I am n ot sure coding is the only think that neds to happen here, I am also
interested in the architecture side of this issue.
It seems that the cloud service has evolved from its original intent and
needs a solid rethink.
some optimal code never goes amiss but is really a band-aid.
Do we know what tasks that it now performs that are in addition to what was
intended (I guess the Alexa traffic is one), and to what percentage of the
load they drive?
Is there a need to split the functionality?
There are a lot of talented people involved in Openhab, I myself do not
code in Java but I am a solution architect (carrier) and will willingly
provide my expertise and time to the community if it rewards me with stable
services, I see it as a win-win; I am sure many on here feel the same.
Can some perform an initial assessment so we can all understand what needs
to be done?
Thanks Tom.
I have gone done the Hue Emulation ath to stabilise the experience.
I walked straight into the temperature issue too which is weird as there
are posts that say it was working, but I too found those tagged devices
were not discovered by Alexa.
I’m trying to get my Alexa devices talking to OH2 to start controlling lights and other items. I have removed my Philips Hue and other Skills as well in hoping to avoid any conflicts.
I see the devices listed in the Alexa App, and I added [ Lighting ] to a few of my items. But Alexa keeps telling me the device is not responding each time.
I do see the skill enabled in myopenhab as well. Did I miss a step?
The tag you need to add for the item to be diwscoverable is [ "Lighting "]
NOT [ Lighting ]
Then once the item file has been refreshed in OH ask Alexa to ‘discover
devices’ she should inform you she has fgound additional x number of
devices.
If have OpenHAB2 setup to get my alarm status and to be able to arm/disarm the alarm using MQTT. That all works fine. I would like to be able to ask Alexa “Alexa, what is the alarm status”. and get back either armed or disarmed. Its just a string that MQTT returns back armed or disarmed. I see no compatible tag type that I could use. Is there something that can be done or maybe a feature request.
it seems sometimes openhab2 is too slow for alexa - “… reagiert nicht” (does not response) is the reaction nearly 50% of all the time. Then it works like a charm for some time until it does not work again…
Hello,
the same problem here at the last days with alexa - “… reagiert nicht”…
Now ich have installed the Hue Emulation and it works fine for me at home…
I decided I had corrupted my install of openhab 2 enough so I re imaged my SD card and started over. I went through the whole setup again a couple of times just to cement it into my brain.
I have openhab 2 up and running and I have 3 Zwave lights and My Onkyo AVR under openhab control.
I have decided to try HUE emulation with Alexa and forget about the openhab cloud services for right now.
I am in the same spot where all the instructions I find direct me to add [switchable] tags to my home.items content but my Items file is empty.
Question:
I read that in the OH2 Paper UI there are no entries made in the config files that it is all done in an internal database. If I understand this correctly Items in the HOME.ITEMS and other configuration files are read into the database on Startup. Is that correct?
Question:
If I already have created items in the paper UI do I need to delete all the things/items I want to control with HUE Emulation and Alexa and create a
Home.Items file that will get read into the internal database upon startup? I am not quite sure how these correlate or interact with each other.
Thank You in advance for any advice you can offer.
Is there any chance that support for Canada will be added soon? We just got the Echo devices here officially but skills have to manually add support for Canadian English (It’s all the added 'Eh’s and 'Aboot’s)
Actually I have not created an Items file yet so my syntax has not entered into the picture. So it is a typical Linux case sensitive syntax I should be aware of when creating this file…
I am trying to figure out if I need to delete everything I created in PaperUI and add them through configuration files and let OH2 add them to the database OR if I can make this work using the PaperUI and I am missing some other step like editing the Database files directly (no idea how).
Sorry if I am being stupid and missing the obvious but I am actually trying to understand the systems
As far as I know you still can’t “tag” items via Paper UI which means any Alexa items need to be created via text files.
Whether you need to delete everything and start again depends on a few things like do you want to publish all your items to Alexa or just a handful? You can have text based items and PaperUI side by side.
As far as moving to text files goes give these threads a read:
Second one goes a little off track maybe but still has many useful suggestions and tips in it.
RayMYP You are my HERO!!! I have been struggling with this question for over a week trying to figure out why I could not get this to work. Reading until my eyes bleed has just introduced all sorts of misnomers and doubts as its very hard to discern between posts for different versions of Openhab as well as using the cloud based stuff vs HEU emulation. I have been a Wide Area Systems Administrator for 25 years and doing some forms of home automation for about that long also. The Pi3 and Openhab are my retirement project and I am determined to get a handle on it.
I thought the Home.items file was the key but I tried creating one and Alexa could find the items but Openhab 2 could not control them. I am sure it was a syntax error on my behalf but I wanted assurance that I was on the right track.
I only have 3 Zwave switches/dimmers and I am waiting for a new Zwave/ZigBee controller that is supposed to be here tomorrow and My Oknyo 717 under Openhab control so far.
I will go back and delete all my items and things and recreate them in Configuration files.
Again THANK YOU for the support…
From reading the recent messages on this thread, it seems like this is a server / load issue with the myopenhab cloud.
Looks like some people have temporarily solved it by switching to Hue emulation and having Alexa talk directly to OH2 (bypassing the Alexa openHAB skill + myopenhab cloud). Unfortunately, it appears thermostats aren’t supported (a requirement for me).
Has anyone setup / deployed the openhab-alexa skill on a personal AWS instance connecting directly to OH2? I believe this would bypass the myopenhab cloud which would make it more reliable correct?
I think I’ll give it a try and document my findings.
@Toddah@RayMYP There are two ways of tagging: I desrcibed it earlier here:
@Benji
Could you give some mor details what was necessary to change? I assume you have to change the openhab cloud url and deploy the skill to aws (or similar) ?
