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[soxfan1966]

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

[alzy]

You use either the Alexa app on your phone or on a PC at

https://www.alexa.amazon.com

go to Smarthome then Devices.

[Tuicemen]

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.

[soxfan1966]

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 ?

[Tuicemen]

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.

[soxfan1966]

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

[Tuicemen]

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

[Tuicemen]

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.

[soxfan1966]

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 ?

[Tuicemen]

sudo systemctl status homegenie.service
 it is possible the Port jumped try port: 8081 if the service is running.

[soxfan1966]

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 ?

[Tuicemen]

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

[soxfan1966]

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 ?

[Tuicemen]

Yes echo bridge must be the same port as HG as it uses the HG server.

[soxfan1966]

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.