EvoControl - custom Alexa skill for Evohome

[philchillbill]

Groups paradigm now supported



EvoControl now supports the concept of Groups

• The new API key is live in the beta and there's a whole new account-linking flow. EvoControl can be installed from my website without going near the Alexa app at all.
• The Activity-creation screen now uses tap-to-include rather than tap-to-exclude as its basic concept
• While creating an Activity, the subheader rotates through different texts to provide help/hints

This code is live so all the current beta-testers have it automatically.

[nealroberts20]

[jb80]

EvoControl can now make use of a HGI-80 (or equivalent, e.g. SSM(R) or nanoCUL) connected via Domoticz

Any plans to support Home Assistant?

[philchillbill]

Any plans to support Home Assistant?

Not currently. TBH I have no idea how much work it would be as I've never looked at the API for it.

[bruce_miranda]

Schedules are also possible via RF, this is how the V2 controller and the RFG100 used to work. The RFG100 used to pull the Schedule from the TCC and then send that to the controller via RF and vise versa.

[philchillbill]

Schedules are also possible via RF, this is how the V2 controller and the RFG100 used to work. The RFG100 used to pull the Schedule from the TCC and then send that to the controller via RF and vise versa.

I take it you mean in Home Assistant (because that's not the case for Domoticz)?

[bruce_miranda]

Yup, I never got around to coding schedules into Domoticz because by then I was convinced to make the move to HA myself and never looked back.

[philchillbill]

[bruce_miranda]

A quick reminder to how to enable the skill?

[philchillbill]

A quick reminder to how to enable the skill?

You can't as there is no active Beta at the moment...

However, the fantastic news is that Amazon certified 'EvoControl Smart Heat' yesterday for global public distribution so it's officially out of beta and released. I'm just creating a completely new website for it and when that's done I'll publish the skill which means it will appear in everybody's Alexa app for installation without an invite or email-whitelisting.

The new install procedure will then also be live and facilitate installing directly from the browser in under a minute. No need to search for the skill in the skill-store.

I'll definitely publish it before Nov 1st, likely sooner. Watch this space!

[bruce_miranda]

I was part of the beta and have been struggling to even invoke the skill now. Can't wait for the published skill.

[philchillbill]

EvoControl Smart Heat is published!

The skill is now published and available worldwide for all Alexa users in 3 languages: en-GB, en-US and de-DE.

There is a completely new website with screenshots, slideshows and detailed descriptions at https://smartskills.tech/evocontrol. There's a link on that page for setting up the account that you will need in order to enable and link the skill.

The invocation name has changed at Amazon's recommendation because Alexa had too much trouble understanding people say 'Evo Control' correctly. So the name of the skill in English is 'EvoControl Smart Heat' and you invoke it with 'Alexa, open Smart Heat' without https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BL1CN6WS. In Germany it's https://www.amazon.de/dp/B0BL1CN6WS. The only reason it's also published in en-US is so that European users with their Echos set to en-US can enable the skill. Of course Evohome itself is a European product line.

Again, many thanks to the Beta testers! I hope people enjoy this baby because a year's worth of development has gone into it

[nealroberts20]

[philchillbill]

Just make a bookmark to https://smartskills.tech/evocontrol/index.html#examples and it will load the modal with the examples directly

[philchillbill]

I added a reminder on the manual-linking page (the one that shows up inside the Alexa app) that you should enter credentials from your dedicated EvoControl account and not your TCC account. Looks like some people were wondering why they could not login correctly and my guess is they thought they should enter their TCC details.