That means it is not understanding the term Bathroom lights…Check live logging…I bet it is only hearing "bathroom’…Any reason not to just set up an alias for that?
Is this what you are asking about?
Sorry, I spent the better part of the day fighting with a GE toggle switch not connecting to the network, so I’m a bit drained. Forgive me, please.
How would you suggest setting up an alias? Each of the 4 bathroom lights are called “Bathroom light alpha, bravo, charlie, delta”, and grouped as “Bathroom lights”.
No worries…but you said something just now that may be the issue…Where are you ‘grouping’ the lights to call then Bathroom Lights? There is no ‘grouping’ in Ask Alexa except for a group macro, and that is NOT what your screenshot is showing…It is looking for an actual DEVICE called "bathroom lights’…if there is not a single device that is named that then that is the issue…You would have to create a group macro to do what you want.
Does that make sense?
Ah! I see said the blind man.
The groupings I am referring to are within the Amazon Echo app. That would explain why my living room lights work, but the bathroom won’t. I have a macro for “Living room lights”, but not one for “Bathroom”.
Oh what a dipstick am I? (rhetorical question). I don’t know how people in IT do it, and after venturing into the HA theater, I have a serious appreciation/admiration for what all of you do. Absolutely amazing to me.
Sir, you are the deal. Now to find that PayPal link…
Don’t be too hard on yourself. This is complicated, and the manual is 30 odd pages long. Either way, looks like it is working for you.
Oh, and to help out your search… https://paypal.me/mstruck
Not required ever, but always appreciated!
I tried my best to get it to work before posting…I read the documentation for usage, I tried ten different ways asking her to run the macro, I just can’t seem to figure it out.
I set up a macro that reports the status of a few contact sensors, nothing fancy. I just got ask Alexa installed today and it’s working for per device requests just fine.
I named the macro “house summary”…I tried asking
Alexa, ask SmartThings to run house summary
Responds with: “I didn’t understand what you wanted me to do”
Alexa, tell SmartThings to run house summary
Alexa, use SmartThings to run house summary
Responds with: Hmm, I can’t the answer to the question I heard
Do I have to add the macro somewhere after creating it? Or should it just work right away?
Sounds like you didn’t add the house summary macro name to the developer’s slots in Ask Alexa. Also, you can simply say “Alexa, as SmartThings House Summary” to get the results. If it doesn’t work via voice, you should try the developer simulator…if it doesn’t work there it is a settings problem. If it does work it is simply not understanding you.
Hope that helps.
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Yup, was literally typing my comment. That’s exactly what I forgot to do. Just finished doing that a few minutes ago and it works great.
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I didn’t realize all of this stuff has to be done manually with the slots. I change stuff around constantly, so I guess I need to get my smart home set up figured out and get it all configured, otherwise I’m going to go crazy constantly logging into the Amazon developer console every day. haha
Yep…but trust me…it does slow down…I hardly change my setup now.
Just out of interest on the voice recognition performance. I have both a Dot and an Echo and I would say that the Echo is superior at voice recognition (particularly if you have the Dot playing audio at the same time as issuing another command to it - seems like the audio playing in the background is not completely filtered out). I wonder if having everything so squashed up in the Dot has affected its audio recognition capabilities.
Anyone else noticed a difference ?
I find them equally well at the recognition. The placement for either of these devices is the most important thing…if you have one in a corner, it WILL get confused with the reflected sound from 3 different directions.
Something I’ve noticed that is a significant difference between the echo and the dot…
When talking to the echo…
Alexa, turn on the kitchen lights.
Said start to finish in normal language, tone, and speed the kitchen lights turn on. I notice the awake sound occurs about halfway through my speech.
When talking to dot the exact same way as above I see more failures. I have to say Alexa, wait for the wake sound, then give my command.
Are you physically replacing one with the other in the exact same location? Location makes a difference.
Yes… replaced in the exact same location.
I can see the same thing across all echoes (3) and dots (6).
Good to know…are they at the same distance off the table? I assume the Dots sit the 8 inches below where the mics of the full sized echos are. Again, reflected sounds seem to make a big difference in the smaller units. Try putting a towel below the hard surface where the Dots sit…I am betting that makes a big difference for you.
Not trying to be an Amazon apologist, but microphones are finicky with reflected sound and having a smaller unit puts a different audio profile into play.
This is actually a great idea…
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Does Alexa give any information to you through the skills set as to which Alexa I am talking to? I thought of a feature where I could call one macro but have it apply differently based on which Alexa I am talking to. E.g. To kitchen Echo, “Hey Alexa, tell ST play music” and it knows to play my kitchen sonos. To living room Echo, “Hey Alexa, tell ST play music” and it knows to play my living room sonos.
Unfortunately, no…you basically are speaking to the account, not to an individual device within the account. It MUST know as it only responds to the speaker that is activated, but there is nothing that I can see that is returned that shows which device in the account was queried.
Thanks. Maybe some hopeful feedback to Alexa developers.