Trying to use the new Google Home, Home Control support but having some issues.
It seems that the Google Home app does not forget a device nickname, even though I have now no alias set for this device in the Vera Concierge custom settings.
My problem is as follows:
In my kitchen I have a Ceiling Light and some LED strip lights under the cabinets.
In Google Home Control when I say turn on the kitchen lights, I only want the ceiling light to come on. But it always says turning on two lights and turns both on instead.
In the Google Home app under Home Control I have setup a “Kitchen” room / group and currently only the ceiling light is in the group, along with the GH speaker device for the kitchen room. The LED strip lights under the cabinets are not currently assigned to any room.
In Vera / Vera Concierge the lights are named as:
Ceiling Light (No alias ever been set)
RGBW Brightness (alias set as “Kitchen LEDs”)
So I was thinking maybe it was turning on both lights, simply because the LED strip lights had “Kitchen” in its alias name e.g “Kitchen LEDs”.
So I tried removing the alias for the LED strip light device in Vera Concierge custom settings, however the alias or nickname in the Google Home app for this device is never forgotten, if I manually try to remove the nickname in the Home app it simply comes back again, even though there is now no alias set for this device in the custom settings in Vera Concierge.
I have also tried ignoring the device in the custom settings in Vera Concierge, this then removes the device completely from the Google Home app Home Control devices list.
And then unchecking the ignore boxes again in Vera Concierge and allowing the Home app to rediscover the device, but the old alias name of “Kitchen LEDs” comes back every time.
This is totally confusing. In the Google Home app for the LED strip light device, if I click onto it at the top it then says “RGBW Brightness” which is the actual name of this device in Vera.
Then underneath this it shows the nickname of “Kitchen LEDs” which I cannot remove as it keeps coming back.
So instead I renamed the nickname to “Kickboard LEDs” and this worked OK and it changed the nickname.
However when asking GH to “turn on the kitchen lights” OR “turn on the kitchen light” it still turns on two lights the ceiling light and the LED strip light.
The LED strip light device is not in the Kitchen room / group in the Home app and its nickname now does not contain the word “Kitchen” yet GH still turns on the LED strip light device. How does it know this device is in the kitchen room now ?? :
Gets stranger, I just added the LED strip light device in to a room / group in the Home app called “Mood Lights”, previously this device has not been assigned to a room in the Home app.
Yet when saying “turn on the kitchen lights” OR “turn on the kitchen light” it still turns on two lights the ceiling light and the LED strip light.
If I say “turn on the mood lights” the Kitchen LED strip light also turns on, along with the other LED strip lights in the lounge that are also in the “Mood Lights” room / group in the Home app.
As a work around to all of this, I think I will have to create a shortcut in the Home app for when I say “turn on the kitchen light(s)” to only turn on the Kitchen ceiling light.
One last thing, if in the Google Home app I manually remove the currently set nickname which is “Kickboard LEDs” then instead of totally removing the nickname it reverts back to the previous nickname that was set which was “Kitchen LEDs”.
So either its still picking up that alias name from Vera Concierge somehow, despite there being no alias currently set for this device in the Vera Concierge custom settings.
Or the Google Home app is just damn funky when it comes to nicknames and removing them.
This is interesting I have one Philips Hue smart bulb connected to Google Home via the Hue service etc.
Looking in the Home app looks like I have previously set a nickname for this bulb device. If I manually remove the nickname in the Home app the nickname is removed and does not return.
So seems the other issue with the Vera LED strip light device and it not removing the nickname might be related to Vera Concierge after all.
Using the “Google Home” and it’s “Home Control” interface for accessing Vera Concierge …
You have to link/unlink to pick up changes.
OR You can go to the Public Vera Concierge Page, goto your Account, and click on the button to tell it to Resync … This will invalidate your Google Home/Home Control config … and force it to re-configure next time you access it.
For some reason, I am able to use “Turn off TV Room” (alias set in Vera Concierge for a room) and it working fine.
However, the alias “Kitchen” doesn’t work.
I get the response: “Sorry i don’t know which kitchen you want to turn off”
[quote=“RichardTSchaefer, post:6, topic:198447”]Using the “Google Home” and it’s “Home Control” interface for accessing Vera Concierge …
You have to link/unlink to pick up changes.
OR You can go to the Public Vera Concierge Page, goto your Account, and click on the button to tell it to Resync … This will invalidate your Google Home/Home Control config … and force it to re-configure next time you access it.[/quote]
Hi Richard
After making any changing in the Vera Concierge → Custom Settings area, I was then pressing on the “Update Cloud Information” button and also clicking on the “Update and Restart” button.
Doing this seems to make Google Home → Home Control area in the Home app pick up the changes.
However I was still having issues with aliases / nicknames not being forgotten fully, as described above.
I cannot see a Resync button in the Vera Concierge account page, assume you are meaning the “Update Cloud Info” button ?
Thanks
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