Epic-Systems Echo Driver triggers

[dutsnekcirf]

So my 4Sight license is expiring tomorrow and so I've gone ahead and purchased the Echo-Systems Echo driver.  I've performed the basic programming for lights and volume control in the rooms where it's applicable.  I've also created a trigger to turn on Pandora and have it play the last station.  I'm not sure how to accomplish some other things I want to be able to do.  These are:

Specify the Pandora station that I want to listen to in the room.  I'd like to say, "Echo, turn on (or play) Pandora <station name>".

Tell Echo to pause, play, skip, Fast Forward or Rewind the current media in the room.

Tell Echo to play a specific Movie or TV Show on Kodi (using the Chowmain Kodi Driver).

I think that's all I can think of for now.  Has anyone figured out how to program these events?

[dutsnekcirf]

I also assume that in order for this driver to replace the 4Sight driver I have to have the voice-scenes driver removed from the project.  Is that correct?

I also recognize that some of the things I want to do are things that even the 4Sight driver can't do.  

What about "Mute"? I've used the set trigger to set the volume in a room, but what about just saying mute?  I know the 4Sight driver can in fact perform that one, but can the Epic-Systems driver do that?

[jfh]

You can do all of the things you mentioned with the Epic Systems driver.  Trick is to come up with trigger words that don’t conflict with higher priority Alexa keywords.

 

i use a combination of specific keywords (e.g. Bathroom, Kitchen, TV) and a generic trigger that I don’t actually speak but trigger from an Alexa Routine with a specific brightness level that the Epic Systems driver keys off of.

For example “Alexa, turn on the TV” turns on the LR TV and tunes it to CNN.  It’s an Alexa Routine that calls an Epic Systems trigger called Alexa Routines with brightness level 22.  The macro then has a series of If commands to execute the desired function (e,g. If brightness = 22 turn on the TV and set the station to CNN).   You can use this method to get around reserved keywords (like blinds and shades) because user defined phrases will be recognized before reserved keywords)

The ability for the ES driver to support SET values makes this possible and blows away C4 native support.

[dutsnekcirf]

On 8/22/2019 at 9:12 PM, jfh said:

It’s an Alexa Routine that calls an Epic Systems trigger called Alexa Routines

So let me make sure I understand.  You're using the Alex app on your phone (or on their website) to create the various routines you want and then you use the Epic System driver to trigger the routine?  or is it the other way around, is the Alexa Routine triggering the Epic Systems driver to execute your programming?  I'm not sure I can wrap my head around that.  How do you get an Alexa Routine to trigger an event in Control4?

I guess I'll have to play with this a bit more.

[msgreenf]

An Alexa routine can trigger on any devices in your alexa account...control4 devices or otherwise....

[jfh]

On 8/24/2019 at 11:53 AM, dutsnekcirf said:

So let me make sure I understand.  You're using the Alex app on your phone (or on their website) to create the various routines you want and then you use the Epic System driver to trigger the routine?  or is it the other way around, is the Alexa Routine triggering the Epic Systems driver to execute your programming?  I'm not sure I can wrap my head around that.  How do you get an Alexa Routine to trigger an event in Control4?

The other way around.  An Alexa Routine triggers an Epic Systems driver event using the brightness level specified in the Alexa routine to provide a specific trigger.

 

1) Create a trigger name in the Epic Systems driver.  Something that you would never accidentally speak to try and control something (e.g. “Macro Routines’ or “Alexa Control4 Interface”).  Then Discover Devices.   That creates an Amazon device that Alexa sees as a Phillips Hue lightbulb.

2) In the Amazon Alexa ap/website, create an Alexa Routine with ‘when you say’ as whatever phrase you want - “Alexa, we’re having a party” and the action being ‘turn on Alexa Control4 Interface at 94%’ (the device will be whatever you called the ES trigger in step 1 and the % value will be the index you are using to ID the code you want to run in Control4).  

3) Create a variable in C4 that is a number.  I call mine Alexa Routine Index.  This isn’t absolutely necessary, but it keeps things cleaner.

4) Write a macro in C4.  Call it anything you want.  Mine is called Alexa Routines.  The macro should contain a series of conditions;

   ?If Variables->Alexa Routine Index EQUAL to 94

       ... [whatever commands you want to run if having a party]

       STOP

   ?If Variables->Alexa Routine Index EQUAL to 95

       ... [whatever commands you want to run for some other event triggered by brightness level 95]

       STOP

 

5) in the programming event for SET for the trigger name you set up in step 1:

 Set the value of Alexa Routine Index to SET_VALUE_NUMBER from whatever your Epic Systems driver is called and then call the macro from step 4.  If you didn’t create a variable in step 3, just use SET_VALUE_NUMBER in the If conditions in your step 4 macro.

Note: do not use 0, 1 or 100 as brightness levels.  If you have more than than 90 some events or want to group them, repeat the above steps with different trigger and macro names.  This CANNOT be done (practically) with the C4 Alexa driver because it does not support the SET function.

I take all of the above a step further and create a variable that has whatever the Amazon Alexa Routine ‘when you say’ phrase is that I can use for messages and logging, but this isn’t necessary for the function.

[dutsnekcirf]

This is absolutely brilliant!  I appreciate the step-by-step.  I definitely needed it.  This would also be the first time I've written a macro in C4 as well.  Didn't know that was possible.  Thank you so much!