The last two weeks Amazon Echo constantly says that the device is not responding but eventually in 30 seconds to minutes it will execute. I have been using the Vera/Echo skill since day one and abandoned the HABridge option with great success. Is anyone else seeing this? Is the Google integration any better?
Having the same thing here in the UK. Not been quite this bad before.
C
Same here. Not good for the WAF factor I can tell you 
Same with me. I canāt even get my scenes to respond at this point.
Comes and goes IME. Problem is canāt even troubleshoot it 
C
I posted on their Facebook but Iām sure that will go unanswered. I have opened a support ticket but I expect the standard response of āThatās the first we have heard about itā or blame it on Amazon even though my other Amazon ECHO integrated devices work fine.
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Use habridge and its instantā¦
Well in fairness it might still be Amazonās fault. Just canāt tell
C
Another UK user here. I noticed this over the past week but it seems better now.
Same here eastern US
Same here.
The web is swamped with complaints about Alexaās behaviour since its recent round of firmware updates. From not responding, responding before execution, major delays between command and execution to not executing at all. Vera is no exception either with this symptom.
Youāll see all sorts of solutions in various forums but none of them are long term.
What I can see is the Hue emulator was hit badly and has stopped working in many home automation programs. I noticed a suggestion made to change to port 80 on HA Bridge but Iām not convinced this is a permanent solution either.
I imagine thereās more firmware updates on the way from Amazon so I imagine this problem will persist until Amazon gets Alexa to where it actually wants it. Making money.
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I am not seeing that issue with the HA-Bridge. My automations are running timely and devices respond a second or two after I give the Alexa command.
I did have an issue two or three months ago about not being able to discover devices, and eventually realized my Echo was in the wrong (wifeās) profile. Why the phone app or web couldnāt discover I never figured outā¦ My personal experience is that port 80 isnāt the issue (running on 8080 myself).
Yes but the Alexa firmware updates have been selective and targeted. Your Alexa device may not have been updated yet.
Iām sure youāve already checked this out. Alexa suddenly started saying "device not responding" - Change to port 80 and search again in Alexa Ā· Issue #1133 Ā· bwssytems/ha-bridge Ā· GitHub
Not that one, but I posted in one of the other threads two months back. Completely agree Amazon is a black boxā¦
Thereās way too much reliance on Alexa in home automation these days. While I do use it from time to time it wouldnāt form the central plank of my home automation setup like it does for others.
A number of properly designed scenes coupled with a mobile device is more than sufficient.
These Alexa failings will continue to be reported for the moment I imagine.
The folks at MIOS were having authentication errors. I am not sure if it is completely fixed yet or not. They were doing something this weekend just to keep the authentication working in a timely manner. The performance would eventually fade to a point that using Alexa was futile. Now that the full staff is in I am sure they have or will fix it.
Indeed but the original source of the problem is Amazon. Vera is not the only home automation program suffering from these outages. No doubt Mios are looking to patch the problem too.
I started with Amazon Saturday and the only problem we could see was the performance related to Vera. The Amazon tech didnāt mention any known issues. Maybe he wasnāt privy. The Vera tech said it was a known issue but didnāt elaborate and said they (Vera sysadmins) were working on it. Glad you found someone that knows what is really going on!
AFAIAC Alexa is not the central plank but itās bloody convenient.
In fact the habit is so strong that I walked into a hotel room last week and got as far as saying āAleā¦ā before I realised it wasnāt going to workā¦
C
I am really not so sure about this. I have an actual hue and an habridge connected to it with a very large variety of generations of echo products and none has had any problems with the original habridge. I did not change the port on it either but again I am not using the latest version of the habridge either since I do not need any of the new features which forced breaking the old device numbering. The hue bridge itself, connected locally also has had 0 problems so I think it is a vera server sourced issue.
The habridge is a superior solution by the fact that it avoids doing a cloud to cloud call before coming back into your vera. Too many possibilities for failures (and delays) to my taste.