chopedogg88 Posted December 18, 2015 Share Posted December 18, 2015 In case you haven't heard yet...we have released a really really cool, simple yet extremely powerful driver for the Amazon Echo. In a nutshell, it allows you to define custom keyword "triggers"...such as "kitchen", "house", "TV", "downstairs", "master blinds", etc...(you can create whatever keywords you like, other than a few words which are reserved by the Echo, such as "play", "pandora", etc.) 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 based on whatever components you have installed). For example...you can say "Alexa, turn on downstairs", or "Alexa, dim (or brighten) the kitchen", or "Alexa, turn off the house"... and have those commands trigger any programming that you desire in Control4. Here are a couple videos of the driver in action: Comet Smart Homes Video Video 1Video 2 As with any driver, you will need your dealer to add the driver to your project and configure it to work with your Echo(s). The driver can be purchased from www.epic-systems.com Thanks! -Ari Download Driver Documentation Download Driver Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobbieF Posted December 19, 2015 Share Posted December 19, 2015 Any Videos of it in action? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chopedogg88 Posted December 22, 2015 Author Share Posted December 22, 2015 EDIT - see youtube video in the original posting for this thread. Robbie, sorry I've been extremely busy with the holidays etc...haven't had a chance to make a video of the driver in action yet. I will try to make a quick one tomorrow...problem is that I have a 2-year old and a 4-year old running around the house most of the time...so its pretty rare that I find a moment of peace and quiet where I can have a nice chat with Alexa... If anyone else who has the driver feels so inclined and has the time, feel free to post a video in the meantime! It pretty much goes like this... "Alexa, Kitchen On" (Kitchen scene turns on...), or "Alexa, Turn On Apple TV" (Apple TV turns on, lights dim, or whatever else you've programmed for that event...), or "Alexa, turn off house" (house lights shut off, music and TV's turn off, temperature changes, etc..) If you decide to purchase the driver and don't find it useful, I will gladly offer you a FULL REFUND. Thanks Ari Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jfh Posted December 22, 2015 Share Posted December 22, 2015 I am an early adopter of the driver. It is very easy to set up. If you have HE, you can do everything except the actual install of the driver. 1) Install the driver - one instance per Echo (requires dealer/Composer Pro). 2) Enter the IP address of the Echo in the Properties page. 3) Add your triggers/keywords in Properties. Alexa will recognize these as "devices" 4) Go to Actions and hit the "Discover Devices" button. Alexa will tell you how many "devices" she found. 5) There will be 4 events under programming for each device - ON, OFF, UP, DOWN. Program the ones you want. There really isn't a lot for a video to show. I was going to make a video, but some unrelated critical problems have taken time away from finishing what I wanted to do with the driver. I will get to it (hopefully soon) because some of the things I plan to do with the driver involve more than turning lights on and off and will probably look cool in a video. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JArtman99 Posted December 23, 2015 Share Posted December 23, 2015 Love the Driver and Ari was awesome. Trying to add another Echo IP to the driver. Do I need multiple instances or can I add more than one Echo IP to the Driver? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jfh Posted December 23, 2015 Share Posted December 23, 2015 You need one driver instance per Echo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheaterExtreme Posted December 23, 2015 Share Posted December 23, 2015 JFH, that would be great. i had a few issues with setting up mine. Ari has been great in regards to his communication with me about fixing the issue. My Echo does seem to want to take the static IP per the documentation. but i too and trying to do some pretty HOT things with my Echo. would love to see what you come up with! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vandy Posted December 23, 2015 Share Posted December 23, 2015 I have been using for about a week now. Great driver. The Wife loves it (bonus points for me, Thanks Ari). Now just need some cool ideas of things to do.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheaterExtreme Posted December 23, 2015 Share Posted December 23, 2015 well I'm hoping to have the Roombas in there and then i can tell Alexa to "vacuum" and she go through control4 to start the roombas..... Thinking also integrating timers and audio notifications for when its time for the kids to go to bed.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheaterExtreme Posted December 23, 2015 Share Posted December 23, 2015 My Voicepods are nice... but i want Alexa to take over those controls. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vandy Posted December 23, 2015 Share Posted December 23, 2015 I dont have a Roomba but i can tell Alexa to vacuum the house and have that trigger an event that texts my wife and tells her to clean Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheaterExtreme Posted December 23, 2015 Share Posted December 23, 2015 Lol, GOOD ONE! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jfh Posted December 23, 2015 Share Posted December 23, 2015 1 hour ago, Vandy said: I dont have a Roomba but i can tell Alexa to vacuum the house and have that trigger an event that texts my wife and tells her to clean I'll bet that event doesn't get the desired response ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RiggsP Posted December 25, 2015 Share Posted December 25, 2015 I have purchased the Echo driver using PayPal. Where do I find the driver to download? I'm a C4 dealer and will be adding it to my project for testing. Thanks for your time! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chopedogg88 Posted December 25, 2015 Author Share Posted December 25, 2015 Thanks for your purchase! ...I will email you the driver momentarily... Merry Christmas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RiggsP Posted December 25, 2015 Share Posted December 25, 2015 Thanks for the immediate response and Merry Christmas to you!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnOutsider Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 Big thumbs up for this driver and Ari. Works well and is SO much more responsive than voicepod. All hail Alexa Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silvio Ney Posted January 6, 2016 Share Posted January 6, 2016 Can i set any keyword to do any triggers? Can i set a keyword in another language? E.g: Alexa, Turn on the lights. (Alexa, ligar as luzes) <- portuguese/Brazil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jfh Posted January 6, 2016 Share Posted January 6, 2016 You can set any trigger word(s) you like. However, anything reserved by the Echo as a trigger (I.e. Goodnight) will not get passed to Control4 and you may have to do voice training with the Echo to improve recognition. Add a trigger to the driver and run discover. Then try <trigger> ON (or OFF/UP/DOWN) or a variation of it. If it's processed by the C4 driver, Alexa will say "Okay". Try saying it few ways and a few times if your first attempt doesn't work. You will find words that just flat out aren't recognized by Alexa as names for lights. I could never get "Arcade" recognized, but "Arcade Lights" work fine. to save yourself A LOT OF TIME - figure out which keywords work best for you AND THEN do your event programming. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jfh Posted January 7, 2016 Share Posted January 7, 2016 FYI - you can use any groups defined for the Echo and they will fire all the events for the group. You can't do any specific programming against a group (because the driver doesn't know the group name). It's not terribly reliable - don't know if that is an Echo problem or a driver issue. I have a group called "Upstairs" than consists of 4 triggers/devices. Sometimes C4 does all 4, sometimes 3, can't really see a pattern yet. But saying Alexa, turn upstairs off a few times can still be the fastest way to do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brent87 Posted January 7, 2016 Share Posted January 7, 2016 JFH: Can that issue be solved by having the Echo trigger a C4 macro (one event) and then within that macro have it turn off all 4 devices for you? I just ordered my echo and the driver so I haven't played around with it yet so I'm just speculating. Trying to get a head start on troubleshooting.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jfh Posted January 7, 2016 Share Posted January 7, 2016 19 minutes ago, Brent87 said: JFH: Can that issue be solved by having the Echo trigger a C4 macro (one event) and then within that macro have it turn off all 4 devices for you? I just ordered my echo and the driver so I haven't played around with it yet so I'm just speculating. Trying to get a head start on troubleshooting.... Sure, because you have full control over the events in the macro and can add additional timing, conditions, etc.. But the purpose of using the group in the first place was to not requiring an additional trigger to be defined to the driver/Echo. I am very close to the 30 trigger limit and wanted to see if I could get around that to some extent by using groups. Perhaps Ari can weigh in here, but I suspect it's a timing thing with rapid fire requests coming from the Echo (if there are 6 items in the group, Echo sends 6 event triggers to the driver). Maybe there needs to be a delay (200ms?) added after each trigger is processed? I have noticed in other programming that there are cases when adding in a small delay between commands prevents similar problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luminenterprises@gmail.com Posted January 10, 2016 Share Posted January 10, 2016 This driver is amazing. A true game changer for Control4 installs. Thank you chopedogg88! https://youtu.be/XLwrLoAMBts Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheaterExtreme Posted January 10, 2016 Share Posted January 10, 2016 Luminenterprise.... sounds like the Misses is a little jealous of Alexa! LOL! My wife pulled the same craziness. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobbieF Posted January 11, 2016 Share Posted January 11, 2016 On 10/01/2016 at 4:31 AM, luminenterprises@gmail.com said: This driver is amazing. A true game changer for Control4 installs. Thank you chopedogg88! https://youtu.be/XLwrLoAMBts Cool Video - Now I HAVE to have one!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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