EvoControl - custom Alexa skill for Evohome

[philchillbill]

By the way, anybody with no Echo Show device and only a screenless Alexa-capable gadget can create scenes, groups and multiple schedules via the backup/restore capability. Just download the JSON, add the sections that would be there if you had a screen and restore. Scenes/groups and schedules are always usable without screen, just not creatable.

[bruce_miranda]

Sounds like you've almost created a CMD line interface to EvoControl. I like.

[Midland45]

Just an update to the "skipped zones in Activity-triggering" issue I previously had encountered, where very occasionally 1 zone out of 10 would not receive its temporary override.
Pleased to report I haven't had a single failure in the last 4 weeks.
So think after your code changes you can safely sign it off as complete

[philchillbill]

Good to hear. Thanks for reporting back !

[philchillbill]

I just fixed a schedule-related bug which was causing midnight on Sunday to be mischaracterised. If any of your zone's schedules have such a switchpoint then the autosave of preset 'A' that happens when you first link the skill will contain incorrect data. If that applies to you, please re-save the current live schedule as preset 'A' to overwrite the bad data. Sorry for any inconvenience. Thanks to Bruce for discovering this anomaly.

[jweaver]

I keep having a problem with the Echo (not Show).. I can't reproduce it, but it happens regularly..

When you launch Smart Heat it should say "Say an EvoControl Smart Heat Command"... But occasionally (after saying a command) when you launch Smart Heat she says "please say a valid zone name". And from here you can't really do much other than go with it (i.e say "Study" and then follow her instructions).

This doesn't happen every time.. But often enough for me to know it wasn't a one off.

Has anyone else seen this?

I don't know if you can remember this discussion.. But its doing it now and its not related to another skill.

Normally when you say "Smartheat" Alexa responds with "Say and EvoControl Smart Heat Command"...

This morning told her to "set standby for 6 hours".

But now when I launch "Smartheat" it says "say a valid zone name".. It still accepts all commands, but the start response is wrong.


It was suggested that I was launching another skill.. I am now 100% certain this is not the case.

I left it for 5 mins.. And now its gone back to saying "say an evo control smart heat command".

Its a minor issue for sure, but it is odd.

[bruce_miranda]

I have had this too. But I've now taught myself to start every command with "Alexa, TELL SmartHeat to..." And that works every time.

[philchillbill]

I don't know if you can remember this discussion.. But its doing it now and its not related to another skill.

Normally when you say "Smartheat" Alexa responds with "Say and EvoControl Smart Heat Command"...

This morning told her to "set standby for 6 hours".

But now when I launch "Smartheat" it says "say a valid zone name".. It still accepts all commands, but the start response is wrong.


It was suggested that I was launching another skill.. I am now 100% certain this is not the case.

I left it for 5 mins.. And now its gone back to saying "say an evo control smart heat command".

Its a minor issue for sure, but it is odd.

Indeed. But it's not EvoControl's 'fault'. The Alexa Service decides what skill to invoke based on what it thinks you said. From time to time, it seems to call either the wrong skill or no skill at all. It also sometimes calls a skill correctly but sends garbage you never uttered, so the skill starts off all wrong. I have to admit I've never had that with EvoControl but I do have it the odd time with some of my other skills. It does always go back to normal after a short while though.

[jweaver]

Indeed. But it's not EvoControl's 'fault'. The Alexa Service decides what skill to invoke based on what it thinks you said. From time to time, it seems to call either the wrong skill or no skill at all. It also sometimes calls a skill correctly but sends garbage you never uttered, so the skill starts off all wrong. I have to admit I've never had that with EvoControl but I do have it the odd time with some of my other skills. It does always go back to normal after a short while though.

I get that.. But if its launched the wrong skill.. How does it still understand EvoControls commands? I assumed that because it starts saying "say a valid zone name" I was running another skill, but its still works..

Its beyond Minor, but I am just curious.

[philchillbill]

I get that.. But if its launched the wrong skill.. How does it still understand EvoControls commands? I assumed that because it starts saying "say a valid zone name" I was running another skill, but its still works..

Its beyond Minor, but I am just curious.

I didn't say that situation (1) applies to this. I also mentioned situation (2), namely "It also sometimes calls a skill correctly but sends garbage you never uttered, so the skill starts off all wrong."

[bruce_miranda]

Quick Actions for EvoControl....Nice. Hopefully "Standby" can be invoked from the widget.
But pity they don't support this on the Echo Show 5

[philchillbill]

Alexa Widgets for EvoControl

Quick Actions for EvoControl....Nice. Hopefully "Standby" can be invoked from the widget.
But pity they don't support this on the Echo Show 5

Yeah I included Standby. The funny thing is that the 5” is included in the simulator for widgets so it may be worth trying a swipe from the RHS of your screen leftwards to see if widgets are actually available on the 5”.


EDIT: Accidentally deleted my original post on Widgets while making an edit to fix a typo

Anyway, here's a link to the video: https://vimeo.com/828640950

Amazon states "Widgets are not currently available on the Echo Show 5, first generation of Echo Show 10, and Echo Spot."

[Midland45]

The Evocontrol widget isn’t actually showing as available in the widget gallery on my echo show 8. Is this because it’s still a development widget or is it not yet available for Amazon.co.uk?
As I do use activities I can see this being very useful.

[philchillbill]

The Evocontrol widget isn’t actually showing as available in the widget gallery on my echo show 8. Is this because it’s still a development widget or is it not yet available for Amazon.co.uk?
As I do use activities I can see this being very useful.

Yep, it's still dev-only so unpublished. Not sure if I can beta-invite for it. The skill needs to be recertified to add widgets for the greater public so I'll wait a bit and get it really pretty/useful before I submit it.

Would it also be nice to be able to set the System Mode via quick-actions in the widget or does the availability of Activities make that somewhat redundant?

[Midland45]

Yep, it's still dev-only so unpublished. Not sure if I can beta-invite for it. The skill needs to be recertified to add widgets for the greater public so I'll wait a bit and get it really pretty/useful before I submit it.

Would it also be nice to be able to set the System Mode via quick-actions in the widget or does the availability of Activities make that somewhat redundant?

I do often set System Mode to off, so having quick actions available from my echo show would be useful for me.