Brand new HE convert here (fleeing ST...). Unfortunately, I can't seem to get Alexa integration to work. Hopefully, I'll explain in sufficient detail and somebody may be able to point out where I'm going wrong.
I always had a long term of aim to go HE, but have recently been pushed into it as I have had to get a second Hue Hub. Thus, a specific aim is to say "Alexa, bedtime" and a number of lights will go off/on spread across 2 Hue Hubs (please tell me that will work ….). As you can surmise, I have a mature IOT system with a lot of Hue kit (and ST plugs - but let’s ignore those for the moment).
Let’s call the Hue Hubs HH1 and HH2. HH1 is linked to Alexa and everything works OK - but is otherwise not relevant to this question. I have NOT linked HH2 to Alexa, and I'm using it as a testbed with HE before going into "production mode".
My test bed is:
HE (C5, latest F/W), HH2 with two Hue plugs (which act as lights) and a Hue bulb, put into one Hue Room. Hue app can successfully control the room , plugs and bulb.
Hue Bridge Integration and Amazon Echo Skill apps loaded to HE. HH2 is seem by HE (note: I have NOT linked HH1 to HE), along with the Hue room and the two plugs and bulb (note: slight oddity in that the two plugs do not appear under the "Previously added Hue Lights", but are ticked when you hit the "Select addition Hue Lights to add" dropdown arrow. Also, there is no "Refresh Bulb Discovery" button).
The Hue room, however, is seen by HE. I can see the room (and the bulb) in the HE devices section, and HE will turn things on and off successfully, via the Hue Hub.
I have then created a room in HE and added the HH2 Room as a device.
I have added the HE app to Alexa and linked to my HE account.
And this is where things grind to a halt. Alexa sees nothing. Changing the “Exclude Hubitat Integrated Hue Devices” to either on or off makes no difference. Alexa doesn’t seem to see anything that I’ve set up in HE. Obviously, I’m doing something wrong/missed a step etc. – but am currently stumped. Any help/nudges/pointes gratefully accepted.
Long way to go, but am excited about opportunities once I get going.
(Note: I was originally going to dump my Hue bridge and connect devices directly to HE, but reading these forums I see that the advice is keep and use the Hue Hub to control Hue devices. I assume that is correct).
First, something really simple but if you're new to HE you may not realize you have to explicitly give the Alexa integration access to HE devices by selecting them from the checklist within the Echo Skill app on HE.
If your Hue hub is already integrated with Alexa (and you said it was not) leaving the Exclude Hubitat Integrated Hue Devices option on will prevent the creation of duplicate Hue devices on Alexa. But if you are integrating from the Hue hub to HE only, and then from HE to Alexa, leave it off.
Are your Hue devices visible in the devices tab on HE and controllable? That will validate that the Hue HE integration is working and the issue is with the Alexa side.
I didn't quite follow what you said about the Hue plugs acting as lights. The native Hue HE integration does not support plugs, but the very handy community integration called CoCoHue does.
Many of us also use this parameter, but its position is not the issue here.
Thanks for the swift response. As expected, the fault was with me, and I feel somewhat dumb. I simply didn't realise that the "Select Devices" was a button in the HE Alexa app, so never saw the checkboxes. Now ticked, "Exclude Hubitat etc." slider off - Alexa now sees the Hue room and bulb. Very many thanks indeed.
(Which, of course, means that "Are your Hue devices visible in the devices tab on HE and controllable? " is, and was, a yes!).
A follow on clarification: as I want one Alexa command to control bulbs from multiple Hue Hubs - is this the best way to go about it? i.e. Alexa -> HE -> Hue 1, Hue 2 -->> devices.
Thanks for the tip about the plugs, I've been lulled by both Hue and Alexa treating them as if they were simply on/off bulbs. I'll look into CoCoHue. (Although, HE can control them without CoCoHue if they are part of a Hue Room, by turning the Room on/off).
Once again - very many thanks. My journey can now continue.
That I don't know. I'm not quite sure how the Hue integration works with multiple hubs. Perhaps someone else will be able to answer. But I would suspect if you can get devices from both hue hubs to be visible to HE, you could use HE as your sort of "control point."
Glad the fix was that simple. Sometimes you get lucky
