Devices working/found, but ALL scenes "not responding" Alexa Dot & Vera Plus

So for that past few weeks, all of the devices work fine, BUT no scenes are working. Alexa thinks for a minute then says “Not Responding…”. I have tried to forget all devices and scenes and rediscover, still no luck. Reload Vera, no luck. Any fixes??

Apparently any device or scene that might introduce a security concern gets ignored by Alexa. However I added and configured the TIVO app to my Vera Plus and it works on the Vera but Alexa doesn’t find it. I can’t believe a TIVO is considered to introduce a security concern, I just wanted some voice control over basic TIVO functions.

So apparently Alexa ignores Cameras, Door Locks, and Garage Doors. Still, it would be nice to just say “Alexa, Lock the doors”.

http://support.mios.com/customer/en/portal/articles/2648086-alexa-user-guide

[quote=“jluvs2ride, post:2, topic:198123”]Apparently any device or scene that might introduce a security concern gets ignored by Alexa. However I added and configured the TIVO app to my Vera Plus and it works on the Vera but Alexa doesn’t find it. I can’t believe a TIVO is considered to introduce a security concern, I just wanted some voice control over basic TIVO functions.

So apparently Alexa ignores Cameras, Door Locks, and Garage Doors. Still, it would be nice to just say “Alexa, Lock the doors”.

http://support.mios.com/customer/en/portal/articles/2648086-alexa-user-guide[/quote]

Yes, I’m aware, but a simple scene of turn kitchen off (lights) doesn’t work. Zero scenes work…

^^^
My kitchen lights still work, touch wood,but…my window covering scenes have never worked. I wonder if window coverings are considered a security issue and that is the root cause of this?

Just checked my scene on shades and that still works through Alexa. Thank you Alexa.

I just today realized that any time you create new scenes/devices and want Alexa to pick them up you can’t simply scan for new ones. You also need to go here and deliberately tick the scenes and devices you want Alexa exposed to. By default, new scenes and devices aren’t exposed.

[quote=“dingfod”]I just today realized that any time you create new scenes/devices and want Alexa to pick them up you can’t simply scan for new ones. You also need to go here and deliberately tick the scenes and devices you want Alexa exposed to. By default, new scenes and devices aren’t exposed.[/quote]Where is “here”? I didn’t have any problems setting Alexa up initially, but I can’t figure out how to add devices that were not originally included when I set it up. When I click the “here” link, it just takes me to the Alexa app which can’t find the devices.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

Hello, You got me headed in the right direction. Alexa would not find any of my recent additions…devices and scenes.

I went here: Login

Which is accessible from the getvera connection…before connection to your vera box. Upper right hand corner dropdown…Alexa.
As soon as I got this dialog and “enabled” the new devices and scenes, Alexa ran great. There should be an easier or more obvious way to do this. I was not able to find one, but perhaps there is one.
BTW, the IOS version of Alexa (and maybe others) has a “routines” set up which allows you to customize actions for Alexa. For example, I set up a “Wake up” routine that turned some lights on, others brighter and played the news. Seems very useful.

I don’t see anything else I could do. All scenes are enabled, there is no refresh that I can see and of course the scenes work by themselves but not controlled by Alexa.

To check this I renamed my scene in Alexa to ‘close shade’. The command ‘turn on close shade’ did close the shade.

^^^
Thanks for that :slight_smile:

I wasn’t using Turn On first, shades now work but Alexa responds with “device not responding”…weird…
At least I now have VC over the window coverings…

[quote=“Paulb4333, post:8, topic:198123”]Hello, You got me headed in the right direction. Alexa would not find any of my recent additions…devices and scenes.

I went here: Login

Which is accessible from the getvera connection…before connection to your vera box. Upper right hand corner dropdown…Alexa.
As soon as I got this dialog and “enabled” the new devices and scenes, Alexa ran great. There should be an easier or more obvious way to do this. I was not able to find one, but perhaps there is one.
BTW, the IOS version of Alexa (and maybe others) has a “routines” set up which allows you to customize actions for Alexa. For example, I set up a “Wake up” routine that turned some lights on, others brighter and played the news. Seems very useful.[/quote]

I went here, but still not all my devices show. Specifically my TIVO.

Still having ZERO luck. I forgot all devices and scenes, removed the skill, removed the app from vera, reloaded engine. Followed all instructions. Added the Devices and Scenes.

Devices work

ALL Scenes - Alexa “…not responding”

None of the scenes have any security devices, they are just lights.

Frustrating…

I can sympathise with you, it was driving me crazy as well - possibly worse than yourself as after Alexa states that the devices can’t be found, the blind or light work!

[size=1em][font=verdana]ranneman provided the solution which was to use the command “Turn On”

The jargon is far to removed from what it should be, for instance to ask Alexa to close my sunshades the command is:

“Alexa, Turn On Close Shade” while to open them is “Alexa, Turn On Open Shade”.
Clearly, we need to be able to change the Turn On/Off to Open/Close.

Until this/these barriers are resolved then VR will not become mainstream or will be relegated to simple tasks such as timers or asking the day/time etc.

[/font][/size]

Alexa supports this through routines. So if you create a routine you can define your own “text” to make something happen. For now I think this is a new feature not fully supported yet. I did get this to work, so if I say “Alexa, close shades” it does work for me. I use a routine which triggers a virtual switch as work around. The status changes of the virtual switch triggers the shades to close.

Where do I find routines?

For Android, from the Alexa app Home Screen it’s in the top left menu (hamburger) > Routines.

I was afraid of that.
The Amazon Alexa app is not available in our region so Alexa is teally become useful as a boat anchor

So I tried to set a ROUTINE, but when I do, it says this scene is currently not supported. Again, these are light only scenes.

nutshellml, routines do not support scenes yet for the Vera Skill. The routines do work for devices. So if your routine triggers a device to switch on or off that will work. If this device is a virtual switch the status change of the virtual switch can be used in Vera to trigger the scene you want to activate by the routine. To make this work the virtual switch needs to be changed a little to work in Alexa, see this thread http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,47297.0.html. There is another thread on the virtual switch which makes this even more useful adding a third stage to the switch (ON, OFF, NOTHING).
Steps to make it work

  1. create a virtual switch and change it to make it work for Alexa (see attachment for the files I used)
  2. trigger the scene you want to run in Vera by the status change of the virtual switch in Vera
  3. add the virtual switch to your Alexa devices
  4. create a routine that switches your virtual switch(es) on or off