[Hue Emulation] Items with Switchable tag are not discovered

Add-ons Bindings
31

This issue should be resolved. Space between items shouldn’t matter of course.

This would mean to map Switchables to Dimmable Lights for non European locales.
It either means, Amazon removed this functionality in newer firmwares or Amazon added a feature for the European product start, that was not in the original firmware (I can hardly imagine they did this).

32

Unfortunately, all evidence at hand shows this to be the case. Even if there is an On/Off plug-in unit that is supported by the US echos, it is already 100% apparent that they’re running a different feature set by the fact that they don’t support the OSRAM unit like the EU echos do.

33

IMHO Alexa local discovery is/will be deprecated and all future support will be skills/cloud integration. As an example Logitech’s choice to remove the local API on the Harmony remotes under the guise of a security vulnerability. This done ostensibly to monetize the data collected. Amazon via skills puts the burden of integration on the manufacturer

34

Not entirely sure on that to be honest. At the same time they are trying to perform local voice recognision of HA related commands and try to make Alexa work offline to some degree.

35

Hi @all,

i am from Germany and faced a similar issue:
After i’ve updated to openHAB 2.4 ALEXA doesn’t find items tagged as “Switchable” any more.

I left the Hue Emulation configuration at standard settings exept I turned on the ‘Amazon Echo device discovery fix’.

After reading several posts I did a quick test just to see what’s discovered at all:
With the following configuration ALEXA discoveres only “Lighting” and “ColorLighting” devices.

Switch test04 "test 04" ["Switchable"]
Switch test05 "test 05" ["Lighting"]
Switch test06 "test 06" ["ColorLighting"]
Dimmer test07 "test 07" ["Switchable"]
Dimmer test08 "test 08" ["Lighting"]
Dimmer test09 "test 09" ["ColorLighting"]
Color test10 "test 10" ["Switchable"]
Color test11 "test 11" ["Lighting"]
Color test12 "test 12" ["ColorLighting"]

So only test05, 06, 08, 09, 11 and 12 are discovered. (I tried discovering from Echo, Echo Spot, WebIF and Alexa App with same results)

I also tested with the ‘HUE Essentials’ App on my smartphone, where all devices are discovered correctly.
The items tagged as “Switchable” are discovered as ‘Osram Lightify Plug Model Plug 01’.
Therefore I assume it’s a problem an Amazon’s side.

Has anyone figuered out a solution for this issue?

36

Amazon is slowly fading out local Hue support apparently (and especially now as they have Echo Plus etc).
Some devices can still recognise Osram Plugs, others can’t. There is no pattern. Workaround is of course to change the tag for Switchables to “Lighting”.

37

Thanks for the fast reply.
So a solution is to use myopenhab instead?

38

This adds a latency of about 2 seconds to each command. I rather live with an undocumented local hue support, personally. But it’s your choice of course.

39

Hi David,

I live im Germany too and I have several Alexa devices (Echo, Spot, Show) and none of them regonices the OSRAM unit. I had to change all my Openhab items to “Lighting”.

Best regrads,
Michael

40

When did you purchase your Echos? Maybe Osram is not supported at all any more in new Echo batches?

41

Most of them are older than a year, some of them are even older., I only purchased a new Echo Show a week ago.

If anything it has to be firmware related. What firmware are your Echo devices running on?

42

Device software version:
628538120 (Echo)
628538220 (2nd Echo)
628538320 (Echo dot)

43

Thinking about it, this has probably nothing to do with any Echo device. The discovery is done by the Echo app on your phone and not by any Echo device. And we know that amazon can selectively turn on and of features in your Echo app/account so it is the most likely account and/or app version related.

44

I don’t think this is correct. Wireshark shows the queries coming from all the echo devices. Not to mention that you can initiate discovery by voice or the website.

45

I think the real question is what models and firmware are the devices that DO discover the OSRAM units?

46

Okay, thanks for the Info. I didn’t know that. I still think it has something to do with your account, as amazon can switch on and off features selectively and not with any specific device.

47

I have the same firmware version on my Echo and it’s not discovering the Osram switch

48

Edit: I have looked up all devices and have 3 different firmware versions. I know that some of my echoes do not recognise Plugs.

At the moment my Osram plugs are recognised as “Royal Philips Electronics intelligentes Gerät”. Sometimes it is an “On/Off plug”.

I also have double entries, see:
Hängeschrank - Royal Philips Electronics intelligentes Gerät Forget
Hängeschrank - Color Light Forget
Bett - Royal Philips Electronics intelligentes Gerät Forget
Bett - Dimmable Light Forget
49

after reading me into the hue emulation 2.4 topic and some opened issues on github like https://github.com/openhab/openhab2-addons/issues/4293 , I’m still unable to control my roller shutter with percentage commands like “alexa, roller shutter 60%” which did work before with this item: Rollershutter Rollo "Rollo" <rollershutter> (Wohnzimmer, pGroup) ["Switchable"] {channel="zwave:device:1aa147bc:node12:blinds_control"}

so… any idea of workaround due roller shutter? Is it possible to add the old hue emulation binding to openhab 2.4?

50

Rollershutters are not directly supported, but dimmer items are. Just create a second item of type Dimmer with the same channel and that will work.