Well, for EchoSistant to make it work you definitely have to say it like this…
Alexa, tell the master bedroom to open the shades
Or
Alexa, open the shades in the master bedroom.
It might have work with the simple command before as a native Alexa command, but Amazon loves to have things work one day and not the next.
Hmmm. So my issue is either Amazon had a period in which they accepted the “open/close” command or I haven’t been sleeping due to our new born baby and I changed the wording of my command.
For the examples you gave I have to have a profile setup called “Master Bedroom” correct? Or would that work through the main intent?
Yes, if you setup a profile for the master bedroom it will give control of that room.
Or, you can Alexa, tell home to open the master bedroom shades.
**assuming your main main intent invocation is home
It works using the “Alexa, open the shades in the first bedroom.” Where “firstbedroom” is the name of the profile. I changed the name temporarily to separate the actual name of the shades which are also called Master Bedroom Shades.
However I did notice that when EchoSistant runs Alex repliles “OK, Opening window coverings in the first bedroom. Would you like anything else?”. Previously, Alexa would just say “Opening Master Bedroom Shades”.
If EchoSistant always prompts for something else by default and using ‘window coverings’ that means that Alexa natively was opening the shades.
Would you guys agree?
I wish there was some site that would tell you when they change things. This drives me crazy thinking that I lost my mind.
I’m pretty sure that both responses were coming from EchoSistant, but I can for certain that the asking for anything else is EchoSistant.
When you updated the profile you reset the default for the continued commands.
It’s very skipping to change that, just say, Alexa, stop the conversation in the first bedroom.
And yes, I agree, I really wish Amazon would inform us of changes
Well folks, we know everyone is wondering what happened to the EchoSistant guys… We’ve been very quiet.
Work on EchoSistant Version 5 is progressing wonderfully.
So, since Amazon has let the cat out of the bag, we’re giving you a sneak peak.
You asked for compound commands, we deliver
You asked for setting a device to a room, we deliver
In this video you will see ESv5 controlling lights in three rooms, and being used as a single room controller.
This is just the tip of the ice burg, much more to come!
Love it!
You gentlemen rock! Can’t wait for ESv5
Thanks, spread it around!
This is my first time using the community forum and I am struggling to navigate/search, but I have a quick question that probably has already been answered.
I recently installed EchoSistant and it is running great. However, I am unable to get the Notifications add-on to show up in the app when installed. Do I have to reboot or log out or something to make it show up?
Welcome to the forum! I’m glad you like the app.
In the main screen, you will see “Install and Support”.
Tap on that and make sure the toggle is activated for the notifications app.
Thanks for the quick reply and the app!
Hi guys,
I am new to this, and I have just installed the version 4.
I am about to follow the instructions to create the profiles.
Should I wait for version 5 before starting creating the profiles? Can you explain how different V5 is from V4?
Thanks.
V5 is quite different, technically speaking. It reduces the installation process significantly, features no addons. And will take Alexa experience to the next level as seen in these videos. If you have gotten through the Lambda install and have the Main skill ready to go, I would continue the v4 install. We are still weeks away from v5 release.
Thank you all the developers for your excellent work.
First, i want to echo (ha) everyones thank you to the developers for this… i cant fathom the amount of work this has and continues to take.
I have been putting off installing this for some time, and finally did it last weekend. Echosistant is fully installed and i think its installed correctly.
I do not have extra speakers for my dot.
I have not created any profiles.
I have read about 90% of the posts in this thread now and think i can fomulate this question.
So, I have smarthings pretty well set up with routines, groups and vitual switches to cover my house pretty well…
What benifit do i get from making a profile?
As it is right now with my groups in ST, if i want my living room over head lights on, i ask for “overhead lights” if i want all living room i ask for “living room” so on and so forth. Pretty much same for the routines i have. Which, to be honest seem to only work about 50% of the time, less if I use echosistant (seems to have gotten a little worse after the install, so maybe it didnt go perfectly?). Dont misread, i love the converstational aspect… “Alexa, tell home its bedtime” is way better than “Alexa, turn on bedtime” but that fails more often than it works. Do profiles help this?
Not having a secondary speaker for the dot makes me question how much i should push forward with echosistant until i get one and im not seeing the added benifit of the profiles, (with the exception of things like “alexa tell home its too bright in the living room” which im not sure is easier to say than “alexa set living room lights to 40%”.
Either way, thank you again for this, I eagerly await V5 and if anyone has a current great way to control eventghost through alexa and or ST that would be great as well…lol.
A second mostly related question… sorry.
I would prefer not to buy a set of speakers for the dot. my system as it stands, consists of my htpc (always on) that has audio out to my reciever which then plays through my 5.1 speaker set up. I have tried the line out from the dot to the input jack on my reciever and that produced a constant hiss. Ideally, the dot would talk over any normal sounds coming from the htpc and be silent the rest of the time. I would leave the reciever on if i could get this to sucessfully work and allow Alexa to speak that way… somehow. I assume this would also meet the requirements …maybe? of Echosistant … though now i tink about it, they wouldnt be reachable through Smartthings if i did that so maybe not.
Hi Thomas!
Thanks for the praise and welcome to EchoSistant!
Since you’re not using external speakers, the real benefits of profiles for you are room control and feedback.
Let’s take your living room as an example.
You would create a profile - “Living Room” and you would configure it. You would want to use the custom groups.
Create groups like this…
Overhead lights
Table lamps
Reading lights
Then you can say…
Turn on the lights in the living room (turns on all lights)
Turn on the overhead lights in the living room
Turn on the table lamps in the living room.
That eliminates all of the virtual switches and tiles tying them together.
If you have color lights, use the built in scenes…
Alexa, I’m reading in the living room
ESv5 takes the room control too a whole new level, in ways that you aren’t going to believe.
Check out the videos here…
The extra speakers aren’t for the dots. The speakers the EchoSistant requires are connected to ST. They are for sending messages. Alerts, and other things.
Since we still can not remotely wake up an Alexa device to have it speak an incoming massage, they must be played on external speakers.
Just to echo what Jason said earlier, with a “living room” profile, you would say: “Alexa it’s too bright in the living room”. Notice the omission of “tell home” in your use case. EchoSistant is about interacting with Alexa in a more natural way.
Also EchoSistant provides more ways of doing things, so you don’t get caught in the dark. Take your example:
If Alexa misunderstands your command, you have to start over. With EchoSistant, you get to try again within the same session (Amazon has gotten better now, at handling errors).
With EchoSistant, you could say:
Alexa tell home to make living room lights brighter.
Alexa tell home to set living room to 4
Alexa set the light to 4 (or 40%) in the living room
Alexa make the lights brighter in the living room…
Choice is better, especially if your TV is running and Alexa doesn’t hear the entire command.
Thanks guys… looks like i will be setting up at least one profile this weekend.