume something with RangeController.rangeValue could be done but Iâm not getting there.
@Jan_Mechelen Could you describe what do you mean by âIâm not getting thereâ? You are on the right track in using the RangeController interface.
With your item example, you should be able to ask âwhat is the state of rainwaterâ
If you care about having âvolumeâ support, you should specify it as friendly name translated in your language if necessary. That way, you can ask âwhat is the volume of rainwaterâ or âwhat is the state of rainwater volumeâ.
The âdeviceâ shows up in the alexa app and everything looks fine. But I canât ask for that device.
âAlexa, what is the state of Zucker?â or âAlexa, what is the value of Zucker Wert?â or any combination of that doesnât give me the right answer. Alexa tells me something about sugar.
Is that because of the ambiguous naming of the item?
Yes probably because of the term âzuckerâ is present in the item name along with friendly names. You have to keep in mind that friendlyNames is naming the range component of your device âZuckerwertâ. You donât need to include the device name in your request when the friendly names are clearly distinct. However, in some cases you need to include it (e.g. Zucker of Zuckerwert).
Have you tried a dummy term by any chance? Another option would be to leave friendlyNames undefined and you should be able to call that device with the name Zuckerwert. Also, make sure to check your Alexa voice history to see what was understood.
I renamed my Item. Now itâs called âBlutzuckerâ and is knows in the Alexa-App under that name. I also removed the friendly name.
I think my Echo Show doesnât know this âDeviceâ even though they are in the same group. The voice history shows that my question was understood correctly. I tried:
What is the value of Blutzucker?
Answer: "I found the following on the Web⊠[in German of course]
{\"spokenAnswerSsml\":\"Folgendes habe ich im Web gefunden und ĂŒbersetzt. Laut hubpages.com: Die einfache Funktion von Zucker im Blut bestand zunĂ€chst darin, Energie zu liefern.<\\/p><\\/prosody>AnswerSsml<\\/promptId>SmartDJ.MusicQA<\\/namespace>de_DE<\\/locale>default<\\/overrideId>809dfcd2-2807-4eaf-93e9-1130c2db01fa<\\/variant>1<\\/weight>Adm-20160403_211532-21<\\/stageVersion><p xmlns:ivona=\\\"http://www.ivona.com/2009/12/ssml\\\" xmlns:amazon=\\\"https://amazon.com/ssml/2017-01-01/\\\">Folgendes habe ich im Web gefunden und ĂŒbersetzt. Laut hubpages.com: <break time=\\\"0.5s\\\"/> Die einfache Funktion von Zucker im Blut bestand zunĂ€chst darin, Energie zu liefern.</p><\\/answer>AnswerSsml<\\/promptID>SmartDJ.MusicQA<\\/namespace><\\/promptData><\\/promptMetadata><\\/metadata><\\/speak>\",
\"entryType\":\"Knowledge\",\"answerText\":\"Folgendes habe ich im Web gefunden und ĂŒbersetzt. Laut hubpages.com: Die einfache Funktion von Zucker im Blut bestand zunĂ€chst darin, Energie zu liefern.\",\"answered\":true,\"validForGUI\":true,\"searchQueryText\":\"\",\"domains\":[],\"spokenAnswerText\":\"Folgendes habe ich im Web gefunden und ĂŒbersetzt. Laut hubpages.com: Die einfache Funktion von Zucker im Blut bestand zunĂ€chst darin, Energie zu liefern.\",
\"understood\":true,\"questionText\":\"wie ist der wert von blutzucker\"}]}`
Similar behaviour for the question âWhat is the status of Blutzucker?â
Alexa answers: âSorry Iâm not sureâ
So I went ahead and tried it myself and it is driving me insane While I assumed it would be straight forward, it doesnât seem that the direct translation of the English translation is working in German for this endpoint type. The lack of German utterance examples in the Alexa developer API documentation doesnât help on top of it.
At this point, I am not sure what to recommend for your issue. You can try to use less common words to see if it makes a difference.
In the meantime, I have opened a case with the Alexa developer support team. Letâs see what they come back with.
The way you are providing the information below is fine. You donât need to include the screenshot. Just include the item name and its label should be fine.
I accomplished this using Node-Red along with OH. My son always wanted to know what the temperature of the swimming pool was, and this was a value OH knew coming from the Autelis binding.
I then was able to craft the question and response in Node-Red which meant I could ask the way I wanted and get the answer back spoken as desired.
So the issue I experienced might actually be related to the Alexa simulator I am using to test other languages. It might actually work on your end. You can check the example below and update your item the same way friendlyNames="Wert".
I had the same problem with energy consumption, energy production, pollen levels, UV index, âheating indexâ, etc⊠and ended up by writing a custom skill.
If you are ok to keep your skill for your use only and are happy to hard code item names or credentials, knowing a bit of javascript is quite easy to develop a skill with the online alexa development console.
Of course itâs not a solution you are going to publish on the store, but it works and is quite funny. With 600 lines of code I could do a lot of stuff and now I can ask things like âalexa, ask Jarvis if heating is onâ and get back answers like âThe heating is on in 3 rooms: living room, bathroom and studio, and the heating has been on for 5.7% of the time in the last 24 hoursâ.
If anyone is interested I can tell my story with some more details.
ciao.
While I assumed it would be straight forward, it doesnât seem that the direct translation of the English translation is working in German for this endpoint type. The lack of German utterance examples in the Alexa developer API documentation doesnât help on top of it.