What app is "app 139"? Those throttling errors are typically a result of community-based Amazon Echo integrations, like Echo Speaks or Alexa TTS Manager.
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Right, I don't believe the seen errors are relevant to my problem. When the issue occurs there's no indication in the logs of an issue.
To be honest, I still don't understand the exact nature of your problem. So I've broken it down into three parts:
Part 1: Motion sensor working in Hubitat
I interpret what you have stated to indicate that the motion sensor accurately displays its status (active/inactive) in the Hubitat app. If this is correct, that's great.
Part 2: Motion sensor status in the Alexa app
Leaving routines aside, does the motion sensor accurately indicate detected vs not detected in the Alexa app. If it does not, then there is a problem with your Hubitat Alexa skill. If it does, then the Hubitat Alexa skill is working as expected and that is great. Proceed to Part 3 only if motion sensor status is displayed accurately in the Alexa app.
Part 3: Routines using the motion sensor in the Alexa app
If the motion sensor status is displayed accurately in the Alexa app (part 2 above), but does not trigger Alexa routines, then this failure is purely on the Amazon side. Executing those routines should not have anything to do with Hubitat's Alexa skill.
@ogiewon @mike.maxwell @bcopeland - could you correct any inaccuracies I've written - especially about Part 3.
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Correct.. If the status is displayed correctly, then the issue is with how Alexa routines work.. If it is not, let me know..
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It's part:4
Everything works in hubitat (indications for activity and inactivity for each sensor). Check.
Alexa routines triggered by "motion not detected" do NOT show trigger activity in the Alexa app on your phone. Outside of routines there's no indication of activity or inactivity. Just not how the motion sensors work with Alexa (not an error) just a limitation in features I guess. I mentioned in my previous post how to check the trigger activity via routines, this is where it's supposed to show when there's activity or the lack thereof. However for me It never show activity for the routines triggered by "motion not detected" ... Please check your setup and see if it shows anything on your end.
Regardless if the hubitat alexa skill is working or not it doesn't show "motion not detected" activity.
This is all you see in Alexa in terms of the sensors outside of routines.
That’s an Alexa display issue. If your motion sensors have motion and temperature capabilities, then Hubitat reports both to the Alexa Skill. Amazon has chosen to display temperature, but both types of events are used by Alexa routines.
My motion sensors use a driver without temperature.
This is what mine look like in the Alexa app:
@bcopeland - is there any way for the Hubitat Alexa Skill to specific which Capability is the primary one Alexa should use for display? I see lots of reports that people only see Temperature in Alexa, for Motion and Contact sensors that also report Temperature. I know all of my Iris v2 Zigbee motion and contact sensors show up as Temperature sensors in Alexa. I would really prefer to see the status of the Motion or Contact sensor instead. Hopefully there is an option to tell Alexa which one to use?
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I haven't seen in the Alexa Smarthome Skill API documentation.. Not to say it isn't possible, but I haven't seen a way yet..
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Welp, it's that time of the day. It's not working again...
Feel free to test yours to see if it's also not working now. I'm bouncing against us-east servers
It is working. I am also using the us-east servers.
I give up, I may have to switch back to ST in the interim as I can't continue like this. I submitted some tickets with support but they circled me back here.
Still working fine here as well.
Try disabling your Echo Speaks (or Alexa TTS) integration for a while and see if it affect the Alexa Skill functioning. I'm wondering if cookie renewal by some other integration momentarily affects the Hubitat Alexa Skill.
Edit: FWIW, I am not using either of those integrations now, although I used Alexa TTS for over a year without experiencing any issues with the Hubitat Alexa Skill.
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Decided to move one sensor back over to ST and try. Everything works perfectly, even the sensors show up as a motion in Alexa (not temperature). Very fast an responsive when testing.
Just glad I'm able to use a work around. I hope eventually hubitat support is able to resolve.
The issue wasn't with Amazon Alexa servers. I tried consistently switching sensors back and forward between Hubitat and Smarthings. Both hubs shows the motion/ inactivity fine so the issue doesn't appear to be with the hubs.
Smarthings skill + sensors works perfectly fine against the same AWS amazon servers
I switched those same sensors to my hubitat hub (still using the exact same AWS amazon servers) and the "motion not detected" routines in alexa do not fire.
I've contacted support several times on this issue, they pointed me right back here to the community. I was expecting at some point someone from Hubitat would say "We'll we will check with our developers and look into the possibility of a bug existing within our skill", or we will try to help troubleshoot why the hubitat motion sensors are no longer working consistently with Alexa routines. We have multiple people's routines all stop working on the 16th and the sporadic behavior of the sensors working/not working with routines (it's not just me), but I get it, it's easy to say it's amazons fault and wash your hands but the problem is still here. I was forced back to smart things because of it.
Please look into your hubitat Alexa skill for changes and modifications made on or around the 16th of June. Please provide assistance in figuring out why your skill no longer works consistently with Alexa routines (where smarthings does).
Thank you
@joeswann.biz - I have some additional data that I find interesting. I recently purchased an Amazon Echo v4 during Prime Day, as it contains a Zigbee hub and I plan on helping my parents move off of SmartThings (v1 hub that is now a paperweight) and over to a simple Zigbee system based on Alexa. So, as a test, I paired an Iris v2 motion/temperature sensor to the new Echo. That worked fine. I also have my Lutron Caseta lighting system integrated directly to Alexa via the Lutron Skill (I.e. no Hubitat involved whatsoever.). I then created 2 Alexa Routines, one to turn on a light when motion is detected, and another to turn off a light when motion is not detected for 2 minutes.
At first, everything worked fine. But after a while, the routine that is supposed to be triggered when there is no motion, stopped working. The other routine, for when there is motion, always works.
This reminded me of your exact issue that you’ve reported.
I also added a Hubitat connected light (via Philips Hue Hubitat Integration) to the Alexa Routines just to see if it was a Lutron issue. Testing shows the problem to be on the Alexa side of things. If I run the Alexa Routine manually, it properly turns off both lights.
Just thought this might be another piece of data that might help.
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Well, it squarely places this issue on Amazon's side of the net, doesn't it? Their support was excellent when I used them a few years ago.
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That is an interesting finding but doesn't explain why everything works when I switched back over to Smarthings hub?
If the blame was placed squarely on Alexa why does it work with ST hub? This is even more odd because people are running from ST because of the numerous problems they are having. For the sensors to work here and not with hubitat is unsettling.
For it to mimic similar behavior with echo zigbee Hub that's odd. Don't know what to say or what to do for a fix.
I've reported this issue to Amazon 3 or 4 times and got radio silence after an initial hi email response.
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What capabilities does ST expose for that sensor to Alexa? In @ogiewon’s example, HE and direct pairing to the Echo 4 exposed the same capabilities to Alexa (motion/temperature).
The sensors that I exposed to Alexa have a single capability (motion or contact), and seem to work fine.
In either event, his example apparently reiterates that Alexa has issues with sensors that expose multiple capabilities. A possible workaround for HE users would be to create virtual sensors, exposed to Alexa, with a single capability that mirror the state of a physical sensor.
Don’t know if this number still works, but try calling Alexa Support:
877-375-9365
I last used this number in 2015 or 2016.
