New Binding: Hue Emulator - Amazon Echo integration

[Daniel_OH (Daniel)]

@skatun

Does anyone know when the alexa skill will be avialable?

That is interesting for me too.
Should I implement the actual binding with the hue emulator or will there be something else in the near future?

THX

[jaydee73 (Stefan)]

Hi guys,

I’m using the hue emulation binding to get my HUE lights controlled with Alexa. In general, it is working. However, when I ask Alexa to turn the light(s) on, the color/ color temperature of my HUE lights is not the one which it was when I switched it off the last time.

Example: In the evening, I switch the lights off with the OH iOS app (or with the browser, or the HUE app, or the Philips remote, doesn’t matter). When I switch it on the next day using Alexa, the color changes (is different directly when turning it on, not only a few seconds later or so…).

Has anyone experienced a similiar behavior? Is there a possible solution/workaround for this?

[Toneus (TonyC)]

@skatun

FYI information you can leave lights out, this way both alexa hallway on (save time…, 3 less words…) works as well as Alexa, turn ON the Hallway lights…

My guest normally use the full phrase while I use the short version… Same as alexa news, instead of alexa give me my flash briefing, alexa weather and so on…

Right, the questions were around names of items and synonyms, and the poster appeared to not know what each element did, or how to configure the item. I was simply explaining what element was the verbal command that Alexa used. If we all want to talk to our homes as if they are Jarvis, then configure the smart home to listen like Jarvis not some 1980’s brick that understands 3 word commands. Good thing there are only a few things that exist in a hallway.

Another example, due to the limitations of what the Bridge directly supports, you can also define item as switches which are associated with scenes. Like your example, Turn ON Bedtime or Turn ON Relax works well.

@skatun

Does anyone know when the alexa skill will be avialable?

There is a Skill available. It’s a custom skill, so there is a little leg work involved, but you can (and I have) extended one for your OH. The problem is, the OH Alexa custom skill requires the ASK element which the HueE binding does not. More unnatural grammar if you like that kind of a thing. But that won’t go away until Amazon directly supports OH like Hue. That’s not going to happen in the near term.

[peter_juenger]

@jaydee73

Has anyone experienced a similiar behavior? Is there a possible solution/workaround for this?

Hi,

same here. My ugly workaround so far: Set the color in a rule.

[skatun (Kim Skatun)]

@Toneus

There is a Skill available

@Kai mentioned that the skill is submitted to Amazon if I remember correct, however when it will be available I do not know.

[Kai (Kai Kreuzer)]

@skatun

however when it will be available I do not know.

Nobody knows but Amazon. We are waiting more than 2 months now for the approval

[Sprout (Kevin)]

I’m trying to use this binding from my HarmonyHub to OH2. I don’t have an Echo or a real Philips Hub.
The MyHarmony OSX app, and the iOS app both see the existence of a Philips Hue bridge on my network when I try to add such a device from the app and I have the oh2 binding loaded and running.

However, the first thing it asks, is to pair the Hue bridge by hitting the center button on the Hue bridge to pair it with the Hub. Obviously, I don’t have such a button. I have the hueemulation service configured in paperUI for PairingEnabled but the Harmony app still asks me to hit a pairing button on the nonexistant hueBridge.

Has anyone been able to get their HarmonyHub paired with OH2 via this binding?

[dynostatic (Jason)]

@Sprout, As long as pairing is enabled in paperUI, the app should be able to find the emulator on the network. I believe that I just said ‘OK’ or whatever the button is when it asked to press the pairing button. It was found right away.

[Sprout (Kevin)]

Thanks! So actually, I couldn’t get it to work no matter what. I reinstalled OH2 and updated java permissions and all sorts of things. Didn’t work. Then I turned on debug logging with this in the Kara console:

log:set DEBUG org.openhab.io.hueemulation

…and suddenly it works. It skips right past the ‘Hit the pairing button on the Hue bridge’ and shows me my defined lights. So, I don’t think it’s a coincidence…

[Daniel_OH (Daniel)]

Hi Anthony

thanks for the IFTT tip, but I am not sure how to achieve this.

The only IFTT action I found works with google spreadsheet.

THX
Daniel

[renes (Rene)]

I’m using the Openhab2 Hue emulation together with KNX and Echo Dot 2nd gen. I configured dimmer items with tags like [“Switchable”] and [“Lighting”]. However when I tell Alexa to switch ON a light it does not send a ON command to my item but it sends a 100. This effectively means my lights won’t turn on at the level they were dimmed before they were switched off, but they will always be switched on at 100%. Does anyone have this issue also? Tips for fixing this are welcome

[MikeH]

That’s the way mine works also. To dim them I just say something like: “Alexa, turn den light to 30%”.

[renes (Rene)]

@MikeH when I use my Harmony to switch on lights thrue Hue emulation it does switch on at last dimmed level. Also when I use Alexa to switch on my native Philips Hue lights they behave as expected, eg. switching on at last dimmed level. Also Homekit does it like that.

I’m looking for consistent behaviour, else I get ‘lost in translation’ Of course I can build some rules to get same behaviour, but I was hoping this isn’t necessary.

[Stavros (Dave)]

Hi all, I am keen to use this binding to link openhab to my Amazon echo. However I also want to add a real hue bridge. Will the three elements (emulator, real hue bridge and openhab) all work together?

Cheers

[jaydee73 (Stefan)]

@Stavros

Will the three elements (emulator, real hue bridge and openhab) all work together?

Yes, you can!

The only thing to pay attention to: During the discovery of the openhab items by Amazon echo, you should power off your hue bridge. Otherwise the bridge will prevent the items from being found by Echo.

[Stavros (Dave)]

So once this is done the echo will be able to control openhab and real hue lights?

[jaydee73 (Stefan)]

@Stavros

once this is done

What exactly do you mean by this? What still needs to be done? It’s all there. Or do you mean “when you have done this”?

I am using the hue bridge (therefore also the hue binding), the hue emulation binding (for communicating with my Echo) and of course OH2 in the middle of the whole pack. I can control my bulbs with Echo through OH.

[Stavros (Dave)]

Nice thanks for that. Final question, the hue binding to the bridge is not 2 way is it? IE if I turn a light off with my phone, the hue binding has to poll to get the updated status?

[jaydee73 (Stefan)]

Yes, but the poll is done automatically. There might be a small delay (couple of seconds) until the binding gets the updated state, but it’s working. No matter which device you are using (hue app, openhab app, openhab sitemap or even the physical hue remote), the updated state will be displayed correctly on all devices.

[Herman_Krause]

Good day, I am stuck big time.

I made a raspberry pi Echo “EchoPi” <Pi 2 B> that is connected to my home network and i have OpenHAB2 running with MySensors serial gateway running on an Intel NUC with windows 7 64bit.

I am trying to use the Hue Emulator to connect to the EchoPi, but i cant get the Pi to discover my item, only have one for testing.

I am based in South Africa and the Android Amazon Alexa app is not supported here, so im using the browser based app to discover my items.

I installed the Hue Emulator via Paper UI and every other possible solution i could find on the internet. The emulator is running acording to the debug log:

2017-02-16 10:31:23.910 [DEBUG] [org.openhab.io.hueemulation         ] - BundleEvent STARTING - org.openhab.io.hueemulation
2017-02-16 10:31:23.914 [DEBUG] [org.openhab.io.hueemulation         ] - ServiceEvent REGISTERED - {javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet}={service.pid=org.openhab.hueemulation, service.config.category=io, service.config.label=Hue Emulation, component.name=org.openhab.hueemulation, component.id=130, pairingEnabled=true, service.config.description.uri=io:hueemulation, service.id=262, service.bundleid=176, service.scope=bundle} - org.openhab.io.hueemulation
2017-02-16 10:31:23.922 [DEBUG] [ulation.internal.HueEmulationServlet] - Device pairing enabled : true
2017-02-16 10:31:23.932 [DEBUG] [org.openhab.io.hueemulation         ] - ServiceEvent REGISTERED - {javax.servlet.ServletContext}={osgi.web.symbolicname=org.openhab.io.hueemulation, osgi.web.version=2.0.0, osgi.web.contextpath=/, service.id=263, service.bundleid=176, service.scope=singleton} - org.openhab.io.hueemulation
2017-02-16 10:31:23.933 [INFO ] [ulation.internal.HueEmulationServlet] - Started Hue Emulation service at /api
2017-02-16 10:31:23.934 [DEBUG] [org.openhab.io.hueemulation         ] - BundleEvent STARTED - org.openhab.io.hueemulation
2017-02-16 10:31:24.063 [INFO ] [basic.internal.servlet.WebAppServlet] - Started Basic UI at /basicui/app
2017-02-16 10:31:24.088 [INFO ] [arthome.ui.paper.internal.PaperUIApp] - Started Paper UI at /paperui
2017-02-16 10:31:24.113 [INFO ] [panel.internal.HABPanelDashboardTile] - Started HABPanel at /habpanel

My item tag looks as follows, I use “Switchable” & “Lighting” …

Switch MB_Ceiling_Light  "Light"   (gMB, Lights)	[ "Switchable" ]	

I also downloaded the Phillips hue app on android to see if i can find the Hue Emulation but no luck.
Is there something that i am missing ?

Please help