EvoControl - custom Alexa skill for Evohome

[philchillbill]

Startup for both the skill and PWA should be noticeably faster as I now fetch schedules and dashboard from TCC and weather from AccuWeather all in parallel.

[philchillbill]

Tooltip hovering only works with a mouse while most people use the app on touchscreen devices. Hence not implemented. The app can display many types of graphs. Did you not look at the website?

[99Biggles]

Thanks. I'm working my way through the intro, and have both controllers visible in the App, so will start up the learning curve.
Two immediate thoughts:
- it could be helpful to have a help bubble appear when hovering the mouse cursor over the icons at the bottom of the page
- it would be very useful to be able to display graphs of actual room temperature, is this feasible and, if so, in plan for the future?

[philchillbill]

Yes it will do all that and much more. There’s also a web app that runs in a browser so no need for Alexa. All the details are at https://evocontrol.eu. Setup is just creating an account and then logging in to Honeywell. Also detailed in the web help.

[99Biggles]

I've had a 2-controller Evohome system running without problems (except for errors on the DHW temp sensor, of course) for about 8 years but have always found the App and controller interface to be very limited. I first looked at Evocontrol several months ago and liked what I saw but (even as an ex-IT guy) the jargon stopped me from going further. I've come back to it with an open mind. I have no idea what an Alexa skill is (and Google wasn't helpful) but all I want is an App that anyone in the family can use to change a bunch of settings without needing to understand the tech or to use a voice input. Such things as: increase all temps by 5 degrees, visitors this weekend (so heat rooms that aren't always used for x days), lazy days (change timings of some rooms to something preset), and so on. Will Evocontrol do this? Is there a Noddy's guide to set-up?

[philchillbill]

It's now possible to insert 1 or 2 switchpoints into a zone's schedule for tomorrow if the time you specify has already passed for today. So if at e.g. 2PM you say".. make it 20 deg in the Office at 8AM for an hour" you'll get 2 new switchpoints in the Office schedule tomorrow morning. This used to be deliberately blocked, but as the code for Delayed Start of an activity is used under the hood here, the recent change to that code makes that blocking rather silly. Thanks to Dean for suggesting.

[philchillbill]

Fixed a bug where using Delayed Start with scene/activity triggering did not cross the midnight boundary correctly. Thanks to Anthony for raising the issue.

[Tall Trees]

Not sure what has happened, I had a Shower scene set up previously, which disappeared and I have logged back in and relinked with same account as far as I am aware!

[philchillbill]

The shower scene is not automatically created for you (it's just an example of the phraseology). So if you're a new user it will indeed not be present. Or did you already use the skill in the past under a different account which did have that scene but now you logged in as a different user and do not see it?

[Tall Trees]

Many thanks for your thought,

It has helped greatly. When giving the command with "Skill", Alexa offered to set up the skill and gave a QR on screen. I followed this and relinked the account, which seems to have cured the issues and speeded up the response as well.

I note that it seems to have reset the skill and a few things look different - there is no shower scene for instance.

But overall is seems good for now, I will let you know if I encounter and more issues.

Once again, Many Thanks

[philchillbill]

Alexa + is not well-suited to running classic skills. But apparenly, saying "Launch the smart heat SKILL" may get you further along. If it then works just as expected, I'd appreciate the feedback as I cannot test on Alexa+. Amazon didn't think that skill-devs should get access.

[Tall Trees]

Hi,

I'm a new user in the UK with Echo show 5 and alexa +.

I am struggling ti get the skill to open with voice commands. It was responding to launch Smart Heat. But now refuses to open and offers to adjust the heating via it's smart home options. I can open the skill on the screen and all then voice commands are fine.
Have you any thoughts?

Many thanks

[philchillbill]

Resideo may have blocked you for being too much of a recurrent burden on the API. Let it sit for a day and you’ll be back to normal.

[jweaver]

I think I spoke too soon.. Where as when i started this discussion it was working 80% of the time.. Now I can't get in at all, on either FF or Chrome and on the odd occasion I can, it takes several minutes.

I tried Incognito mode, but its the same... Now I am a bit stuck as it was slow but usable.. Now I can rarely get it to load.. It just sits in a constant 3 dot loop.

[jweaver]

I get the same performance on my Tablet too. So the only thing in common is my network.. I just tried again and it loaded in a few seconds.. So this is what I have been seeing for months.. It sometimes loads quickly.. Sometimes slowly.. And often not at all.....

Its far from important.. For the amount I use it, I will live with it as it is.

Cheers