EvoControl - custom Alexa skill for Evohome

[haggis888]

That obviously kills my suggestion of moving the revolving hints to that area, which leaves the following choices:

1. Leave things as they are, so that there is the inconsistency that the dashboard (the first page users see and arguably the most important page) lacks the icon hints shown on every other page
2. Add dashboard icon hints only to the web app, so that Skill users can still see the revolving hints
3. Remove revolving hints from the Skill dashboard and provide far more of them on a dedicated new Alexa-only page, thus enabling dashboard icon hints on both interfaces

My preference would be for option 3.

[philchillbill]

The Alexa-only page is already there. There is a help button next to the settings button in the skill that shows all the hints in a scrollable list. But the revolving hints are very much appreciated by almost everybody because they are randomised and trigger ideas in those who don't explore the docs much. Those who dislike them can turn them off in the settings.

There is a 4th option, which is to learn the meanings of the 7 icons in question and develop muscle-memory for where they are on the screen

[haggis888]

I don't tend to make ad hoc tweaks to my heating very often. My standard schedule (stored as A) meets most of my needs most of the time. This means that it is only when we have family visitors staying overnight that I need to change the settings for one or more bedrooms. Such visits only happen about once every two months, so the chance of this old man remembering the meaning of those obscure dashboard icons is vanishingly small.

Given your comments about the value of the revolving Alexa hints, please give option 2 serious consideration. To my mind, the current inconsistency of the dashboard lacking the icon hints provided on every other page is much greater than the inconsistency of only fixing that for web app users.

[haggis888]

I've just hit a problem with zone ordering in both the Alexa skill and the web app after making some minor changes to zone names using the standard Evohome app. While I was there, I also rearranged the zone order used by that app to match that which I had previously set in EvoControl.

When I then returned to EvoControl and refreshed its display, the modified zone names were displayed on the dashboard but the zone order had changed. The 'Dashboard tiles display order' page (which was still showing the original zone names) allowed me to rearrange the zones but this had no effect on the dashboard. Is there a way for me to fix this or have I stumbled across an EvoControl bug?

[philchillbill]

Visit the Settings page and use the rightmost footer button to reload your TCC configuration into EvoControl. The docs clearly state that you need to do this after changing anything in your config.

[haggis888]

I've always assumed that EvoControl would need a refresh after making changes in the Evohome app but the refresh button at the top left of the web app screen has always done the job in the past. While I had previously read the help popup for the Settings page, I had forgotten the purpose of its Account button. All is now well. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction

If the Account button refresh is primarily required to ensure the functionality of the 'Dashboard tiles display order' page, would that page not be the better location for the Account button?

[philchillbill]

To keep the load on the (old) Resideo servers down, I cache certain info from the API that changes very infrequently in the skill/app's back-end. The config-refresh affects more than just the Dashboard view as it would also pick up e.g. if you added a 2nd panel to your setup or switched from having DHW to having a combi boiler. Having the button on the Dashboard screen would make that view even busier than it already is so the Settings screen is IMHO the correct place to have it.

It's definitely not something to just tap every day when in a playful mood as overburdening the API will get accounts blacklisted

[haggis888]

You misread my post. I was suggesting that the Account button be put on the 'Dashboard tiles display order' page (the one you get when you hit Zone Order on the Settings page), not the dashboard.

[philchillbill]

Because Vimeo now wants users to validate their ID by uploading selfies before you could watch the demo video, I've uploaded it to YouTube and it's available at

[philchillbill]

Fixed a bug where asking "when waking up today starts?" when it's already after midnight would look backwards towards yesterday instead of forwards towards today. This does not apply to the PWA as it's a voice-only command.