Amazon Echo Driver!

[msgreenf]

Here is a tip to find the IP of your Echo.  The MAC starts with F0.  So if you can get your arp table dumped you can get the IP right from there.

To get the ARP table on mac:

1) Open terminal

2) Enter "arp -a" and press enter

3) search the output for F0

[jfh]

Note that not all Echo MACs start with F0.  Mine starts wth 74:75 and I believe there is one other range.

[Brent87]

On 1/10/2016 at 10:31 PM, luminenterprises@gmail.com said:

This driver is amazing.  A true game changer for Control4 installs.  Thank you chopedogg88!

https://youtu.be/XLwrLoAMBts

 

Completely agree... I installed mine this weekend and it's amazing.   I programmed it all from Composer HE and I can't believe how fast it is.   It actually executes C4 commands faster than if I pushed a button on C4 wall switch.  And the echo has great voice recognition.  My whole family uses it and it rarely misses a command.  PLUS you get all the other functions of the echo (what's the weather? what's in my schedule today?  unit conversions for the kitchen, shopping lists, etc, etc..).   Really cool technology...especially for the price.  I might buy a few more echos for other areas around the house.

[Gary Leeds UK]

Now this is the kind of driver C4 should be working on - Well done

[chesterwilson]

18 minutes ago, Gary Leeds UK said:

Now this is the kind of driver C4 should be working on - Well done

100% agree. 

[flikfoto]

How can I get this Driver?

 

Thanks!

 

Frank

[chopedogg88]

The first post in this thread has a link in at the bottom (below the video) which will take you to my PayPal site, where you can purchase the driver.  Alternately, you can go to www.epic-systems.com and purchase it there as well.

Thanks everyone for your support!

[South Africa C4 user]

It is a great driver. Alexa recognises all my trigger words.  On and off work great. Alexa struggles with up and down - may. My accent!

[jamesmbond]

Have Control4 driver install within ComposerPro 2.8.0, activated license ok, confirmed my Echo static IP address, but CANNOT get Echo Discovery to work.  I tried using Send Discover button on Action tab, I tried Alex app on iPhone, even verbally commanded Alexa to discover (she says "no new devices found).    My Discovered status on the driver in ComposerPro always says false -- never goes to true like instructions say it should.

Help!

 

UPDATE:   Thank you to Ari for your support.  The problem was entirely my own fault.  I didn't read instructions correctly that you have to do a Discover Devices from the Echo AND press the Send Discover from within Composer.

 

[jfh]

If you say "Alexa, discover devices" wait till she tells you about the button on the bridge and THEN hit Discover Devices on the action tab or in the Alexa ap.

(Verify you have the triggers defined in the driver you think you do)

if that doesn't work either 

 (a) the IP address isn't right

 (b) there is a problem with the Echo's internet connection 

(c) the discovery service at Amazon is not available (this happens more than it should)

[TheaterExtreme]

I COMPLETELY understand! I fought with that thing for WEEKS! I'll tell you this too, if you have a wifi near the zigbee controller your going to have a tough time. It was only then after moving stuff did mine FINALLY discover. So check that as well.

[AnOutsider]

I've been having a bit of trouble getting our second echo properly discovered as well. In the end, I realized echo 2 responded to echo 1's triggers as well, so I just programmed it into Echo 1

[jfh]

DO NOT do discovery on more than one Echo unless they are on different Amazon accounts.

The driver is per account, NOT per Echo.  Any Echo on an account will respond to defined triggers.

[AnOutsider]

So then echo #2 should always remain undiscovered in C4?

[TheaterExtreme]

Yes,  it will respond the same way the discovered one does.  Learned that the hard way too.

[chopedogg88]

Correct.  Use only one Echo driver instance if you have multiple Echos tied to the same Amazon account.  If you need to expand past the 30 device limit, add a 2nd driver instance and configure the additional Echo(s) to use a separate Amazon account.  Sorry for the confusion on this!  I will update the documentation to explain this better.

[chopedogg88]

Turns out that James's issue with discovery was simply that he wasn't following the documentation to start the discovery in Echo and then within 20 seconds, click the send discovery button in the driver.  He was only doing one or the other but not both together.  I am going to put together a quick video here in a bit to show how to properly find the Echo IP, set it to Fixed IP, install the driver and do the device discovery.

[AnOutsider]

Ok, so you're only supposed to add one Echo to your project... But what if you want different echos in your house to handle a command in a certain way? For example, Alexa Turn on cameras might pull up the cameras on the touchscreen while in the bedroom, it would turn ont he TV and pull up the camera view on HC300

[msgreenf]

15 minutes ago, AnOutsider said:

Ok, so you're only supposed to add one Echo to your project... But what if you want different echos in your house to handle a command in a certain way? For example, Alexa Turn on cameras might pull up the cameras on the touchscreen while in the bedroom, it would turn ont he TV and pull up the camera view on HC300

dont believe that is possible right now.  Alexa accounts only allow the same connected devices.

[AnOutsider]

Hmm, but at the end of the day Alexa thinks it's a hue and is just sending a command to the driver right? So if the driver could detect which alexa sent the command (by IP or whatever), it could execute different code.

[msgreenf]

10 minutes ago, AnOutsider said:

Hmm, but at the end of the day Alexa thinks it's a hue and is just sending a command to the driver right? So if the driver could detect which alexa sent the command (by IP or whatever), it could execute different code.

That seems reasonable 

[jfh]

39 minutes ago, AnOutsider said:

Ok, so you're only supposed to add one Echo to your project... But what if you want different echos in your house to handle a command in a certain way? For example, Alexa Turn on cameras might pull up the cameras on the touchscreen while in the bedroom, it would turn ont he TV and pull up the camera view on HC300

Unless you use different triggers, you would have to figure out a way to determine where you are based on context.  

Or set up another Amazon account and use one Echo on each account.

[jfh]

20 minutes ago, AnOutsider said:

Hmm, but at the end of the day Alexa thinks it's a hue and is just sending a command to the driver right? So if the driver could detect which alexa sent the command (by IP or whatever), it could execute different code.

 

No, because there is no two-way communication.  The driver doesn't recognize the trigger, the Echo does.  The Echo determines what command to send for the diver to "see".  There is no mechanism for the driver to initiate a request to/through Echo.  Even if the driver could determine which Echo made the request, there would be no way to pass that to Amazon using the "pretend to be a HUE bridge" method.

The driver doesn't know (or care) how many Echos there are or what the IPs of the additional Echos are.   Using the devices independently would require a complete driver rewrite using AVS or creating a Skill.

[msgreenf]

3 hours ago, jfh said:

 

No, because there is no two-way communication.  The driver doesn't recognize the trigger, the Echo does.  The Echo determines what command to send for the diver to "see".  There is no mechanism for the driver to initiate a request to/through Echo.  Even if the driver could determine which Echo made the request, there would be no way to pass that to Amazon using the "pretend to be a HUE bridge" method.

The driver doesn't know (or care) how many Echos there are or what the IPs of the additional Echos are.   Using the devices independently would require a complete driver rewrite using AVS or creating a Skill.

I have been thinking. Of writing a skill and lambda functions 

[AnOutsider]

9 hours ago, jfh said:

 

No, because there is no two-way communication.  The driver doesn't recognize the trigger, the Echo does.  The Echo determines what command to send for the diver to "see".  There is no mechanism for the driver to initiate a request to/through Echo.  Even if the driver could determine which Echo made the request, there would be no way to pass that to Amazon using the "pretend to be a HUE bridge" method.

The driver doesn't know (or care) how many Echos there are or what the IPs of the additional Echos are.   Using the devices independently would require a complete driver rewrite using AVS or creating a Skill.

Perhaps I'm just ignorant to how the driver works,but I don't see what Amazon has to do with it. So that said,perhaps I should take a second to grasp that. In my mind, the driver works like this:

Echo receives command, sends to Amazon to figure out what it is, then sends back to the echo to handle. Echo hears, for example, lights off, knows there's a device named "lights" and sends the "off" command to it. If I understand correctly, this "lights" device, is actually just a c4 endpoint, which then triggers the code you've set up for that event.

So, if the above were accurate, the driver directly receives the command from the physical echo, which might provide an opportunity for identification.