Alexa programming

[brucecampbell]

I recall reading a post regarding Alexa and the ability to program a task with parameters - I can't find the post so am hoping someone will help or point me in the right direction.

I'm wanting to have Alexa set the Sky channel for me. ("Alexa, turn on Sky channel 51")

But rather than have 100s of Alexa commands:  ("Sky Channel 1", "Sky Channel 2".... etc)

I want one Alexa command  ("Sky Channel (Param1) ")

And will use a macro or other programming options to take the channel command and using if statements determine the selection.

[sonic30101]

I believe the Epic driver is better suited for this then the Native integration

[brucecampbell]

Yes - I have the Epic Driver - just not yet sure on the programming side.

[sonic30101]

Make the trigger and in the programming tab go to the left and find the triggers set instance, find the epic driver on the right and go to conditionals for last number value for each channel you want. Then go to the room in broadcast video you can find and drag the proper channel into the conditional.

 

I can't do screen shots because I don't use that driver

[brucecampbell]

Great, thanks for the detail - will give it a try asap.

Cheers.

 

[brucecampbell]

23 hours ago, sonic30101 said:

Make the trigger and in the programming tab go to the left and find the triggers set instance, find the epic driver on the right and go to conditionals for last number value for each channel you want. Then go to the room in broadcast video you can find and drag the proper channel into the conditional.

 

I can't do screen shots because I don't use that driver

Thanks again for the details - I ran some testing last night using the echo properties 'Set_Value_Number' and it worked as expected.

This is a much better option than having unique triggers for each channel.

Cheers.

[dcovach]

53 minutes ago, brucecampbell said:

Thanks again for the details - I ran some testing last night using the echo properties 'Set_Value_Number' and it worked as expected.

This is a much better option than having unique triggers for each channel.

Cheers.

 You will be able to use numbers 0-100

[sonic30101]

good point, i am not terribly familiar with that driver. I use google home and the IFTTT so the number ingredient can be anything.

[dcovach]

20 minutes ago, sonic30101 said:

good point, i am not terribly familiar with that driver. I use google home and the IFTTT so the number ingredient can be anything.

I may switch to IFTTT for my own home one day but alexa programming is very easy 

[sonic30101]

12 minutes ago, dcovach said:

I may switch to IFTTT for my own home one day but alexa programming is very easy 

Alexa IFTTT doesn't have that part unfortunately.

[dcovach]

I've seen the alexa ifttt skill but haven't had the chance to really look at it yet and have some play time

[sonic30101]

38 minutes ago, dcovach said:

I've seen the alexa ifttt skill but haven't had the chance to really look at it yet and have some play time

It is nice for some reserved words that the c4 skill doesn't like but doesn't allow ingredient carry over so you would have to make an instance for every channel separately

[dcovach]

1 hour ago, sonic30101 said:

It is nice for some reserved words that the c4 skill doesn't like but doesn't allow ingredient carry over so you would have to make an instance for every channel separately

I use tv channels into the 700's so I suppose this is my best option for being able to call out numbers over 100.  

[brucecampbell]

23 hours ago, dcovach said:

 You will be able to use numbers 0-100

Ah, limitations.... great.

I'll look into using key words for channels as well as numbers.

I don't really use any channels over 75 so might not be too much of an issue for now, but nice to know there are other options to try in the future.

 

[brucecampbell]

The Epic driver also has string and float variables.

I had a brief play with the string option, but in my testing it never seemed to be populated.

Should I expect the string would work the same way as the number?

ie: "Alexa, Set Sky Channel to Discovery"

if set_string = 'Discover'

        set mysky channel to 70

 

in my testing set_sting is always blank....

 

[South Africa C4 user]

3 hours ago, brucecampbell said:

The Epic driver also has string and float variables.

I had a brief play with the string option, but in my testing it never seemed to be populated.

Should I expect the string would work the same way as the number?

ie: "Alexa, Set Sky Channel to Discovery"

if set_string = 'Discover'

        set mysky channel to 70

 

in my testing set_sting is always blank....

 

If I recall correctly, the string value can still only be a number between 1 and 100 and so will only populate if you say “Alexa, set xxx to y” where y is a number in that range.  Essentially set is limited by Alexa to this range and the three variables in the Epic driver are the integer number “1”, the float value “1.0” and a text string “1”.

So with the Epic driver, you would need to use “Alexa, turn on Discovery” as long as “Discovery” is not a reserved word.