Alexa driver listed in drivers

[drmark12pa]

I just noticed in ADD DEVICES there is an Alexa driver (voice-scene.c4z).  What function does this have if added to project?

[Cyknight]

That's the driver that you use for custom Alexa voice scenes (ie anything that doesn't discover automatically, more advanced options) - so you create a voice scene that is 'beam me up scotty' then alexa can discover it and trigger it and you program what you want that scene to do.

[drmark12pa]

6 minutes ago, Cyknight said:

That's the driver that you use for custom Alexa voice scenes (ie anything that doesn't discover automatically, more advanced options) - so you create a voice scene that is 'beam me up scotty' then alexa can discover it and trigger it and you program what you want that scene to do.

I see I have this driver already in my RACK but is there any benefit to installing multiple instances?  I just posted a problem with Alexa no longer recognizing a few lights so wondering if I should add this to force Alexa to see these lights again?

Is there any benefit to adding this Alexa driver manually into a project in a certain room?

[msgreenf]

It's 1 per project 

[Cyknight]

You create multiple scenes in that driver: so as per above, there's neither need nor benefit (indeed it may not even be possible) to add more than one instance.

[Amr]

On 4/30/2023 at 10:29 PM, drmark12pa said:

I see I have this driver already in my RACK but is there any benefit to installing multiple instances?  I just posted a problem with Alexa no longer recognizing a few lights so wondering if I should add this to force Alexa to see these lights again?

Is there any benefit to adding this Alexa driver manually into a project in a certain room?

For Alexa not recognizing lights, did u changed any of these lights in the project? Also did u checked in customer.control4.com the unique commands required for these lights? Doing so u can rediscover devices on Alexa and all will be fixed.

Lights is auto discover as well whatever u allowed to be discovered, rest can be done with the voice scene.

[drmark12pa]

4 hours ago, Amr said:

For Alexa not recognizing lights, did u changed any of these lights in the project? Also did u checked in customer.control4.com the unique commands required for these lights? Doing so u can rediscover devices on Alexa and all will be fixed.

Lights is auto discover as well whatever u allowed to be discovered, rest can be done with the voice scene.

It was working just fine up until the last week.  Nothing has changed. In MyControl4, the light is listed and checked as part of Voice Control.  The light is named Master Bathroom Mark as it always has been.  Alexa says OK when I say "Alexa turn on Master Bathroom Mark" and nothing happens.

I've unlinked and relinked C4 with Alexa and that didn't change anything.

I've tried discovery through Alexa and that does do anything.....

[Amr]

On 5/2/2023 at 8:17 AM, drmark12pa said:

It was working just fine up until the last week.  Nothing has changed. In MyControl4, the light is listed and checked as part of Voice Control.  The light is named Master Bathroom Mark as it always has been.  Alexa says OK when I say "Alexa turn on Master Bathroom Mark" and nothing happens.

I've unlinked and relinked C4 with Alexa and that didn't change anything.

I've tried discovery through Alexa and that does do anything.....

I’m out of ideas, why don’t unlink, reboot controller and try again if not working then unregister and re-register controller and setup Alexa again, this was one of the solutions before, I have no other ideas, mine working without any issue.

My main controller is EA5 on 3.3.3.

[mlkramer]

May want to verify 4sight is active as it's required.  

[drmark12pa]

On 5/3/2023 at 2:55 PM, mlkramer said:

May want to verify 4sight is active as it's required.  

I've had 4sight for ten years.  Renews annually in December automatically.

Doesn't look Iook like Alexa and C4 cooperate as I have over 300 C4 devices on Alexa 

[South Africa C4 user]

3 hours ago, drmark12pa said:

I've had 4sight for ten years.  Renews annually in December automatically.

Doesn't look Iook like Alexa and C4 cooperate as I have over 300 C4 devices on Alexa 

I also have over 300 C4 devices on Alexa and other than not seeing every device in the Alexa App and seeing the annoying “More than 300 devices in Control4 project” all over the place, Alexa control is working perfectly.

[drmark12pa]

16 hours ago, South Africa C4 user said:

I also have over 300 C4 devices on Alexa and other than not seeing every device in the Alexa App and seeing the annoying “More than 300 devices in Control4 project” all over the place, Alexa control is working perfectly.

I wish all owners could say that consistently.  There are times where Alexa says ok and nothing happens but now I cannot see this light listed anywhere in Alexa even after refreshing, checking, unchecking, unlinking, relinking, etc. Not sure why it can't simply list the devices vs. there over 300 devices via Control4 thing

[Amr]

48 minutes ago, drmark12pa said:

I wish all owners could say that consistently.  There are times where Alexa says ok and nothing happens but now I cannot see this light listed anywhere in Alexa even after refreshing, checking, unchecking, unlinking, relinking, etc. Not sure why it can't simply list the devices vs. there over 300 devices via Control4 thing

U don’t need to control 300 device by voice, this is just too much, limit this to most common and most used ones, I kept mine under 200 and happy never had an issue, just a global issue when Amazon sinks every once and a while!

[drmark12pa]

On 5/5/2023 at 4:40 PM, Amr said:

U don’t need to control 300 device by voice, this is just too much, limit this to most common and most used ones, I kept mine under 200 and happy never had an issue, just a global issue when Amazon sinks every once and a while!

I don't? There is AI that can write a Beatles song and Control4 and Alexa together can't manage 300 devices? I have over 100 lights, 4 garage doors, lighting scenes, LIFX lights,etc etc and I have playlists for my music by artist also broken down by room so I can play certain things in certain rooms.  Not all of these devices are Control4, Alexa automatically imports everything it sees as a device including the 12 Alexa devices I have in my home.  Each room is a device.  That number adds up very quickly in a large system.  My theater lighting alone has 4 sets of ceiling lights and then the RGB sconces and RGB setups lighting add another 20 lights.

Maybe Control4 can charge some more for another updated controller to manage these devices with Alexa better since they phase things out.

[Amr]

42 minutes ago, drmark12pa said:

I don't? There is AI that can write a Beatles song and Control4 and Alexa together can't manage 300 devices? I have over 100 lights, 4 garage doors, lighting scenes, LIFX lights,etc etc and I have playlists for my music by artist also broken down by room so I can play certain things in certain rooms.  Not all of these devices are Control4, Alexa automatically imports everything it sees as a device including the 12 Alexa devices I have in my home.  Each room is a device.  That number adds up very quickly in a large system.  My theater lighting alone has 4 sets of ceiling lights and then the RGB sconces and RGB setups lighting add another 20 lights.

Maybe Control4 can charge some more for another updated controller to manage these devices with Alexa better since they phase things out.

I don’t understand why u r blaming C4 for, group the lights if u want to reduce the clutter, also use Alexa voice scene for complex stuff, am sure you can figure it out, don’t let a dealer do it or the labor costs will hit you hard, that’s easily 40 hrs work, not less than $400-$500, it requires extensive work, take it room-by-room and you will be there.

Also on the controller thing, am not sure it’s a controller limitation!

[drmark12pa]

1 hour ago, Amr said:

I don’t understand why u r blaming C4 for, group the lights if u want to reduce the clutter, also use Alexa voice scene for complex stuff, am sure you can figure it out, don’t let a dealer do it or the labor costs will hit you hard, that’s easily 40 hrs work, not less than $400-$500, it requires extensive work, take it room-by-room and you will be there.

Also on the controller thing, am not sure it’s a controller limitation!

I have already reduced the clutter but this is a Control4 light that is no longer being recognized by Alexa.  Not blaming C4 just figure for the price that the integration would be better.  Also, there shouldn't be lags.  There are multiple complaints on the forum (also look at Control4 Alexa skill rating for C4....1 1/2 stars out of 5) so I'm not the only one with issues of the 2 playing nicely.  

One light not working by voice isn't the end of the world but is frustrating when I've done everything I can think of ro remedy it

[Amr]

2 hours ago, drmark12pa said:

I have already reduced the clutter but this is a Control4 light that is no longer being recognized by Alexa.  Not blaming C4 just figure for the price that the integration would be better.  Also, there shouldn't be lags.  There are multiple complaints on the forum (also look at Control4 Alexa skill rating for C4....1 1/2 stars out of 5) so I'm not the only one with issues of the 2 playing nicely.  

One light not working by voice isn't the end of the world but is frustrating when I've done everything I can think of ro remedy it

I hear you. I just give unique names for my lights just to stop it from being forgotten by Alexa, the other side of the equation is Amazon Alexa itself, the system sometime does some weird shit, with or without C4 it has its issues!

[South Africa C4 user]

22 hours ago, drmark12pa said:

I have already reduced the clutter but this is a Control4 light that is no longer being recognized by Alexa.  Not blaming C4 just figure for the price that the integration would be better.  Also, there shouldn't be lags.  There are multiple complaints on the forum (also look at Control4 Alexa skill rating for C4....1 1/2 stars out of 5) so I'm not the only one with issues of the 2 playing nicely.  

One light not working by voice isn't the end of the world but is frustrating when I've done everything I can think of ro remedy it

Just a comment on the lag.  The lag in South Africa (both my residences) magically vanished 2 or 3 weeks ago. Control is now instant.    I now love the Alexa integration where I previously simply tolerated it.  I think it is to do with Amazon updating their servers in South Africa (May be wrong).

I also discovered that I can say “turn off downlights in the bedroom” and “turn off downlights in the lounge” and both work as one would expect.  I did not know this was possible with Alexa but quite cool!

Edited May 8, 2023 by South Africa C4 user

[drmark12pa]

22 hours ago, Amr said:

I hear you. I just give unique names for my lights just to stop it from being forgotten by Alexa, the other side of the equation is Amazon Alexa itself, the system sometime does some weird shit, with or without C4 it has its issues!

I ended up changing the name of the light in MyControl4 and added a voice control command (which I didn't even end up programming). Oddly enough after that it started working so I changed the light name back in MyControl4 and now it seems to be working ... Strange ...

Also, of note is that I was updated to latest firmware this weekend but that didn't fix it, it wasn't until I did the name changing that it changed.