Hue & TP Link bindings are not detecting devices that Alexa does

Hi guys,

I’m new to automation and networking in general. I’ve set up a RasberryPI using hasbian and have an echo plus connected to a TP Link smart plug and a couple of hue lights.

I’ve added the openHab Skill to alexa and installed the HUE add-on but when I search for devices nothing is found. I know normally you need a hue bridge but the echo plus is supposed to work as a hub for each of the smart devices saving you having to buy each brands hub.

Am i missing something? Can I use the Echo Plus as the hub with openHAB or would i need to go out and buy a Zigbee hub as well (which would kind of make the echo plus pointless).

Any help would be appreciated as I new and can’t find any info regarding this on the community and any youtube videos about connecting alexa assume you already have the seperate hubs and are connected to your items via openHAB already.

Thanks

Not quite sure whether I am following.
It looks like you got your OH2 (on raspberry) up and running and are using the PaperUI to configure your system. Great!
With regard to OH2 you seem to have only the Hue emulator installed.

You cannot find any things in the inbox of PaperUI, however, your echo plus finds the Hue and the TP-link.

If this describes in correctly, it would seem that you have not yet configured your OH2 system.
See here: https://docs.openhab.org/tutorials/beginner/configuration.html
and here: https://docs.openhab.org/configuration/index.html

The Hue emulation is actually making it so that Alexa can see your openHAB (but not the other way round). You do not seem to have installed the TP-link binding (the concept of bindings etc is described above) and maybe configure it (https://docs.openhab.org/addons/bindings/tplinksmarthome/readme.html).

If you want to use Alexa skills, there is more configuration necessary: https://docs.openhab.org/addons/ios/alexa-skill/readme.html

But you can also simple commands without using Alexa skills and the cloud connection, if you tag your items correctly (https://docs.openhab.org/configuration/items.html#tags).

Sorry, I do not have an echo plus, so I need a Hue hub (and OH2 works well with it) and cannot really advice whether your echo plus can replace the hub, but I am not aware that I read about this being the case. But in any case, you can try to learn everything with your Tp-link plug before tackling Hue.

@mikehene not sure why you posted the same question twice, in this thread and here: Echo Plus hub with openHAB skill

Would suggest to delete one thread.

@mikehene

I guess you have installed the “hue binding” and not the hueemulation. And now you want to use your Echo Plus as a huebridge?

I could imagine that this is not possible. The hue binding is designed to find a hue bridge and not to find an Echo Plus.

But you can try to configure the hue binding manually.

Goto PaperUI. --> Inbox–> + --> hue binding --> Add manually

Then create a new thing, type in IP-Address of your Echo Plus. Password? I guess this could be the hardest part. I think this is not possible… ???

But, I heart that Echo Plus doesn’t deliver the full functionality like a hue bridge. Only on/off and dimming. No colors. No firmware updates.

If you understand german you should read this:

You have to decide if Echo Plus/Alexa or Openhab2 is your main system.

A TP-LINK Wifi Socket does not need any kind of hub or bridge. You can connect it to Echo Plus or Openhab2 or to both.

If you want to connect it to openhab2 you need to install the TP-link smarthome binding.

I found it very difficult to find this info anywhere so thank you very much @Celaeno1, this is very helpful. I have tried to find an IP for Alexa before unsuccessfully but will try some more then hopefully be able to use openHAB/Alexa combo to control Hue remotely without the need for another hub. Unfortunately I do not speak german but will ask around at work to see if anyone can help translate it.

Thanks very much for this @lipp_markus, there are some useful links here that will help me get a better understanding. I will try to learn using the TP Link like you mentioned.

Apologies for posting this twice. I couldn’t decide if this was a hardware or binding issue so thought it’d be no harm to put it in both threads also increasing the chances of someone with the knowledge needed to see it. I won’t do it again if it is not a good practice.

But, I heart that Echo Plus doesn’t deliver the full functionality like a hue bridge. Only on/off and dimming. No colors. No firmware updates. <

Colors are also supported, but no firmware Updates…

It’s not possible to authenticate at the hue emulator, that’s the show stopper here…