EvoControl - custom Alexa skill for Evohome

[Midland45]

By the way, I've added a cc: to myself to the BACKUP option so if you can also please try that again I can see if the email is sent to me at least. If so, we know that Apple is holding it back.

EDIT: I can see in the logs that your Domoticz is providing way more than 24H worth of data to the /json.htm?type=graph&sensor=temp&range=day&idx=${id x} query. The skill expects 24H worth of 5-min data (+1) = 289 entries. Your Domoticz is spitting out 880 data points. Is that a setting you changed somewhere in Domoticz? I can modify the code to strip the extra unexpected data but I'm curious how you made it happen. EDIT#2: Done.

I've tried another back up to my Apple email but still didn't receive the email and attachment and not in junk etc Did try to a gmail address, however didn't receive the email.

I had chance to look over my domoticz settings today and found under Settings/Log History/Short Log Sensors I'd set this to 7 days so I'm presuming this explains the mystery of the additional data points being sent. I've reset this back to 1 day, but obviously your code can now accomodate changes to this anyway.

[Midland45]

The dedicated screen shown as a demand-summary when a HGI-80 is in use has now also been modified to always be able to show up to a full 12 zones on a single screen without scrolling. There are new icons for battery percentage steps of 0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% with dedicated colours. Mains connected devices like a BDR-91 controlling a pump now have a mains-plug icon instead of ⚡.

Also, the Zone Order screen can now always fit on a single screen (it was being cropped on the 5" Echo Show). The Offsets screen's tiles (max 5x) are no longer ultra-wide on very big Echos/TVs.

Big improvement when showing the demand screen for me on Echo Show 8, as previously if scrolling down to access zones 9 and 10, "Alexa" would immediately cease her verbal report, mind you not always a bad thing! It does look better visually too with the new icons, however in Domoticz I think my HR92s all went from 100% to 50%, not sure but can't remember seeing them at 75%.

[philchillbill]

I've tried another back up to my Apple email but still didn't receive the email and attachment and not in junk etc Did try to a gmail address, however didn't receive the email.

I had chance to look over my domoticz settings today and found under Settings/Log History/Short Log Sensors I'd set this to 7 days so I'm presuming this explains the mystery of the additional data points being sent. I've reset this back to 1 day, but obviously your code can now accomodate changes to this anyway.

Might explain it but the API query I use is supposed to only do 24H. Anyway, doesn't matter as I now just strip extraneous data.

Earlier today, I changed the PHP sendmail script to wrap the JSON in <pre></pre> tags and also added 2 extra headers in case Apple didn't like that aspect. Tada! I just received a cc: of your iCloud mail at 18:42 CET today so my back-end is now at least sending the email. Maybe check junk again?

[philchillbill]

Big improvement when showing the demand screen for me on Echo Show 8, as previously if scrolling down to access zones 9 and 10, "Alexa" would immediately cease her verbal report, mind you not always a bad thing! It does look better visually too with the new icons, however in Domoticz I think my HR92s all went from 100% to 50%, not sure but can't remember seeing them at 75%.

The Domoticz API provides the info down to 1% but the Domoticz GUI doesn't have enough icons for the 75% granularity. Font-Awesome had the icons so I decided to use them all

Final step is to get everything to always fit on the main Dashboard without scrolling. That's a lot more work because of the little schedule appendage and all the icons. Few more days and it'll be done.

[Midland45]

Might explain it but the API query I use is supposed to only do 24H. Anyway, doesn't matter as I now just strip extraneous data.

Earlier today, I changed the PHP sendmail script to wrap the JSON in <pre></pre> tags and also added 2 extra headers in case Apple didn't like that aspect. Tada! I just received a cc: of your iCloud mail at 18:42 CET today so my back-end is now at least sending the email. Maybe check junk again?

Yeh still nothing in my icloud junk, strangely there isn't any junk at all! So I wonder if Apple are filtering out a lot more now, probably including genuine emails too. I might try changing over to my gmail account tomorrow and retry a back up from there.

[philchillbill]

Yeh still nothing in my icloud junk, strangely there isn't any junk at all! So I wonder if Apple are filtering out a lot more now, probably including genuine emails too. I might try changing over to my gmail account tomorrow and retry a back up from there.

Upon backup initiation, I can add a pop-up that’s pre-populated with your TCC mail (so you can just hit Send if that's OK) but that will also allow you to backspace and change to a different email address if desired. That way there will be no need to change your TCC details.

[Midland45]

Upon backup initiation, I can add a pop-up that’s pre-populated with your TCC mail (so you can just hit Send if that's OK) but that will also allow you to backspace and change to a different email address if desired. That way there will be no need to change your TCC details.

That does sound a good option to have.

[philchillbill]

That does sound a good option to have.

It's now live and tested with several domains (not icloud.com though) and worked for all. So give it a whirl!

[Midland45]

It's now live and tested with several domains (not icloud.com though) and worked for all. So give it a whirl!

The new back up system is working ok allowing me to alter my target email and a confirmation of email sent does occur. However I've tried icloud, gmail and an old ntlworld email, but I've still not received any backups to inbox junk spam etc for all the 3 accounts. So not sure what's happening, as I seem to get very little spam these days on any account.

[philchillbill]

Improved Dashboard Scaling



The APL for the Dashboard view has been modified to improve its scaling when >8 tiles need to be displayed. The only device needing scrolling now is the tiny round Echo Spot because it can only realistically handle 2 tiles side-by-side. On all other screens, up to 7 tiles can fit horizontally and up to 4 vertically on portrait screens (when they accurately report as being portrait). I only have an Echo Show 8" gen 2, Echo Show 2 with 10", and Echo Spot to actually verify physically, so all other screens were handled based on the Amazon APL simulator. It's sometimes a bit off reality so please let me know if anything looks odd on one of your devices.

See screenshot of Echo Show 8" with 12 zones.

[Midland45]

That's another great improvement, does looks really good on my Echo Show 8 g2

[philchillbill]

A question for the HGI-80/Domoticz users using ngrok.

For my StateReport Domoticz skill https://smartskills.tech/statereport/faq/, I have a script that:

• Assigns each user a unique/secret uuid
• Downloads the correct platform-specific ngrok binary
• Configures ngrok to autostart and run in the background (via systemd. launchd or as a windows startup-item, depending on platform)
• When ngrok (re)starts, queries the :4040 status page for the newly-assigned URL
• Does a https GET to my back-end with both your uuid and your ngrok url so that my back-end always 'has' the correct ngrok URL for you

I could modify this to work with EvoControl. There'd be an 'Easy-Setup' button on your Account Dashboard if you tick the 'I have a HGI-80' option ✔️.

It's a powershell script for Windows and a bash script for both Debian Linuxes and macOS, meaning you have to run it from a terminal on a mac if that's your platform choice.

Question: Would Win 10/11, Debian Linuxes and macOS cover all the platform needs or is there anybody using EvoControl that's running ngrok on something more exotic?

[philchillbill]

Improved Domoticz error handling



Some recent changes:

• There's now a small Domoticz logo in the top right corner of the screen if you have a HGI-80. If connectivity is OK, the white portion with the D is coloured green, if not it's red (and brighter).
• Dropping Domoticz connectivity no longer terminates the skill session with a spoken warning and red screen, but merely changes that logo and also removes the plot button from the Dashboard. The HGI slider on the settings page is auto-disabled.
• Whenever the slider on the settings page is enabled, a quick connectivity check toward Domoticz is done and if it fails, the slider is automatically disabled again. If it succeeds, the slider stays put and when you go back to the main Dashboard you'll see the Domoticz logo is green (again) and your plot button is back.
• Moving that slider to the right also checks my back-end for a new ngrok URL so there's no longer any need to separately refresh your account details if all you did was drop an ngrok tunnel.
• The group-editor display has a new look with little ✔️ tickmarks on selected tiles and a new tile-color upon selection.

[bruce_miranda]

Will HA ever be integrated to the skill. Evohome on Domoticz is dead, why because I can't be asked to keep it up to date with its horrible code base.

[philchillbill]

Maybe I'll take over maintaining Evohome on Domoticz. Would be good to learn CPP anyway! I agree though, the code is horrible and I've heard it's tough to get PR's approved.

I installed HA recently on a spare RPi3B and started looking at it for use with my NanoCul as my 'real' HGI-80 is still reserved for Domoticz for now. Didn't get it working yet as I had a few other priorities. But it's deffo on my list to look at soon.