msgreenf Posted November 4, 2016 Share Posted November 4, 2016 26 minutes ago, Scrib said: Hi, I had the Epic Systems driver installed last night and when I check it in Composer HE, in the License Status it says "Activating license...". Anything I can do on my end, or do I need to get things resolved on the dealer side? i would try deleting the license key, saving it and then re-inputting the license key (if it uses a key, i dont recall) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drmark12pa Posted November 4, 2016 Share Posted November 4, 2016 Using the C4 driver currently with 1 new Echo and 6 new dots, I'm a bit disappointed in the accuracy lately of some commands. The volume control of each room is maybe 40% accurate so this is disappointing. When I say, "Alexa, increase kitchen volume by 30 (or increase kitchen volume by 30%)" I am getting "there are several devices blah blah blah" So I'm not sure if using the paid driver would work better or more accurately? So far, I'm disappointed that the voice recognition isn't more consistent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Lowe Posted November 4, 2016 Share Posted November 4, 2016 you need to make sure that the devices and rooms in the control4 project are not named the same. you can check some names from my.control.com under the alexa section. example you may have a light load in the kitchen all called kitchen or a thermostat called kitchen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jfh Posted November 4, 2016 Share Posted November 4, 2016 And go into the Alexa ap and do some voice training. That will help considerably with voice recognition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scrib Posted November 4, 2016 Share Posted November 4, 2016 6 hours ago, msgreenf said: i would try deleting the license key, saving it and then re-inputting the license key (if it uses a key, i dont recall) Something is jacked. Ticket into customer service, but the driver won't activate. We shall see what happens. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msgreenf Posted November 4, 2016 Share Posted November 4, 2016 I think we need to be clear about what is being used here....as in this thread was about the Native control4 integration not the Epic systems integration, we need 2 separate threads to ask specific questions about each Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drmark12pa Posted November 4, 2016 Share Posted November 4, 2016 2 hours ago, Matt Lowe said: you need to make sure that the devices and rooms in the control4 project are not named the same. you can check some names from my.control.com under the alexa section. example you may have a light load in the kitchen all called kitchen or a thermostat called kitchen. I will check on those names as of right now I have a "Kitchen" light and my "Kitchen" room as is the case with Master Bedroom, Master Bathroom etc. Like I mentioned, sometimes the volume changing works, sometimes it does not. I have done voice recognition 2x and I'm fairly articulate typically and try to enunciate so Alexa can understand better but that doesn't seem to help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chopedogg88 Posted November 4, 2016 Share Posted November 4, 2016 Something is jacked. Ticket into customer service, but the driver won't activate. We shall see what happens. Thanks. Please contact us at support@epic-systems.com if you need help with the Epic Systems driver. Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gnarlynickb Posted November 4, 2016 Share Posted November 4, 2016 1 hour ago, drmark12pa said: I will check on those names as of right now I have a "Kitchen" light and my "Kitchen" room as is the case with Master Bedroom, Master Bathroom etc. Like I mentioned, sometimes the volume changing works, sometimes it does not. I have done voice recognition 2x and I'm fairly articulate typically and try to enunciate so Alexa can understand better but that doesn't seem to help. I'll be interested to see if you run into the issue of Echo not being able to discover your devices after you make changes to Alexa's voice commands, if you do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drmark12pa Posted November 7, 2016 Share Posted November 7, 2016 I have subsequently now changed my volume scene so it is now called LOUD.... so I use, "Turn On Kitchen LOUD" which will increase volume by 10 via C4 amp. Turn OFF Kitchen LOUD decreases by 10. Apparently the C4/Amazon integration is still sketchy on volume. Overall, I've been a bit disappointed in the voice recognition as sometimes it seems very accurate but other times it acts like there is no scene set up when there clearly is. "There are multiple devices with this name, use which one?" (or something along those lines) is a frequent issue I hear back from Alexa. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forum Posted November 7, 2016 Share Posted November 7, 2016 So is this one of those circumstances where a customer pays $400 to implement Alexa. Then it's endless free service calls for the next year until the contractor is broke? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gnarlynickb Posted November 7, 2016 Share Posted November 7, 2016 2 hours ago, forum said: So is this one of those circumstances where a customer pays $400 to implement Alexa. Then it's endless free service calls for the next year until the contractor is broke? You're touching on a very big topic here, and I wonder if anyone has a strong rebuttal to it. I feel the contractors need to know what they're capable of, to be expertly familiar with their product, and to set expectations for customers. If they're familiar with the material, they should be able to advise their clients what to expect, or even refuse to install drivers they know to be bad. So far, the new Alexa driver (from Amazon/C4) has not been bad to me. Not perfect, but not bad. My only experience with Control4 is the system in my own home, but I'm fairly confident that, given the tools and time, I could personally troubleshoot my system. C4 refuses to give me the tools. So yeah, this does put the burden on the contractor/installer/dealer to get their stuff right. Smart Home integration is fast approaching the point where I will be able to swap out all my light switches and the audio controller for inexpensive products from big name companies whose devices work well, and troubleshoot it myself. C4 should feel like their back is to the wall as well. Every 3rd party device already comes app-controlled out of the box, why am I trying so hard to pay a dealer to integrate it into the 1 C4 app when each of those other apps works so much better and has straightforward, FREE integration with Alexa? Even if it's 10 apps on my smartphone, it's 1 single Alexa app to control them all. And yet here I am saddled trying to make the best of my C4 system, like all the other users here. How much can the dealer try to charge me before I bag the whole thing? Anyway, good contractors aren't going to go broke from troubleshooting Alexa, it's not THAT complicated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msgreenf Posted November 7, 2016 Share Posted November 7, 2016 isn't that the same with any contractor you hire to do work in your house? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GT Slider Posted November 7, 2016 Share Posted November 7, 2016 Alexa was offered as a customer integrated solution, without any intervention from their dealer. I'm not sure who would charge $400 to integrate Alexa. I guess the same is true in reverse, hence no 'endless free service calls', a few invoices for support on implementing something in it's early stages, until customer stops. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jfh Posted November 7, 2016 Share Posted November 7, 2016 48 minutes ago, Gnarlynickb said: C4 should feel like their back is to the wall as well. Every 3rd party device already comes app-controlled out of the box, why am I trying so hard to pay a dealer to integrate it into the 1 C4 app when each of those other apps works so much better and has straightforward, FREE integration with Alexa? Even if it's 10 apps on my smartphone, it's 1 single Alexa app to control them all. And yet here I am saddled trying to make the best of my C4 system, like all the other users here. How much can the dealer try to charge me before I bag the whole thing? You are missing the big picture - C4 doesn't consider you important. Dealers are their customers, not end users. Once you are roped into the C4 infrastructure, you're stuck. If you have a knowledgeable, reasonable dealer you might be ok. If not, good luck. C4 corporate is focused on getting new customers; current ones are an annoyance. there is no reason a somewhat tech savvy person can't handle what's required to update their system but C4 is convinced their dealer model will collapse if they don't maintain an iron-clad grip on control of your system, so don't expect it to change any time soon ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pfissure Posted December 20, 2016 Share Posted December 20, 2016 On 10/21/2016 at 5:22 PM, thegreatheed said: To do custom voice scenes, a dealer must add the voice scene driver and create the scene names. Once those are created, you can do the programming with HE. Best practices for creating the scene names are to avoid media-related names. Saying "Alexa, turn on Apple Music" will probably not get sent to the C4 skill. Saying "Alexa, turn on Kitchen Music" is much better. Am I understanding this correctly? Its not enough to just have the dealer install the voice scenes driver but I must also tell him the names of all the scenes I want to program before I can do that in HE? I cannot add new scenes myself with HE? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msgreenf Posted December 20, 2016 Share Posted December 20, 2016 Am I understanding this correctly? Its not enough to just have the dealer install the voice scenes driver but I must also tell him the names of all the scenes I want to program before I can do that in HE? I cannot add new scenes myself with HE? You can set scene names in he Sent from my STV100-1 using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Lowe Posted December 20, 2016 Share Posted December 20, 2016 Once the driver is installed. The end user may program the entire system Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clifford Musante Posted December 20, 2016 Share Posted December 20, 2016 I guess I'm in the same boat as everybody else. I'm not able to find any way to create new scenes, or rename and reconfigure existing scenes. The last two posts indicated that it's possible to add new voice scenes, but it did not give any direction or examples on how to do this. If this is indeed possible, can we get a little help? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Lowe Posted December 20, 2016 Share Posted December 20, 2016 Once the driver is installed. The end user may program the entire system Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zaphod Posted December 20, 2016 Share Posted December 20, 2016 Can anyone that has used this driver plus the Epic one comment on the pros/cons of the two drivers. I am still on 2.8 so I bought the Epic driver and I am quite happy with it. I don't currently pay for 4sight as I use a SMTP driver to do emails and OpenVPN for remote access so the "free" driver is way more expensive in the long term. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jfh Posted December 20, 2016 Share Posted December 20, 2016 2 hours ago, zaphod said: Can anyone that has used this driver plus the Epic one comment on the pros/cons of the two drivers. I am still on 2.8 so I bought the Epic driver and I am quite happy with it. I don't currently pay for 4sight as I use a SMTP driver to do emails and OpenVPN for remote access so the "free" driver is way more expensive in the long term. If you search the Echo threads, this has been covered extensively a few times. You aren't losing anything by using the Epic driver instead of Voice Scenes. What you lose without 4Sight is the ability to have Echo "know" all the defined switches and AL scenes without having to use a trigger defined n Epic or VS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Lowe Posted December 20, 2016 Share Posted December 20, 2016 5 hours ago, Clifford Musante said: I guess I'm in the same boat as everybody else. I'm not able to find any way to create new scenes, or rename and reconfigure existing scenes. The last two posts indicated that it's possible to add new voice scenes, but it did not give any direction or examples on how to do this. If this is indeed possible, can we get a little help? There's two steps to the Alexa integration naively with c4. First install and login into the control4 Smart skill in the Alexa app. A dealer must install the voice scene driver ( this is to add custom commands other than the basics) guess this would be a third to run discovery any time you make changes to names or devices. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shardik Posted December 22, 2016 Share Posted December 22, 2016 On 12/20/2016 at 11:33 AM, Clifford Musante said: I guess I'm in the same boat as everybody else. I'm not able to find any way to create new scenes, or rename and reconfigure existing scenes. The last two posts indicated that it's possible to add new voice scenes, but it did not give any direction or examples on how to do this. If this is indeed possible, can we get a little help? If you have HE, select voice scenes under the monitoring tab. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turls Posted December 23, 2016 Share Posted December 23, 2016 So now we can control devices from outside the home by voice? http://lifehacker.com/astra-gives-you-access-to-alexa-on-your-iphone-1790149963 Only problem is the price is already up to $2.99. I guess it is still worth it if it works? Anybody tried it with C4 Alexa integration? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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