#Question about NC and HA

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

eager hemlock
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OK so where do I go to get more basic questions answered? Like I have HA on a Pi and I want to move all of my routines off of the Amazon Alexa (which Amazon has gone and crippled) and put them on the HA. Can I do this and still use the Alexa Speaker as a Mic/Speaker for the automations?

onyx ember
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That's what automations are for.
Using Alexa as speaker for voice announcements - yes.
Using Alexa as music speaker - possible, but not without custom integration.
Using Alexa as mic - very limited. Some entities can be made accessible to Alexa (either via HA Cloud or Emulated Hue for example).

eager hemlock
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OK, Maybe I have to be a bit more clear in what I am trying to accomplish, my bad and apologies.

So At the moment I have HA running on a Pi.
I use the Alexa speaker to control a Logitech Harmony Controlling the TV / Cable Box / Sound Bar So I could say things like...

"Alexa Turn to Channel 127" / "Alexa Turn up the Volume" (etc. etc. etc.)

And it would turn the channel. Now for whatever reason Amazon has "Broken" the skill for the Harmony remotes and I am no longer able to say "Alexa turn to Channel 127" and I have tried a fair number of variations. So now I need to find a better way to control the Harmony and resume voice controls.

So yeah, the question now is, if I setup NC and link it to the Alexa / HA / Harmony will I get back the functionality of being able to say "Alexa Turn to Channel 127" and have it be so.

Does that make more sense as to what I am trying to accomplish?

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So if I say "Alexa turn to Channel 127" How would that command get from Alexa to the HA ?

Will Alexa talk to NC, which will then do a STT and send the command as text via NC to an MQTT Broker which then talks to the HA so it can do the work?

Or would Alexa send the command to NC which then communicates directly to the HA and then the work is done?

Trying to wrap my head around what NC does and how it will help resolve my problems here.

onyx ember
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No. HA Cloud presents entities as devices to Alexa. And Alexa can interact with those. Voice commands are not forwarded to HA.

eager hemlock
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Well that makes no sense, I'm watching videos where people are connecting Alexa speakers to HA using NC and then giving voice commands to Alexa to turn lights on and off. Am I missing something here?

So what you are saying is even with HA and Harmony working fine I cannot add NC & Alexa to the mix to get Voice commands working again to turn the TV on and off? Or change channels?

I thought one of the main features of NC was to be able to use Amazon/Google speakers to run HA Automations?

I'm confused here.

onyx ember
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Exactly... lights are entities which are exposed to Alexa, so IT can turn it on and off. It does not forward the voice command itself or parts of it to HA to be processed there - just pure commands, like turning something on or off or setting a thermostat.

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And remote entities cannot be exposed to Alexa.

eager hemlock
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Setting a thermostat? Like

Set temp to "X"

Wouldn't that be a variable / command that's more than an On/Off?

So what's the difference between

Set Temp to "X"
and
Set channel to "X"

onyx ember
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Because thermostats are supported and Alexa knows what to do with them. Remotes aren't. Even only some media players seem to be supported and I don't know how much of a feature set Alexa even can use.

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For some functionality HA (like TV on/off) can have some workarounds.

eager hemlock
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So in this instance, where I'm trying to get back the functionality of

"Alexa (Or whatever) turn TV to channel 127"

Nabu Casa is of no help. Amazon has, in their questionable way, removed this feature, so things like

"Alexa Turn to Fox News"

Will work but asking it to turn to the channel number won't. The reasoning behind Amazon crippling this ability is them wanting you (the end user) to use their eco system, prime, fire tv's whatever and not whatever you have currently.

So I'm stuck, I'll have to create Alexa routines for each and every channel which then performs the change channel action, but I can never get the ability to change to a channel number again..

Oh well. it is what it is I guess. No Nabu Casa's fault or issue, it's Amazon breaking things as they try and force people to buy new stuffs....

What a pain.....

onyx ember
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Those would be the workarounds, I guess. But I don't have a Harmony to test.
If I am not wrong you would need Alexa routines reacting to a specific sentence, which activate a scene (button in HA) - and that button activates an automation in HA turning the TV to a specific channel.

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I did something like that to listen for smoke detectors and react in HA.

eager hemlock
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Yeah, this is all an Amazon inflicted injury. Things were working fine for Dad until they decided that they were going to interpret "Turn to channel 127" into the user wanting to find something on Fire / prime / web services which broke one can only guess to be thousands of configurations.

In my case it completely messed with a senior with Dementia and so it really made things worse for him and I'm doing what I can to try and restore things back to the way they were. People with Dementia do not take to change very well... 🙁

Oh well, nothing for it I guess.... I thought Nabu would be the savior here, but it seems not, no hard feelings it is what it is.

onyx ember