Release Candidate and Support: Amazon Echo Control Binding

dcabanero · April 19, 2018, 1:04am

Thanks Michael, I will check that out!

jerre · April 19, 2018, 4:38pm

Hi Michi,

Been playing with this binding for a few days now and I love it. Thanks for all the effort!
I have a question though.
I need to be able to play and alarm as soon as my wireless doorbell is pushed , but I do not want the default sound.

In your original post it states :

playAlarmSound String R/W echo, echoshow, echospot, unknown Write Only! Plays an alarm sound. In PaperUI will be a selection box available. For rules use the value shown in the square brackets

Can you please clarify and/or give a full example of how I could go about playing the “Nightstand” sound through my echo for 5 seconds without changing the default sound permanently , or changing it back to the default one afterwards ?

Thanks in advance,

Jeroen

Daniel_Wilhelm · April 20, 2018, 7:09pm

Hello Michael,

I use your Binding since a few days, and it works fine… good job.
I just have only one problem with the volume control.
I use 2 Echo Dot and 1 Echo plus. For the Dots evrything is ok. The slider will show the current volume level and i can raise up and down the volume.
For the Echo plus I also can adjust the volume level and the Echo change to the new level, but the slider always go back to zero. That means I will never know which level th Echo Plus have…

Pherhaps I´m not the only person with this problem…
THX

Yash_Shah · April 21, 2018, 5:45pm

Hello,
Is there any way that I can add https://amazon.in in this binding because i’m in india and if I select amazon.com it is not showing any status of items…

mc1271 · April 22, 2018, 2:24pm

Dear Michael,

first of all thank you for the great work you did on this binding.
Just started playing around with it and alreday love it.

So far I was only able to configure it, using PaperUI.
Creating the amazonechocontrol.thing file manualy (by your example file) nothing happens / and no error is logged. As I prefer thing.files due to better backup possibilities, is that possible ?

Best wishes
Mike

michi · April 24, 2018, 5:38am

Hi Yash_Shah,
just type amazon.in in the configuration of the amazon site. Anyway I will at it to the selection box for more comfort in the next version.
Regards,
Michael

michi · April 24, 2018, 5:40am

Hi Mike,
yes it is possible, maybe you post your file (replace your account information with ‘x’). It seems that something is wrong.
Regards,
Michael

michi · April 24, 2018, 5:43am

Hi Daniel,
Are you sure that you have configured everything right. It looks like that you have configured the volume channel for a multiroom music room.
Regards,
Michael

michi · April 24, 2018, 5:45am

Hi Jeroen,
Maybe an other use can help you with this, I’am currently very busy. If not I will trie to give you a better example if I have a litte bit more time.
Regards,
Michael

jerre · April 24, 2018, 7:24am

Thank you very much for responding. Not a problem at all. Cheers

Daniel_Wilhelm · April 24, 2018, 3:21pm

I had configure it like my other 2 dots…

michi · April 24, 2018, 5:16pm

Tutorial for playing an alarm sound with an openHAB rule:

Open the PaperUI
Navigate to the Control Section
Open the Drop-Dow
Select the Sound you want to here
Write down the text in the square brackets. e.g. ECHO:system_alerts_repetitive01 for the nightstand sound
Create a rule for start playing the sound:

var Timer stopAlarmTimer = null

rule "Turn on alarm sound for 15 seconds if door opens"
when
	Item Door_Contact changed to OPEN
then
	Echo_Living_Room_PlayAlarmSound.sendCommand('ECHO:system_alerts_repetitive01')
	if (stopAlarmTimer === null)
	{
		stopAlarmTimer = createTimer(now.plusSeconds(15)) [|
			stopAlarmTimer.cancel()
			stopAlarmTimer = null
			Echo_Living_Room_PlayAlarmSound.sendCommand('')
		]
	}
end

Note 1: Do not use a to short time for playing the sound, because alexa needs some time to start playing the sound. I recommend, that you to not use a time below 10 seconds.

Note 2: The rule have no effect for your default alarm sound used in the alexa app.

Regards,
Michael

jerre · April 24, 2018, 5:48pm

Thank you very much Michi. Implemented it and it is exactly what I was after !
Cheers,

Jerre

Yash_Shah · April 25, 2018, 2:04am

Thanks for the response @michi
I tried it but didn’t work…is there any other option for that??

Master79 · April 29, 2018, 9:12am

Hi.
Sorry, but i can’t find my answers.
How can i let the echo speak a written text. But not as a reminder?
Why i have the thing xxxAlexa Apps in the inbox? It changes everytime from online to offline.
I have found all 5 echos but there ist another one with “this device” and a longer serial number. Can’t find it in the app. The fire TV stick is found but changes from online to offline too.

Thanks,
Markus

Master79 · April 29, 2018, 9:19am

Sorry,
can i start a saved scene of hue lights with “start Routine”?
Thanks again,
Markus

federic0 · April 29, 2018, 9:26am

I don’t think this is possible yet, only possible as a reminder.

This is most likely the Alexa App on your phone or tablet.

Don’t own one but could be that your TV is OFF when it goes offline?

sihui · April 29, 2018, 9:33am

Yes, confirmed

michi · April 29, 2018, 9:39am

Hi, Yash_Shah,
no there is no other option. I don’t know if something is different at amazon.in. For the other domains there was no difference, except the login process. Maybe you can more clarify whats going on. Have you created the account thing in paperUI? What status is shown in the Thing? Are there any errors listed in the log-file?
Regards,
Michael

michi · April 29, 2018, 9:41am

Hi Markus,

if you can define a routine in the alexa app which does what you want, the answer is yes, because you can trigger it with the start Routine. If the answer is no, than there is no possibility, because the binding can only start existing routines.

Regards,
Michael