[RELEASE] Echo Speaks v3 + Actions

tonesto7 · February 2, 2020, 2:33am

I will run some simulations tomorrow and see if something is broken. I will have some fixes out for the other errors that users are seeing as well

sdonaghe · February 7, 2020, 9:41pm

Echo speaks seems to be broken now. I have a bunch of notifications using Hubitat Notifier App and if I use "On this music device" I get no announcements. I then changed it to "On this speech device" and I get "Speak" played out of the echo instead of the text I told it to play. What is weird is that if I go to the actual Echo device and test it through there things work fine.

tonesto7 · February 7, 2020, 9:59pm

Yeah something is happening... I'm going to make some time this evening to investigate. Work has been kicking my ass this week

jrvisconti · February 8, 2020, 3:20pm

Very impressed with all of this work you have done. Your support website is very clear and thought out.

tonesto7 · February 9, 2020, 3:33pm

Release v3.5.0.0

Main App

• UPDATED: Overhauled the way supported device data is loaded to reduce state size consumption. All data is pulled from a Firebase Database now.
• ADDED: Device Activity data is now loaded from the smartapp and available to the devices to reduce the many redundant calls to the API which causes rate-limiting. #230
• FIXED: Stopped removing ' character from speech text builder. #226
• FIXED: Lot's of other minor UI and logic bug fixes.

Action App

• FIXED: Resolved issue with multiple actions conditions being ignored #232
• ADDED: You can now define volumes for each tier in tiered actions.
• FIXED: Other bug fixes.

Zone App

• FIXED: Zone condition bugs.
• FIXED: Other bug fixes.

Echo Device

• FIXED: Alarm/Reminder creation fixes (@TonyFleisher) #200
• UPDATED: Support for the new device activity logic.

Otto_Mation · February 9, 2020, 5:00pm

Thank you for the update. I got it installed and the errors for the most part are gone. I did just get this one:

dev:2112020-02-09 10:46:18.318 am errorEcho (v3.5.0.0) | getWakeWord | Request Timeout (Possibly an Amazon/Internet Issue) | Msg: Connect to alexa.amazon.com:443 [alexa.amazon.com/54.230.249.102] failed: connect timed out

Edit: Looks like this was a one off error that was related to a single Echo device. I have been watching my logs for a while now and I haven't seen any more errors like it.

dman2306 · February 9, 2020, 6:32pm

Did you ever get around to the whole local Nodejs thing?

jdagreek · February 9, 2020, 8:46pm

when this is installed does it affect the Echo Skills app? I had this installed but I did not configure the server and my devices were working with the dashboard but Alexa Echo would not access the devices?

zarthan · February 9, 2020, 9:14pm

This does not affect the Echo skills app. The Echo Speaks app allows you to have spoken responses to things like Rule Machine. The Echo Skills app allows you to control devices using voice.

jdagreek · February 9, 2020, 9:21pm

is this safe ? HerokuApp ? If I use Alexa Speaks am I giving any control to my hubitat to outside apps?

Thanks in advance,
John

zarthan · February 9, 2020, 9:30pm

You will need to decide how risky this is for you. There is a three-way communication with your HE hub, the Heroku server, and Amazon. Heroku is an Enterprise service. I was initially concerned but I got over it. There is a locally controlled alternative if you don't want to have that exposure. [Release] Amazon Alexa Text to Speech (TTS) v0.5.8 - Direct Integration (USA, Canada, UK, Italy, Australia, & Brazil)

Ken_Fraleigh · February 9, 2020, 9:34pm

I believe, and @tonesto7 please correct me if I’m wrong, that the Heroku server is only used for cookie validation and isn’t exposed to any of your devices/info. Nothing is kept on the Heroku server.

jdagreek · February 9, 2020, 9:35pm

Thanks for the info. I had installed Echo Speaks this morning maybe I was in a hurry and messed up something because my Echo Skill stopped working. Alexa Speaks has nothing to do with the other app?

zarthan · February 9, 2020, 9:39pm

The validated cookie is access to Amazon. It would be worth knowing what the validated cookie gave someone access to and how it could be used.

zarthan · February 9, 2020, 9:43pm

Echo Speaks has nothing to with the Echo Skill.

tonesto7 · February 10, 2020, 7:55am

You are 100% correct. It’s only used for the cookie

zarthan · February 10, 2020, 2:53pm

That token links to my Amazon account. does it not? It is presumably limited to Alexa, but what could someone do with access to that cookie?

tonesto7 · February 10, 2020, 10:23pm

Yes, It's a token for your amazon account.
Here's how it works:

On initial setup the server acts as a proxy to get your cookie and send it back to Hubitat.
The server goes back to sleep after 30 minutes and doesn't persist any memory (It behaves like new on every wake)
Every 3-5 days the SmartApp/App wakes the server and send the keys to the server to refresh your token and then goes back to sleep.

So as far as your question about having access to your Amazon account, it's Yes and No.
It's only valid on the Alexa Web API and is only valid for 7 or less days. It does not have access to anything outside of the Alexa ecosystem.
So if in some hypothetical scenario where someone acquired your token they could make your echos speak and play/pause music (This has never happened on Any HA Platform yet).
The only people you may ever need to worry about are your tech friends messing with you

zarthan · February 10, 2020, 10:31pm

When I did my initial investigation on whether I was going to trust the Heroku server and your app, I more or less came to the same conclusion as you outlined. Many thanks for confirming .

eugene · February 11, 2020, 4:08am

@Otto_Mation This is probably a super amateur question, but how do we actually update the echos peaks app?