Amazon Echo to HA Controllers

[wuench]

For kinect, from an MS API point of view is it even exposed?   From my sketchy memory of the speech API it just sees kinect as another mic, doesn't it?.    I will add IMHO, my XBone/Kinectv2's VR is not nearly as good as my XBox360/Kinectv1's VR in actual use.
 
It is exciting to see Google enter this space, maybe we'll see a different paradigm with more direct control.  The one feature I want to see is text-to-speech, and other stuff that might allow me to dump Sonos since they obviously have no interest and/or skill set as far as client and API development at Sonos.   Still waiting for that Sonos-killer....

 

[Dean Roddey]

The Kinect is a pretty extensive widget and has it's whole SDK, AFAIK. It not only does voice recognition. It can do face recognition, skeleton recognition (knows you by the shape/movement of your limbs apparently), and hand gesture recognition. So, if it were fully implemented in an automation system, it could allow for some amazing stuff. It could do true, positive recognition of not just occupancy but to identify multiple people being in a room. You can do both voice and hand signals to drive the automation system.
 
So it's a way, way more intense thing than the Echo. However, I think it requires a good bit of processing on the host machine for some of that stuff, which might mean that a small home automation machine couldn't necessarily handle it while providing good response as an automation controller, I dunno.
 
It may be that the speech to text stuff isn't part of that and that bit is just done via the standard SAPI SDK, I'm not sure.

 

[heffneil]

Hey guys I am using the spin off HA-Bridge by bwssytems (sic) 
 
I am trying to get it to work with my thermostats on my HAI system with Haiku requests.  If anyone has any experience converting the response to an HTTP request.  Has anyone done something similar to this firsthand?

 

[wuench]

HA bridge is a HUE emulator, so it is pretending to be a HUE to the Echo.  HUE doesn't support thermostats, only lighting.   What I did for the CQC emulator driver is I am defining my thermostat as a hue dimmer to the Echo.
 
Not sure what you mean by the HTTP response.   Response from the Echo to the HA-Bridge? 

 

[heffneil]

I was referring to the response from the Echo to HTTP. I am saying the Echo takes the voice command and makes an http request.  I see how to do this with a Dim or On / Off request but how do I set the URL used when I refer to a specific Thermostat?
 
Oh and the author of the Echo HA-Bridge says there are a ton of ways to do just about everything I just need an example

 

[wuench]

Sorry I looked through my notes and I only have the on response documented.   I don't see anything in the HUE API documentation about thermostats.   The closest is maybe the temperature sensors which return /sensors/<id>/temperature/## where ## is an int32.
 
If the ha-bridge can do thermostats now, then I would download wireshark, and take a capture on a system running ha-bridge while you send a successful command.
 
-------------------------------
 Turn On Response
-------------------------------
 
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Server: Apache-Coyote/1.1
Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *
Access-Control-Allow-Methods: POST, GET, OPTIONS, DELETE
Access-Control-Max-Age: 3600
Access-Control-Allow-Headers: x-requested-with
Content-Type: application/json;charset=UTF-8
Content-Length: 74
 
{"success":{"/lights/aaaaaaaa-bbbb-cccc-dddd-eeeeeeee0000/state/on":true}}

 

[Dyeper]

 

 
I use the Echo for basic control of my Russound/Sonos system (turn on Russound zones, select and play Pandora stations on Sonos, etc.).  We don't typically blast music through my whole house audio - it's just for casual listening.  I have no problem getting the Echo to hear me over it or anything else of normal volume (TV, etc.).  If I'm having a party with lots of people talking loudly it's sometimes a challenge if I'm not close to the Echo but usually works fine.

How are you using the Echo to control your Russound? I have a MCA-C5, and have been looking everyone for someone that is controlling their Russound with Alexa. I assume you are using RNET?

 

[feobrien]

How are you using the Echo to control your Russound? I have a MCA-C5, and have been looking everyone for someone that is controlling their Russound with Alexa. I assume you are using RNET?

yes, I would like to know how to do this as well!

 

[MikeB]

How are you using the Echo to control your Russound? I have a MCA-C5, and have been looking everyone for someone that is controlling their Russound with Alexa. I assume you are using RNET?

 
Hi -
 
Yes, RNET.  I am using the Echo to trigger programs on my ISY-99 which send commands to my CAV6.6 through an ELK-IP232.  Nothing too fancy, just turning on zones, changing sources, etc.

 

[feobrien]

Hi -
 
Yes, RNET.  I am using the Echo to trigger programs on my ISY-99 which send commands to my CAV6.6 through an ELK-IP232.  Nothing too fancy, just turning on zones, changing sources, etc.

Thanks. I already am using the RS-232 input on my Russound (attached to OmniPro II).  Going to see if I can find something more of a direct IP control via Alexa. I have the Russound APP running on my tablet, so there should be a way

 

[MikeB]

I have 2 CAV6.6s (12 zones) so use the serial port on each.  The 2nd port is used by an application called cav66.exe.

 

[wkearney99]

I have 2 CAV6.6s (12 zones) so use the serial port on each.  The 2nd port is used by an application called cav66.exe.

 
Which, in theory, you should not need to do.  Make an RNET connection directly from one Russound unit to the other and you'd be able to control them both through just one of their serial ports.  The 2nd one would need it's address changed to reflect being secondary.

 

[MikeB]

Which, in theory, you should not need to do.  Make an RNET connection directly from one Russound unit to the other and you'd be able to control them both through just one of their serial ports.  The 2nd one would need it's address changed to reflect being secondary.

 
I do have an RNET connection between both CAV6.6 units.  I am controlling BOTH CAV6.6s in 2 different ways (using 1 serial port on each unit) - one through my ISY/Echo, and the other through an application called cav66.exe which allows me to control JRiver Media Center with my Russound keypads and also send the keypads track information for what's playing.  

 

[Dyeper]

Thanks. I already am using the RS-232 input on my Russound (attached to OmniPro II).  Going to see if I can find something more of a direct IP control via Alexa. I have the Russound APP running on my tablet, so there should be a way

 
Agreed! I have a MCA-C5 and it can be controlled via RIO, which is the TCP based protocol that the Mobile Apps use to control the system. You can get the documentation on the protocol and all the commands that can be sent to it. HERE it is. I have used putty to log into it, and sent some commands and it all works as expected. The key is, programming a front end that would have to sit within the house, opening that to AWS/Lambda that can understand requests from Alexa (Lambda) and submitting that to the Russound unit via RIO. I have not found (as of yet) any direct integration with Russound with the network based RIO protocol, other than things like Control4, OpenRemote, etc. I did see something with OpenHAB that I havent had much time to look into yet. 
 
We should collaborate!

 

[feobrien]

Agreed! I have a MCA-C5 and it can be controlled via RIO, which is the TCP based protocol that the Mobile Apps use to control the system. You can get the documentation on the protocol and all the commands that can be sent to it. HERE it is. I have used putty to log into it, and sent some commands and it all works as expected. The key is, programming a front end that would have to sit within the house, opening that to AWS/Lambda that can understand requests from Alexa (Lambda) and submitting that to the Russound unit via RIO. I have not found (as of yet) any direct integration with Russound with the network based RIO protocol, other than things like Control4, OpenRemote, etc. I did see something with OpenHAB that I havent had much time to look into yet. 
 
We should collaborate!

​Dyeper, sorry for the delayed response - I'll blame the Holidays!  Would be happy to collaborate, although just a home owner hack here that likes to figure these things out. I did find exactly what we need done for DIRECTV (https://github.com/bklavet/Echo-skill-to-control-Directv). It works great, this is the type of solution we need for the Russound challenge (don't know why Russound just hasn't done it - they have their own app so much of the needed codes is probably already available). DIRECTV published the information similar to the RIO protocol document you referenced.