So some of you have noticed some new things in the latest beta changes:
most commands are now sent by the main ES app (so it can coordinate commands, parallelize commands, and control Alexa api throttling).
so if you are sending logs, do include logs from the main ES app
a zone can create a virtual zone device
it does not have all commands, but it has many to make a zone usable by webCoRE, rules machine or other apps
There is a new 'parallelSpeak' command
This sends speak commands in parallel
for example, if you have a list of devices, your application can loop thru and send parallel speak (vs regular speak). This will attempt to send the commands to all the devices at the same time and to ask Alexa apis to run them in parallel. It is important, you send the commands near the same time (ie in a loop for example), as if they are too far apart when they send, ES would have already sent some, then have to send more (which inherently would lose any coordination you intended).
The messages should not be too long, ~400 chars, as otherwise ES will have to break it up and things will not give the desired 'near simultaneous' output
this should work for zone device and regular device (I would not include the same device twice in a single 'timeframe')
Example:
I have 4 devices
I could send 4 speak() commands, they would be processed sequentially by Alexa. So device A would speak, then b, then c, then d. There may be a small bit of overlap, but you will hear them sequentially
I could send 4 parallelSpeak() commands, if I did this 'at the same time', ES will put them together and send a single command to Alexa with 4 subcommands, and ask Alexa to run them in parallel. The devices should speak near the same time (there may be some skew due to network or Alexa processing, but pretty close)
If I send 4 parallelSpeak commands, but they are timing skewed that they are actually issued 2, then say 1 second, then 2 more, you are likely to hear 2 speak together, then the other two speak together. So it is important they be sent 'back to back' or within a short time of each other
Thanks for this. In the case of a single Rule Machine speak command to multiple echoes, does the command parse to the above, i.e. four sequential ES Speak commands?
I'm thinking the (new) best practice would be to substitute the above single RM command to instead use successive Custom Actions using parallelSpeak commands to each echo. Am I getting the drift of how to use this capability?
Those already running the beta build can just update to the latest beta to always have the current code.
I will still be using the beta branch to push out new features and fixes before pushing to master.
HPM Issue
Originally I had installed Echo Speaks master from github and then installed HPM. (HPM has certainly made this a lot easier to keep updated)
I found HPM offered me the Echo Speaks Beta (4.0) which I installed and has worked ok.
Now with this update I find it wants to update both versions. I chose to update the 4.0 to 4.1.
I cannot update both and I cannot uninstall one as they are both called "Echo Speaks" and I selected the first one which said a file was busy.
Any ideas how to end up with just Echo Speaks 4.1.0.0?
I am trying to Update to Version 4.1.0.0 but keep getting the error message of 'Unable to save to the hub, please try again and check if the hub is responding'?
Did Amazon change something with Echos and adjusting volume. I have a very simple use of Echo Speaks. If a door contact is opened, turn volume up to 8 play a blank announcement (just want the do do tone) on 2 dots, then restore volume to 3. Earlier this week, I started getting beeps for when the volume is adjusted. Never had that before...any way to remove?
I think that 'beeps' were added by Amazon/Alexa. I use both NR and HE to make Alexa talk and without changing anything, I've noticed a beginning and ending 'beep' for every announcement.
I seem to remember that changing the volume used to have an auditory confirmation, but that stopped at some point making them silent. Like you Iβve noticed the confirmation tone at the new volume setting is back, and I canβt see any setting to turn it off. Very annoying.
Aaaand I think I figured out the problem. I had two copies of the echo speaks device driver, one from about a month ago and one from a few days ago. When I went to delete the old one I was told that it was still in use by the same echo device throwing up the errors. So I deleted the device, then quickly deleted the older device driver before the app recreated the device. It seems like that did the trick. Whew!