Amazon Echo

[qVAMPIREp]

I would love some of this technology as a native part of Control4.

http://www.amazon.com/oc/echo/ref_=ods_dp_ae

[Gene]

Got an invitation to buy the echo...just not sure if I'll do it.  Wondering if it has any external ports to possibly hook to whole house audio?  I know this is the 'trial' version and not 'production' but has anyone played with one and what are your thoughts?  Voicepod is nice but not at that price.

[turls]

 Wondering if it has any external ports to possibly hook to whole house audio?

 No indication of any external ports that I see.  Waiting for a definitive answer on this as well.

 

Voicepod does have an option without hardware doesn't it?  Is that not on your radar?

[Gene]

I think the mobile app of voicepad is neat...kinda solves the issue since SiriProxy is dead and waiting for HomeKit from Apple to take off but the yearly fee or one time fee of voicepod is a bit high given tech is changing yearly.  If Homekit becomes more of a reality then we can put a device in our rack and use iOS (Siri) to issue/receive commands.  I know android has this capability now but I have too many Apple devices to just carry an Android for voice control.  As usual, Apple goes one way, while others another but hopefully Homekit will help....we'll see...

 

Would be nice is echo had some ports and an API so we can integrate...atleast having it in family room/kitchen area with C4 would be cool!

[msgreenf]

I passed on my invite

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[eggzlot]

Does this mean eventually maybe one could write a driver to integrate Echo into C4?

 

http://www.engadget.com/2015/03/02/amazon-echo-beta-developer-kit/

 

Would be great to put an echo in a few rooms and be able to control C4 amongst other uses for the Echo

[maxspivak]

You wouldn't want to write a drive to control Echo with C4.

 

You'd want to write an Echo app to control C4 with voice:  "Alexa, good night." "Alexa, watch TV", "Alexa, kitchen lights off".

 

Does C4 provide an API with such hooks? Would be a fun experiment...

[digitaltrader]

That sound exciting....anyone up for the task.  I'd be willing to buy such a driver.

[Corey]

Has anybody made any progress on this? Or have any information about integrating the echo to the c4 platform?

[cybuch]

I have had some luck with it. I created a new skill called Control four and used the http events driver to trigger C4 to do things. So I can say "Alexa, tell control 4 to close the blinds", my skill will interpret the command and fire an http event to my c4 controller. Of course you need port forwarding, etc. I'm sure there is a way to do it with a local server. I haven't got that deep yet.

[themoderntheatre]

Just saw this thread. I was one of the early adopters, but my Echo currently sits on my nightstand and doesn't do much. Definitely am willing to help test out although I currently don't have a lot of time to program code. Computer engineer background, current C4 dealer/home theater company owner

[cybuch]

Let me see what I can come up with. Unfortunately, you will have to do some code to get it working. It's all in Java, so easy enough.

[pe2850]

I have had some luck with it. I created a new skill called Control four and used the http events driver to trigger C4 to do things. So I can say "Alexa, tell control 4 to close the blinds", my skill will interpret the command and fire an http event to my c4 controller. Of course you need port forwarding, etc. I'm sure there is a way to do it with a local server. I haven't got that deep yet.

 

Sounds cool! I sent you a PM. You could run something like a rasp pi locally to act as a proxy between the amazon skill and C4. This would negate having to port forward simple configuration on the c4 side of things. 

[PixelPerfect]

Has any progress made with this?

[chopedogg88]

Hi Everyone...

 

We have officially released our driver for Amazon Echo driver for Control4...it is now available for purchase!

 

The driver is still somewhat basic at this point (mainly due to limitations of the Echo itself) but what it does, it does really well...and is very quick and easy to setup.

 

In a nutshell, it allows you to define custom keyword "triggers"...such as "kitchen", "house", "TV", "downstairs", "master blinds", "Grateful Dead", etc...(you can create whatever keywords you like)

 

For each trigger that you define, you can program any control4 activities to take place (activate a lighting scene, raise blinds, turn on TV to specific channel, etc...anything that can be controlled via your control4 system).

 

For example...you can say "Alexa, turn on downstairs", or "Alexa, dim the kitchen", or "Alexa, turn off the house", "Alexa, turn on Grateful Dead (my personal fave) ... and have those commands trigger any programming that you desire in Control4.

The driver costs $100 for a site license (multiple echos are supported in the same system), including all upgrades and support.

 

Please PM me if you are interested in purchasing a license...please include email address that you would like me to send PayPal invoice to.

 

Of course you will need your dealer to add the driver to your project and configure it to work with your Echo(s).  If you need help with install, we are also a Platinum Control4 dealer (located in Aspen, Colorado, USA area) and would be happy to assist you with a remote install provided that you enable remote access to your system for our dealership.

 

For feedback on the driver, please see this thread-

http://www.c4forums.com/topic/17601-amazon-echo/page-3

 

 

Thanks!

-Ari

[c4wiz]

Hi Everyone...

We have officially released our driver for Amazon Echo driver for Control4...it is now available for purchase!

The driver is still somewhat basic at this point (mainly due to limitations of the Echo itself) but what it does, it does really well...and is very quick and easy to setup.

In a nutshell, it allows you to define custom keyword "triggers"...such as "kitchen", "house", "TV", "downstairs", "master blinds", "Grateful Dead", etc...(you can create whatever keywords you like)

For each trigger that you define, you can program any control4 activities to take place (activate a lighting scene, raise blinds, turn on TV to specific channel, etc...anything that can be controlled via your control4 system).

For example...you can say "Alexa, turn on downstairs", or "Alexa, dim the kitchen", or "Alexa, turn off the house", "Alexa, turn on Grateful Dead (my personal fave) ... and have those commands trigger any programming that you desire in Control4.

The driver costs $100 for a site license (multiple echos are supported in the same system), including all upgrades and support.

Please PM me if you are interested in purchasing a license...please include email address that you would like me to send PayPal invoice to.

Of course you will need your dealer to add the driver to your project and configure it to work with your Echo(s). If you need help with install, we are also a Platinum Control4 dealer (located in Aspen, Colorado, USA area) and would be happy to assist you with a remote install provided that you enable remote access to your system for our dealership.

For feedback on the driver, please see this thread-

http://www.c4forums.com/topic/17601-amazon-echo/page-3

Thanks!

-Ari

is the driver 2 way?

[jfh]

Alexa responds with "Okay" when a command is understood. Not clear to me if the response is spoken before or after the C4 event is fired (I think before, but not 100% sure).

This driver is very easy to set up and use. If you think of the driver as a Phillips Hue bridge and the triggers you define as lights, then set up and programming are pretty intuitive:

- put the Echo IP address and license key on the properties page

- add your triggers (properties page)

- ask Alexa "Alexa, discover devices". She will give you the Phillips Hue instructions.

- press the button on the actions page when she tells you to press the bridge button

- a few seconds later, she will tell you she found x devices where x= the number of triggers you defined

- there will now be four C4 programming events defined for each trigger (on/off/up/down)

If you have C4 and an Echo, you want this driver. There are a couple other ways to use Echo with C4, but this is by far the easiest and cleanest option.

[c4wiz]

so it's basiclly a paid version of the http driver with the echo bridge, without the bridge, no status requests to C4, NA......... I'll wait for Houselogix's driver thats being built by the Voicepod team!!

[jfh]

so it's basiclly a paid version of the http driver with the echo bridge, without the bridge, no status requests to C4, NA......... I'll wait for Houselogix's driver thats being built by the Voicepod team!!

What do you think HouseLogix/VoicePod is going to be able to do without a full API from Amazon that this driver or the Raspberry Pi options can't already do?

[c4wiz]

guess we will have to wait and see

[jfh]

I'd love to see additional function/exploitation, but this driver works well, is inexpensive, easy and available now.

I've seen too many promises of drivers coming that never show up. I'm happy with the bird in the hand at the moment.

[c4wiz]

I'd love to see additional function/exploitation, but this driver works well, is inexpensive, easy and available now.

I've seen too many promises of drivers coming that never show up. I'm happy with the bird in the hand at the moment.

this driver has the same functionality as the RPi/http driver, why pay for something that can be done very easily for free? @$100 it's way overpriced

[jfh]

Convenience and no hassle. I was meaning to get around to using the RPi approach for quite some time, but never did.

I think a lot of drivers are overpriced, but to be set up and running in a few minutes and to be able to quickly add/change triggers was worth it to me. I'm going to buy a few more Echos and they will be trivial to add. $100 is nothing. It's already paid for itself with the overwhelmingly positive response from my wife who is ecstatic she can use voice control in the kitchen while cooking and has a list of things she wants to use it for.

I'm sure I could control multiple Echo's with one RPi, but if not and you need one per, the cost of the RPis would quickly exceed the driver license cost.

(And I would have paid more for this driver - if someone develops a driver wirh full AVS integration, I'll be ready to buy it)

C4wiz - are you associated with VoicePod? That was my original plan for voice control, but the costs/restrictions were just too much for me to go that route. A slightly more functional version of this driver will give VP some serious competition in the VR space for Control4 (and it seems that the Echo hardware is already more capable and far less expensive than VP)

[malelan]

For a diy guy or your needs. I'm sure this is great. But this is a hack and I cannot sell it to a customer.

[c4wiz]

Convenience and no hassle. I was meaning to get around to using the RPi approach for quite some time, but never did.

I think a lot of drivers are overpriced, but to be set up and running in a few minutes and to be able to quickly add/change triggers was worth it to me. I'm going to buy a few more Echos and they will be trivial to add. $100 is nothing. It's already paid for itself with the overwhelmingly positive response from my wife who is ecstatic she can use voice control in the kitchen while cooking and has a list of things she wants to use it for.

I'm sure I could control multiple Echo's with one RPi, but if not and you need one per, the cost of the RPis would quickly exceed the driver license cost.

(And I would have paid more for this driver - if someone develops a driver wirh full AVS integration, I'll be ready to buy it)

C4wiz - are you associated with VoicePod? That was my original plan for voice control, but the costs/restrictions were just too much for me to go that route. A slightly more functional version of this driver will give VP some serious competition in the VR space for Control4 (and it seems that the Echo hardware is already more capable and far less expensive than VP)no i am not associated with voicepod or houselogix!