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Author Topic: Cannot add new HimeGenie device to Alexa  (Read 3733 times)

soxfan1966

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Cannot add new HimeGenie device to Alexa
« on: December 17, 2019, 07:23:07 PM »

My HomeGenie setup using the HA Bridge interface to Alexa.  Everything is working good.

Today I added a new x10 device for our second Christmas Tree and also added that to HA Bridge.

I can turn it on and off via HomeGenie and HA Bridge.

But when I as Alexa to Discover devices - either using the app or verbally asking her it does not find the new x10 device.

All my existing x10 devices still work in Alexa.

Thoughts?
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Tuicemen

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Re: Cannot add new HimeGenie device to Alexa
« Reply #1 on: December 18, 2019, 07:16:46 AM »

Amazon has been rolling out updates to fix issues however not everyone gets them at the same time.
Several of these updates have messed with software bridges and some skills (yes skills) rendering them inoperable.
I first noticed this same issue a few weeks back when away and wasn't able to dig into it till now.
Although I was able to get my new device seen by Alexa it was a task. It involved removing all my devices from the Alexa App And HA-Bridge then re-adding to HA-Bridge followed by an Alexa rediscover. I believe the issues is the way bridge issues device ID #s
Note: remove all devices doesn't work correctly in the App that has been broken for some time

Since I've only just started my HA season I'm behind on a lot of things I wish to do with my setup.
HA-Bridge and HomeGenie issues should be reported in their corresponding Github issues pages with a new thread if not already brought to the authors attention with a issue report.
I haven't posted a issue on this as I'm still running a RC build of HA-Bridge. I intend to update the bridge and test things out later this week. By then maybe Alexa will have a new update with new issues ::) :'
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petera

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Re: Cannot add new HimeGenie device to Alexa
« Reply #2 on: December 18, 2019, 10:13:12 AM »

My HomeGenie setup using the HA Bridge interface to Alexa.  Everything is working good.

Today I added a new x10 device for our second Christmas Tree and also added that to HA Bridge.

I can turn it on and off via HomeGenie and HA Bridge.

But when I as Alexa to Discover devices - either using the app or verbally asking her it does not find the new x10 device.

All my existing x10 devices still work in Alexa.

Thoughts?

It might be an idea to indicate to Mr T what version of HA Bridge is installed on your system. Not being a user of the HABridge I did assist another user here last week to get his now famous Alexa turning on lights via HomeGenie. I had to get him replace his current version of the HABridge with version 5.3.0 to achieve this. Having the Homegenie Helper now included in HABridge was clearly a help in itself.

Maybe you could take this route to fix your problem. Just download the latest HABridge Java Jar and point your HABridge service to it.
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soxfan1966

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Re: Cannot add new HimeGenie device to Alexa
« Reply #3 on: December 29, 2019, 06:28:00 PM »

Got a new Echo today (wanted to replace the Echo Dot in my living Room).  Hooked it up and went to try the x10 light I have in that room and it did not work.  Checked the Alexa App and none of my HA Bridge devices wee listed anymore.   No idea what happened this time.  I tried removing all the devices from HA Bridge, restarting, and then adding them all back via the helper - they all appear now in HA Bridge, and I can turn them on and off via HA Bridge but I cannot get them to be discovered in Alexa.  I went to the GitHub site for HA Bridge and noticed a recent post on Discovery issues so added a comment to that.  Here is the link to the GitHub post:
https://github.com/bwssytems/ha-bridge/issues/1161

Not sure why Alexa stopped seeing the devices this time, but hoping I can get them back ASAP.
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petera

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Re: Cannot add new HimeGenie device to Alexa
« Reply #4 on: December 29, 2019, 08:15:59 PM »

Got a new Echo today (wanted to replace the Echo Dot in my living Room).  Hooked it up and went to try the x10 light I have in that room and it did not work.  Checked the Alexa App and none of my HA Bridge devices wee listed anymore.   No idea what happened this time.  I tried removing all the devices from HA Bridge, restarting, and then adding them all back via the helper - they all appear now in HA Bridge, and I can turn them on and off via HA Bridge but I cannot get them to be discovered in Alexa.  I went to the GitHub site for HA Bridge and noticed a recent post on Discovery issues so added a comment to that.  Here is the link to the GitHub post:
https://github.com/bwssytems/ha-bridge/issues/1161

Not sure why Alexa stopped seeing the devices this time, but hoping I can get them back ASAP.

I read the post you tagged onto someone else's issue. Did you try fault finding as per the instructions given there. I strongly doubt that many there will know what a Pi X10 Hub is running on Homegenie. You'll have to give a little more technical details of your issue in order to obtain a possible solution.

There are so many factors that could have caused your problem. Things to consider are, have you different accounts for each Amazon device, are you running more than one device on the same network and if so what generation are each device. Have you tried to individually delete each device from Amazon Alexa and then add only one device and see if can be discovered. The list of factors is endless and it could be one or a combination of many causing the problem.

Alexa is no longer as simple to configure as it once was since its last round of firmware updates when using emulators and in many cases as soon as a solution is found another problem arises. Still you might be able to resolve your problem by stripping back your setup and adding back piece by piece while testing using the discovery service.
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soxfan1966

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Re: Cannot add new HimeGenie device to Alexa
« Reply #5 on: December 29, 2019, 08:28:29 PM »

Yes, I did try some of the things on that post - and also the troubleshooting link info.

I don't know nor understand why it works great and then out of the blue stops working.  When I tried to add a new device a few weeks ago it did not find it but the other devices still appeared and worked.  Today I added a ew echo, I did not change anything in HG nor HA Bridge so not sure why the prior devices stopped appearing in Alexa.

HG and HA Bridge seem to work great on their own, it's the integration to Alexa that is the issue - and the issue seems to be on the Alexa side.

I have an Alexa plug - works great in Alexa.  I also have a Harmony Hub and that too works great in Alexa

I have ways I can turn on/off the x10 devices without using Alexa - the HG app for example.

But the added convience of using voice commands to Alexa for both myself and my family is great and I want it to work seemlesly.

If there is another method for integrating HG into Alexa for my x10 devices I would be open to trying that too - especially if it avoids the on and off working that has been encountered with HA Bridge and Alexa lately.
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petera

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Re: Cannot add new HimeGenie device to Alexa
« Reply #6 on: December 29, 2019, 09:00:53 PM »

Yes, I did try some of the things on that post - and also the troubleshooting link info.

I don't know nor understand why it works great and then out of the blue stops working.  When I tried to add a new device a few weeks ago it did not find it but the other devices still appeared and worked.  Today I added a ew echo, I did not change anything in HG nor HA Bridge so not sure why the prior devices stopped appearing in Alexa.

HG and HA Bridge seem to work great on their own, it's the integration to Alexa that is the issue - and the issue seems to be on the Alexa side.

I have an Alexa plug - works great in Alexa.  I also have a Harmony Hub and that too works great in Alexa

I have ways I can turn on/off the x10 devices without using Alexa - the HG app for example.

But the added convience of using voice commands to Alexa for both myself and my family is great and I want it to work seemlesly.

If there is another method for integrating HG into Alexa for my x10 devices I would be open to trying that too - especially if it avoids the on and off working that has been encountered with HA Bridge and Alexa lately.

Yes but none of the other devices you mention work via an emulator. They have their own official Alexa skills registered with Amazon Alex unlike the HG/HA Bridge which depends on emulation. HG does have the HG EchoBridge program developed by a HG contributor that does Alexa with HG but more often than not it breaks and needs to be manually maintained which would not suit the majority of users here.

HG has had no official development done on it since last April and so much has changed with Alexa in the intervening months. The only solution is to modify the HG EchoBridge program code which is way above most people's skill sets on this forum.

I imagine if you posted your own issue on the HA Bridge GitHub with as much detail as possible the author could possibly reply to you and step you through the problem.
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Tuicemen

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Re: Cannot add new HimeGenie device to Alexa
« Reply #7 on: December 30, 2019, 08:29:10 AM »

I still run a RC build of HA-Bridge at my off grid place and had no real issues there. However I did update from a RC build here in the city and have had some issues here. As I stated before Amazon doesn't  roll out updates to everyone at the same time. This causes you to see a problem that I don't. I did have the issue with being unable to add a device at my city place prior to updating HA-Bridge as well as after. Ive solved this a couple of ways easyest is to remove the device from HA-Bridge and readd it which gives the device a new id which Alexa seems to find. 
The other way is a bit more involved and if you have other devices besides HG ones means a total reconfigure of alexa and the Bridge. If only HG devices remove all then add all HG devices fromHA-bridge. If you add them the same order HA-Bridge gives them the same Ids so a forget from Alexa isn't  required and it sees the new device.
The device isn't  responding message from Alexa but still comes on is a timing issue. It is possible to set time delays in th HA-Bridge and seems to be location specific what works for me may not work for you.
The latest issue I'm now seeing is one device fails and I get an error message in the Bridge however I can't seem to track this down as it isn't constant. Once I turn on debugging and fire off the on command the device works both on and off. Sometimes it just starts to work if I turn on a different device then the failed device.  B:(
As petera stated all software emulaters are suffering from Amazon's Alexa updates. Some are more severe then others and harder to keep up with. 
 When I first switched over to using HomeGenie I used both Google and Alexa for X10 control Google required some extra work. A modification of an existing program I had created using SmartThings developer portal made that possible. I started a thread for this on HomeGenie.club but there was no interest. Another user created a Google HG program which works well so I dropped the smartthings route. From what I remember I was able to eliminate the need of my SmartCloud program and use HG directly with SmartThings.
I may have to look and see if I still have any notes on this.
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soxfan1966

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Re: Cannot add new HimeGenie device to Alexa
« Reply #8 on: December 30, 2019, 08:38:27 AM »

Thanks.  It's only the HG devices in my case but I have been renumbering them after adding again in HA Bridge based on the suggestion here and in the HG board.

Sounds like your solution is to not renumber but use new numbers?

I actually posted a question on your board regarding smart things and the cloud as I happen to discover that when I was looking at a way to use my Harmony Hub.  so if you find more information about how to get that working I would be willing to give it a whirl.
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petera

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Re: Cannot add new HimeGenie device to Alexa
« Reply #9 on: December 30, 2019, 08:45:55 AM »

The simplest solution would be to write a skill for HG and register it with Amazon. Just set up a developer account with Amazon and it can all be done in Javascript. Once you have your endpoints resolved it should be fairly straightforward. You should find a sample template on one of the GitHubs to do this.
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Tuicemen

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Re: Cannot add new HimeGenie device to Alexa
« Reply #10 on: December 30, 2019, 09:08:21 AM »

I did manage to login to the SmartThings Developer portal however I must have had two accounts as none of my device handlers are there. I remember getting things to work with HG was just a matter of an edit to the device hander I had for x10. 

 I seen your post on my forum and I like the one HG program for both Alexa and Google idea. However I'm unsure this appoach will be anymore reliable for Alexa. Going this route will tie HG to the SmartThings skill so it should. However it means allowing HG to be accessed from the internet which many are concerned about.
 
 The skill route is probably the best way to go and I had looked into that a few years back. However I didn't  like what Amazon was doing to skill developers at the time.  They were charging developers based off number of users of your skill and not allowing you to recoup that by charging for the skill. I believe that policy has changed.
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soxfan1966

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Re: Cannot add new HimeGenie device to Alexa
« Reply #11 on: December 30, 2019, 09:09:47 AM »

A HomeGenie skill for Alexa sounds like it would be nice - and I know just enough JavaScript to be dangerous.

However, I am not sure what you mean about endpoints resolved nor if your thought meant controlling all HG devices or just the X10 ones (those are the ones I am having issues with, as the other things I use already have Alexa Skills like Harmony Hub).

If there was a way to get a HG skill to directly work with Alexa and avoid the middleman (in this case HA Bridge) then that would hopefully provide a consistent and easy way to maintain the control of those devices in HG.

I will poke around in GitHub to see if I can find one the templates you refer to.
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petera

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Re: Cannot add new HimeGenie device to Alexa
« Reply #12 on: December 30, 2019, 09:45:59 AM »

A HomeGenie skill for Alexa sounds like it would be nice - and I know just enough JavaScript to be dangerous.

However, I am not sure what you mean about endpoints resolved nor if your thought meant controlling all HG devices or just the X10 ones (those are the ones I am having issues with, as the other things I use already have Alexa Skills like Harmony Hub).

If there was a way to get a HG skill to directly work with Alexa and avoid the middleman (in this case HA Bridge) then that would hopefully provide a consistent and easy way to maintain the control of those devices in HG.

I will poke around in GitHub to see if I can find one the templates you refer to.

All you really need to do is get your head around SSDP and Unicast and Multicast. If you look at the code in HG EchoBridge you will see exactly how you can create your own discovery service that will expose your HG devices to Alexa via HTTP/2 via a request to AVS. Once you have your UUID sorted for each device and the correct SSDP settings you have most of the work done.

I really do recommend looking at the HG EchoBridge code. It's author only knocked it together for his own purposes and it can be cleaned up to suit your own purposes. That shouldn't be a major issue.
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