X10 Community Forum
📱🖥️PiX10Hub => 🏥Help and Trouble Shooting => Topic started by: soxfan1966 on February 17, 2019, 12:32:57 PM
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Hi all...
Find myself with some available time to try and switch HomeGenie on my Raspberry Pi from using the HA Bridge (as was originally installed with the image) to use the built in HG Alexa Bridge.
I already have the "Amazon Echo Interface" Enabled with my ip address and port but in reading over the info here and some other posts I am not certain of a few other steps:
1) I understand I need to turn off the HA Bridge by connecting to my raspberry pi and using this command:
sudo systemctl disable ha-bridge.service
2) Then it says this:
in SSH session.
5: Open your Alexa app and go to devices and click forget.
6:Wait a few mins then click discover devices.
What Alexa app am I opening? The basic one on my phone or from a computer, or is this specific to the Raspberry Pi? If its just on the Raspberry, how do I open the Alexa app on that device?
At this point in my setup, I have everything working - the delay from HomeGenie to Alexa is what I am trying to resolve by moving to the HG Alexa Bridge so I don't want to hose what I have setup all ready.
Thanks
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You use either the Alexa app on your phone or on a PC at
https://www.alexa.amazon.com
go to Smarthome then Devices.
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The HA-Bridge service doesn't have to be disabled unless you never plan to use it for anything again.
You can disable Alexa from seeing specific devices from inside HA-Bridge just click the edit button for each device you wish Alexa not to see then scroll down to inactive and check it so it reads true then update device.
Once you have HA-Bridge not seeing devices you don't use a ssh session you can either use the Alexa App on your phone or the web UI to forget devices I prefer the web ui. https://alexa.amazon.com/spa/index.html#cards
Before forgetting devices and discovering reboot the PI with Sudo reboot and let HG load so echo bridge can find devices in HG.
With HG running again, in the Alexa app or web ui forget All devices the rediscover. don't worry if you have devices from other hubs or skills as Alexa is smartenought ot add them as well as long as those hubs are working.
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OK, will try that now but a few more questions
1) How do I know if the HA Bridge on my Pi is not running anymore? I ran this command from Putty (after connecting to the Pi):
sudo systemctl disable ha-bridge.service
do I need the "sudo reboot" command too
I can still pull up the HA Bridge on the ip address and port from my computer to the pi. So I think I missed something.
2) In HomeGenie, do I need both of these things enabled:
a) Configure / Settings / Amazon Echo Interface
b) Configure / Programs / HA-Bridge
3) Is there anything in HomeGenie that needs to be done for each device to get Alexa to recognize it ?
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1: run sudo systemctl status ha-bridge.service
2: disable HA-Bridge only if you intend not to use it
3:Echo bridge needs to be enabled and the Port of your HG entered in its configuration then reboot the pi or restart the HG service.
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What is the difference in HomeGenie between these two things:
a) Configure / Settings / Amazon Echo Interface
b) Configure / Programs / HA-Bridge
It sounds like you are saying I only need the one under Settings / Amazon Echo Bridge with my IP address and Port setup
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yep if you never wish to use HA-Bridge again it can be totally deleted from HG
Configure/Programs/Device and Things/HA-Bridge click to open then bottom right click Actions then Delete Program
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The IP address in Echo Bridge settings isn't required but the port number must be entered and exactly the same as what HG is set to use.
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OK, well not sure what happened but now I cannot get HomeGenie to connect.
Trying to load it via a web browser or the app doesn't connect
I can still connect to the PiX10Hubb via Putty and run this:
sudo systemctl status ha-bridge.service
which tells me its disabled
Is there a way to check the homegenie service ?
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sudo systemctl status homegenie.service
it is possible the Port jumped try port: 8081 if the service is running.
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Allrighty - looks like it did jump from port 8080 to port 8081
Why would that happen, and how do I go about getting it back to port 8080 ?
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I've encountered that with installing the Echo Bridge But it doesn't seem to happen all the time ::) :' so I'm not sure if it is a issue with the echo bridge or HG.
To revert the port back go configure/maintenance/http settings and change the port then restart the HG service.
sudo systemctl restart homegenie.service works best
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OK, doing that now. For the Alexa Interface port, it used to be post 2124 when I had HA Bridge. Now I would set it to be the same port as HomeGenie? So 8080 once I get it back on that port. Is that correct ?
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Yes echo bridge must be the same port as HG as it uses the HG server.
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So I changed the Port under Settings / Maintenance / HTTP Settings back to 8080
I restarted the service and it works on port 8080. It also works on port 8081 (but not on 8082).
In the settings, its again showing as port 8081
Going to try it again to get it only on port 8080.
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OK, so I had to disable the Amazon Echo Interface on the Configure / Settings page, then go to the Configure / Maintenance page and update the HTTP Port back to 8080, then restart the service.
One it came back, I went back to Configure / Settings and made sure the Amazon Echo Interface was set to the same port and then Enabled it.
Now port 8080 works and port 8081 does not.
Trying to Discover the devices in Alexa now.
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OK, in port 808 and that is working.
I cannot get Alexa to recognize any x10 devices from HomeGenie.
Not sure if I am missing something else or what. I did notice that the service icons in the upper right hand corner oh HomeGenie show the one for X10 (a circle with an X inside) and one for the Amazon Echo Interface (a circle with what looks like a wifi symbol).
While the X10 one is a dark gray, the Amzon one is a light gray (I attached a picture) - does that mean something is not right and it is not running ?
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the icon must be same colour brightness as the x10 icon something isn't right
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Any thoughts on what might not be set up right?
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Double check your echo bridge settings to be sure the port is correct and if you entered a IP that it is correct.
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Try disabling then re-enabling echo bridge, I found it can take some time for it to fully engage. Alexa will not see devices until the icon is the right brightness and even then it can take a service restart.
However once setup and working it is flawless. ;)
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Since I started today trying to get the HG Amazon interface that icon in the upper right has always been the light gray.
Here is my settings - both are set to the port 8080 and the IP address is also correct.
I'm not sure what the deal is at this point.
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Try removing the IP in the echo Bridge setup. I don't use it as you can see and it works fine
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This is the other HA Bridge setting I mentioned (under Configure / Programs / Devices and Things.
It is disabled.
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That doesn't affect echo bridge even if enabled.
You can totally remove it from HG as the Philips Hue program will connect to HA-Bridge if you don't have its security enabled.
I'd suggest removing the IP from the echo Bridge settings then disable and re-enable wait a bit and if the icon still remains greyed out do a service restart.
One other thing How did you install the echo bridge did you down load it from GitHub directly to the pi or to your PC first?
I downloaded to my PC then download and installed on my pi from my PC.
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Tried Getting rid of the IP Address as you suggested. Disabled the Amazon Echo Interface then Enabled it again. Icon for it went away when I disabled it, then came back when I enabled it - but it is still light gray.
I had installed it from the Pi directly I think (did it about a month ago, but just got around to trying to Enable it).
Should I remove the Amazon Echo Interface and then download it to my PC and install to the Pi from there ?
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That's the only way I've ever installed it and not had a problem.
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OK, I downloaded it to my PC from here (from the original text file on this thread)
https://github.com/davidwallis3101/HomegenieEchoBridge/releases/download/HomegenieEchoBridge-v1.0.21/MIG-EchoBridge.zip
Do I need to remove the current installation if it first? If so, how would I do that ?
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I'm not sure how to remove a interface but if you do a backup of your setup then revert to factory settings then a restore it will be gone as it isn't in the HG repository yet that I know of. If your using Gene's HG and not HGBe you should have no issue going that route. >!
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OK, so back to this after some other HG / Pi issues have been resolved.
I am now running the 1.2 version of PiX10Hub with my setup restored from my backup - so all my devices are there.
In HG, both the X10 and Alexa icons are active (see attached)
But Alexa is not finding the devices when I do Discover (I forgot all devices I had previously had set up on Alexa)
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Ugh - went back and looked at earlier comments / replies.
If I Disable the Alexa interface, then remove the ip address and leave just the port, then activate it again - doing Discover from Alexa finds the devices.
And they work :) And the annoying "not responding" even though it does message is also gone.
Hoo ray :)
OK - done for today. And not taking any updates for awhile