Alexa + Emulated Hue

Configuration
1

I seem to be having some issues getting Alexa to discover devices. It has been working previously but recently noticed it wasn’t turning on/off some of my switches, so I took the plunge and altered my config to remove the type: alexa config and removed all of the devices in Alexa, but now I don’t appear to be able to add them back in, as they just aren’t discover-able.

I’m only exposing five devices, so Alexa is not being overloaded.
I can see the correct responses to http://server_ip:8300/description.xml & http://server_ip:8300/api/username/lights, so I know emulated_hue is working correctly

Any ideas?

homeassistant:
   customize:
    light.sofa_lamp:
     emulated_hue: true
    light.yellow_lamp:
     emulated_hue: true
    switch.heater:
     emulated_hue: true
    switch.monitor:
     emulated_hue: true
    group.living_room_card:
     emulated_hue: true
     emulated_hue_name: "living room"

emulated_hue:
  host_ip: 192.168.0.25
  expose_by_default: false

light:
  platform: hue
  host: 192.168.0.21
2

Maybe they have done the same change as Google ?

3

Yeah, it’s looking like this has been done to Alexa as well.
I’ve noticed there’s a specific Alexa Hue skill which acts as described in the Google Home thread you linked.
I hate it when manufactures mess with something that was working perfectly fine.

4

Well… I’m never disconnecting my emulated hue instance from my google home. I hope it doesn’t mess up and disconnect somehow. Hopefully there will be a fix for this though :slight_smile:

5

I am on an island in the Indian Ocean, back Thursday for my home check…

6

It’s okay! I’ve managed to work it out.
The wife had changed profiles to hers, so she had eleventy billion discovered devices, whereas I had none.
::Grumble Grumble::

Cheers for chiming in folks.

7

mine works as usual

8

I can’t discover any devices… =( have they blocked this?

@BigHairyWookiee I notice that you use platform:hue and you IP for light and emulated hue are different.
My lights are set like this:

  • platform: mqtt
    name: “Stairway lights”
    state_topic: “stat/stairway_lights/POWER”
    command_topic: “cmnd/stairway_lights/POWER”
    qos: 1
    payload_on: “ON”
    payload_off: “OFF”
    retain: true

Do I need to change from mqtt to hue?

9

emulated_hue is the IP address of home assistant, this basically tells my echo that there’s another hue platform on the network.
The platform: hue is there because I do have a real Hue on the network as well and have specified the static IP address of the Hue controller in there to save on the scanning noise that populates the log.

I don’t have any mqtt based lights, so I can’t really comment on that

10

Hi, can I check if you need to install HA bridge to use emulated Hue? I have the same problem. Managed to discover once. It goes on and off. Most times the lights are offline but once in a while they come online again.

11

Nope. Emulated Hue works fine on it’s own

12

Thanks for reply! Do you know how to solve this intermittent discovery problem?? Its really bonkers! One moment its ok, the next day its not…

13

Is that discovery of the hue lights in HA or in the Alexa app?

14

In Alexa phone app. Cant use alexa to turn on the lights if alexa doesnt discover them.

15

From bitter experience, the only thing I have seen do that, is when you change profile on the echo.
Ask “Alexa, who’s profile are you in” and it should let you know. Just make sure it’s the same profile as the Amazon account that you logged into the Alexa app with