Bobby it’s the setup that is the issue…
I know I cannot blame you. It’s overwhelming the first time, but after you do it couple of times it becomes easy. I can install a new custom skil in less than 10 minutes now…
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Install ST app
Get token
Copy/paste Lambda code
Copy/paste token info
Create Invocation name
copy/paste intent
build custom slots
copy/paste utterance sample
Say this is a test…
Get the nessage: Congratiulations, you are all set!
See one step per minue…
Don’t they need to sign up for an AWS account first? Both Developer and Lamda?
Well gosh, that’s all there is to it??
Heck that’s easy enough a child could do it!!
As long as their a prodigy with their college degree at age 10!!
Hahahaha :smile
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Well, yes, my run down was the 10 minutes process after rhe first time. For the first time you could easily multiply each step by… x …and like @TN_Oldman said … the x depends greatly on your ability to folliw directions…
The initial setup is quite daunting, I can’t disagree with that.
But, if you follow the directions in the wiki carefully, do not get impatient, do bit skip ahead, and remember that just because you can fyi stuff that you really need to follow the directions, you’ll be ok.
I’ve put well over a hundred hours into the wiki and I’m constantly updating it… I can confidently say that it is very very accurate.
Plus, Bobby and I will gladly walk you through it!
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And every time you have a new device you have to remember to manually add it. It’s an awesome app, don’t get me wrong, it just is not plug and play like other apps. I use it but I tend to forget to add devices and set them up until I need them.
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Yes, there are limitations that we wish we could work around, but we have no control over what Amazon does. But, if we can find a way, we will use it. I mean, we got rid of having to update the list of profiles every time… Lol
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And that is the main reason we are slowly moving everything to the free text processing. It won’t be long before you will need to create a basic skill like you do for a Profile, once, and then forget about it…No more messing around on Amazon websites…Soon…
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How does the list autouodate now?
Again don’t get me wrong. The app is powerful. But there are a lot of little steps you have to remember and learn. I’m still in the honeymoon phase with CoRE and that isn’t an easy thing to completely learn either.
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It doesn’t auto update… We just don’t use it like that any more. We are now able to do it internally.
We completely understand. The initial install is brutal, but once setup, it’s great.
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I know exactly what you mean. But soon, you won’t need to learn anything. Maybe not tomorrow, as we are sorting out what we learned from building v4. But the potential is there. The work on Profiles, which require only one initial set up and no further updates, is really paying off. And that only requires SmartThings in-app authorization for new devices. Amazon has no list of devices, no key words, nothing… @bamarayne s work to discover the free text was brilliant and opened up Alexa to do things more reliably than what Amazon offers via custom slots and utterance samples … with less effort to get it started… Just ask @ady624 … I just scratched the surface with v4 Profiles… 
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Can’t wait!
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I’m going to oust a video in the EchoSistant thread, hopefully later tonight, that will show that the frustrating install can be worth the trouble.
I was playing around a few minutes ago and was actually very surprised by the system.
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Any examples would be great
Well I called Amazon regarding my Thermostat, and they told me it ws offline in regard to Alexa. They told me to forget it in the Alexa App or Alexa Internet page. Then Ask Alexa to discover devices. After that it works everytime. I am going to attempt the EchoSistant install. I hope I don’t screw it up.
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It’s pretty easy to do that the first time… BUT Jason and I have our phones buzzing when someone needs help. See you on the EchoSistant v4 thread…
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