Controlicz - Easy Domoticz to Alexa Integration Topic is solved

[Jem101]

Well it's taken me the best part of a day but finally I've managed to get it all working. I created one account on Controlicz, set up the SSL connection to my Domoticz installation, tested the remote access, linked the skill, set the Echo to discover and absolutely nothing. Tried it many times, no idea why it wouldn't work, but eventually I created a new account with a different email address and simpler password for the Domoticz user account (would your code have an issue with an _ in the password?). And this time success, the Echo found all the devices I wanted (in fact it found a few too many, so I had to change my room plans slightly and rediscover - but no biggie).

So all seems to be working - it's a more elegant solution that the HABridge method (which oddly enough has stopped working completely for me this morning, before I even started with Controlicz, but that's something to be thought about tomorrow) and I'll probably need to spend a bit of time fine-tuning the Alexa_Name parameters to get it to better fit with how I like to name things.

I did have an issue with two scenes, both defined in Domoticz OK, both in the same room plan but only one was being picked up by the Echo. Tried the discovery many times but no luck. I eventually created a new scene with the same settings in the same room plan and that one was picked up first time - go figure!

Anyway money (via Paypal) is duly dispatched, have a drink on me, I used to Iive in Bromley but now moved to the next door borough of Bexley - I haven't been to the Bromley shopping centre for about ten years, I bet it's changed quite a bit!

One last thing, if I PM you the original email address I used to sign up and which I won't be using now, did you want to delete it? Purely for the purpose of keeping things clean and tidy.

Best wishes

John

[Madgeni]

Hi John -
thanks for the feedback, and the donation is very kind!
PM me the details and i'll clean them out, definitely

[joshmosh]

Any idea what could be wrong ?
I have Domoticz (latest stable version) on my Raspberry Pi. Access via https enabled, user and password in Domoticz.
Controlicz skill in Alexa enabled, user on Controlicz.com created. Got message that I should allow Controlicz access to my Domiticz installation -> granted.

In Alexa app I look for devices - nothing. I have a number of devices with Alexa_Name in the description part.

What am I doing wrong ?
Thank you very much for your help

Josh

[Madgeni]

Are your devices in room plans in Domoticz?

[fecus]

I'm in a same situation as joshmosh. But, what is the uid? Maybe i messed up this number?
Is it a "MyDomoticz Instance ID:"?
Can cause mistake the hungarian language? e.g. the name of switch?
Is it any tool to make sure the controlicz see my equipment?

[Madgeni]

uid = domoticz username you can use to log into Domoticz

[joshmosh]

Are your devices in room plans in Domoticz?

Yes, they are. Currently I have three different room plans and a number of devices (not all) are in those plans.

[fecus]

uid = domoticz username you can use to log into Domoticz

I'm stupid!!
Thank you. It is working.

[Madgeni]

@joshmosh - can you PM me your email address and i'll take a look? thx

[fecus]

Can I set "Source IP address" in router in firewall port forwarding setup? Has Controlicz fix IP?

[quack3d]

Can I set "Source IP address" in router in firewall port forwarding setup? Has Controlicz fix IP?

Yes. Ping controlicz.com to get IP. Works fine here.

[Kerel]

that's weird - i'd say it should discover it. It's in a Room Plan right?

Jep, it's in a room plan:



Other devices are working fine:



But Sofa light, TV and dining room light are not discovered..

[Kerel]

Found the problem:

I have 2 domoticz users: admin and Alexa.
The devices I recenlty added: I forgot to allocate them to the Alexa domoticz user as well...



What about adding a checklist to the topicstart, mentioning all the required steps in case of problems?

1. Check if HTTPS port is public accessible
2. Check if the devices are added to a roomplan
3. Check if the user configured in Controlicz has access to the devices withing Domoticz
4. Check if Alexa already ran a rediscovery.
5. etc.

[Madgeni]

or you could read the FAQs

https://www.controlicz.com/faq

[Kerel]

True
But since I already created the Alexa user, the FAQ didn't remind me of adding the devices to the Alexa domoticz user as well .

What about an addition to the FAQ?:

To control the device discovery, Controlicz will only discover devices/scenes/Groups that are in Domoticz Room Plans and added to the Alexa domoticz user as well.

[Madgeni]

honestly! Users are a pain

[kaigame]

Hi everyone, I'm having lots of fun with Controlicz and Domoticz, finally have the ability to change colour by command, which is working quite well.

A couple quirks, probably due to my lights more than the software, and was wondering if anyone knew of a solution.

I'm using the Milight/limitless RGBW bulbs with the v6 lamp controller. I've also got a RGBWW(v6) bulb but it's not in use at the moment. So have the V5 and V6 added to Domoticz. The RGBW bulb colour wheel is a little off, i believe this is a milight/limitless issue, rather than a Domoticz issue, but it does affect which colours are represented.

If i say: Change lamp colour to Blue, it changes to blue
Red - purple
orange - red
yellow - orange

All of this i can live with, but would be nice if i could 'shift' the colour wheel to match. The big issue i have is white.

If i say Change lamp colour to white, nothing happens at all, it remains on whichever colour it was on prior to the command.
If i say change lamp colour to black, the lamp changes to white and dims the light, i then have to increase the brightness in order to restore the lamp to normal.

Is there an easy fix for this?

Also is the Controlicz ip static? as in can i create a firewall rule to specifically allow traffic from that IP inbound instead of having a hole in my home network? Thanks in advance.

[Madgeni]

Hi - firstly, pleased you're enjoying Controlicz

Yep, it's running on one EC2 instance (at the moment, this might change) - so the IP is 35.176.67.167

Re: colours, it does sound like the issue is with the RGBW handling in Domoticz for those lights - however, I confess i've not *really* tested the whites. It's not handled the same way within Alexa that RGB is, and provides degress Kelvin for the white shades, which I then have to convert for the Domoticz API to understand, so it's possible it's my fault
I do have a white hue lamp, so will test it and see what happens

[kaigame]

Thanks for the swift response, the bad colour choices are definitely the fault of the lights themselves, as their own colour wheel from their app is a bit wonky! :p but the controller's colours are correct

But i'm hoping there is something in domoticz that can help

Hope you can replicate the white colour issue, i'll be getting some led strips this week, so i'm expecting the same issue with them.

[Madgeni]

will try it as soon as I can - it's quite likely a combination of my conversion and the domoticz API