I am having the same issue. I finally started converting devices over from ST last weekend. On some of those devices I converted I am often (90% of the time) getting "Sorry xxxx is not responding" on devices with "Generic Z-Wave Dimmer" as the device type. I do get the "OK" reply often enough to know that it does sometimes work correctly. When I get the error message the action also does not show up in the event log for the device. If I click "refresh" the current state will update to show the correct information. When I specify a percentage it seems to work fine every time, it is just on and off that fail. Most of my devices are older devices. I can’t afford to replace all of them just to work with HE. Alexa is my main control point for Home Automation, (or Home Control if you prefer)
I've had this issue too, and have mostly observed it with my generic smart dimmers as well. "Alexa, turn dining room off..." spins for a second, light turns off, continues spinning for another ~10-15 seconds, "device did not respond, etc."
Thanks Keo! I have a Leviton Decora Smart dimmer (DZ6HD) and was having the same problem where Alexa would properly turn on/off/dim my lights, but report "Sorry is not responding)" about 10 secs after performing the command. I changed the HE device type to Generic Z-Wave Dimmer, deleted device in Alexa->Smart Home, then clicked Add Device to let Alexa rediscover the dimmer again and now it works properly. Alexa now says "OK" about 1 to 2 secs after performing the requested command...
I too am having this issue, primarily with devices configured as 'Generic Z-Wave Dimmer'. Other devices appear to work more consistently. I've tried removing all of the HE devices from the Alexa app, removing the Hubitat skill on Alexa, removing the Amazon Echo Skill app from HE, then starting over. Nothing helps.
+1 to this. I wiresharked the traffic between my hue bridge/hubitat to see what was happening, and this seems to be the case for devices that alexa says "ok" to:
0.00 seconds - Packet traffic from Amazon to Hubitat (Encrypted)
0.02 seconds - Packet traffic from hubitat to hue, telling it to turn on living room
0.08 seconds - Packet traffic from hue to hubitat saying that the lights have been turned on
0.10 seconds - Packet traffic from hubitat to amazon (Encrypted)
Now, everytime Alexa hangs for a bit and says that the device is not responding...
0.00 seconds - Packet traffic from Amazon to Hubitat (Encrypted)
0.02 seconds - Packet traffic from hubitat to hue, telling it to turn on living room
0.10 seconds - Packet traffic from hubitat to amazon (Encrypted)
0.12 seconds - Packet traffic from hue to hubitat saying that the lights have been turned on
It appears that hubitat doesn't make a 2nd effort to alert Amazon that the device has responded, or is not waiting for the device to respond before sending information to amazon.
This is ESPECIALLY noticeable in larger light groups. For my hue light group "Everything" which includes 40~ bulbs, Alexa has literally never responded "Ok!" to any command involving them, even though they always turn on/off nearly immediately.
One workaround for this is to use a virtual switch where there is a delay..
Alexa turns on/off the virtual switch and responds ok...
Virtual switch controls other device.. it can take its time because alexa already thinks its complete because of the virtual switch response..
I use this for my ‘night’ routine as it sets various dimmers and lights etc.
I use ‘one to many’ to take control of the virtual to the other switches/lights.
While I agree that this would probably resolve the race condition, it feel far from an ideal solution for the long term. I would hope that Team Hubitat (@bravenel, @patrick, @bobbyD, and @chuck.schwer) would be able to fix this eventually to give the hub enough time to complete the actions before sending an update back to Alexa.
With the latest iteration of He I now have this EVERY time asking Alexa to do something with He. Still does it but Alexa reports back that the device is not responding. Annoying to the family.
I think it's a timing issue. How long Alexa waits for confirmation after sending the command before reporting not responding.
I've never gotten the error from Alexa when controlling a something on the HE hub. I have gotten it when controlling Hue lights. My Hues are connected to a Hue Hub and Alexa is using the Hue Skill not going through HE.
but I'm only controlling always on zwave devices with Alexa through HE, Both Plus and older zwave devices.
Sorry for the troubles. We know how annoying this could be and we have been investigating this issue. We think we have it resolved and hope to have a fix released soon, if internal testing goes well.
A lot of the time, if you ask the same thing in a different way after these kind of responses from Alexa, it will immediately perform that task and respond OK. It's a widespread problem with the AVS platform, and not isolated to HE.
I have a virtual switch called "Reading Scene" so that I can say those words to Alexa.
Last night I had a something similar, perhaps. I spoke those words and she said she was having trouble finding that. I tried it a few other ways and although the responses were slightly different, it never worked.
The reading scene is made up of three lights so I asked Alexa to turn on one of them. Worked fine. Got an OK. I tried "reading scene" again and it worked. Got an OK.
