Echo Devices (Alexa) as Media Player - Testers Needed

Did I miss something in the update with 2.2.1? I often get notifications in HACS when I update an integration that I may need to reconfigure. I also glanced at the change log when I updated and didn’t see anything that looked major. However when my alarm didn’t go off this morning I checked the logs and saw that HA could not find notify.alexa_media. I found this forum post which then alerted me to the fact that I would have to reconfigure the integration, which did indeed go without a hitch.

Hi all,

the configuration form is empty. Any advice please?

HA: 0.97.2
Alexa_media: 2.2.1

Logs:
grep alexa home-assistant.log | less

2019-09-24 10:50:12 WARNING (MainThread) [homeassistant.loader] You are using a custom integration for alexa_media which has not been tested by Home Assistant. This component might cause stability problems
, be sure to disable it if you do experience issues with Home Assistant.
2019-09-24 10:50:15 DEBUG (MainThread) [homeassistant.bootstrap] Setting up {'device_tracker', 'tplink', 'hue', 'onboarding', 'cloud', 'ssdp', 'tts', 'input_boolean', 'logbook', 'zone', 'input_datetime', '
frontend', 'script', 'websocket_api', 'person', 'lovelace', 'config', 'sensor', 'system_health', 'met', 'webhook', 'history', 'vacuum', 'sun', 'updater', 'tuya', 'auth', 'automation', 'duckdns', 'group', '
alexa_media', 'default_config', 'http', 'zeroconf', 'mobile_app', 'api', 'map'}
2019-09-24 10:50:17 INFO (MainThread) [homeassistant.setup] Setting up alexa_media
2019-09-24 10:50:17 INFO (MainThread) [homeassistant.setup] Setup of domain alexa_media took 0.0 seconds.
2019-09-24 10:50:17 DEBUG (MainThread) [homeassistant.core] Bus:Handling <Event component_loaded[L]: component=alexa_media>
2019-09-24 10:50:17 DEBUG (MainThread) [custom_components.alexa_media.config_flow] Creating new login
2019-09-24 10:50:17 DEBUG (MainThread) [alexapy.alexalogin] Trying to load pickled cookie from file /home/homeassistant/.homeassistant/[email protected]
2019-09-24 10:50:18 DEBUG (MainThread) [alexapy.alexalogin] cookie loaded: <class 'dict'> {'session-id': '260-3434880-8246605', 'session-id-time': '2197537201l', 'ubid-acbde': '262-1885261-7052166', 'sessi
on-token': 'YY1Whb6Bye5o6EZW3qwoxCiU7sDEVp1lO7b4tPFoGZ+MRiTWraEfWoUFSUt5A+cM5GTCwPbmCRoBdzsLGwp7EDEZTj/MsBZpWr590mmg6DsDMGZj9MjtM8LEtkRMsJLpaPPACDknCifkIE+qMPfZGMqGwkWU4tg/j25eQwh7ekKnslmdpJ4ac2sXJkjQcvTwx
taRByiEJmIejx7pgR78N6SfRINU8KUO1MtXdYkwrno=', 'x-acbde': 'ic93wP3hoyKhJXZXmgs0mnbUXsUft7XK4ze@@GQ5lJ?xwhDtLaoAl1P7vBz4WVTl', 'at-acbde': 'Atza|IwEBIC0DERRmhMwvGN8xwiUnzWvwq3Y44FFC8H3utjRqqJ9spWsgJxvonPEXXd
woKC0mJnQzb1UE8QbzYzE0r64TNbk-wela2pEwRwu0CpkW10jTtb_m325B4KPZDF0wCWvtzAZ_7X8eoW4E9187ZYU-463QMhVF1BG9AdyNMHsVdvnCorVet10kq1XW2HfWDmRjLorKkebT4Tt1XE4hqoCgd5GEAN9e1_ya0EnajvWc3G0i9su_EwoEEbENyydgRCL-ts8gkVI
ILoNvf1dWnB08B-SpZ_-K0N_ecEuzPSEggr1f_9pJvMW-VxCXlloFpW5bLqJw0c5FyxTGuBmqqnmJahLL3feCK37pfhs5ZXGZa7WXQ2SCitm4uHOR1VOoIGmYSdZSWCBWYo0LIJNny8DI-mjw', 'sess-at-acbde': 'AqKzEQ5i1GsUwd7hL3LQrpwhFDhY5ojw6LBXtKN
X6n4=', 'sst-acbde': 'Sst1|PQHmkMQztRx_4Wun6I4H1aRBC7YVjV7hl0iAoVbiJP3Pe50OvuvBO-XBSIQEheQtIdff6k2SvUUZKxj2vSxsbx4h9egC8kzn2BqD7omRjX23Yz6nFjzFxqDKJk9uQo9k4J-Ii_5XKbGSVbj2II4Ijb1RchwxR58L3uf_kYoZXGs5lol8YN
m0sunLYVtpmeav0k5XgIniSVbsxmhEYg8EX-HyMUI-xdsBNkl4ljBs9r1uPJn4O6nA6-X6e2_TYXuMReruWvEK8mula4jKjby4X-hZ9H7WHSBFAWoduh0bCwIIvUa5c4PidjQgYtpexWlwL-rwUtqwKNzq7ZgscCh8t3WxkQ', 'csrf': '568438813'}
2019-09-24 10:50:20 DEBUG (MainThread) [alexapy.alexalogin] Found dict cookie
2019-09-24 10:50:20 DEBUG (MainThread) [alexapy.alexalogin] Loaded 9 cookies
2019-09-24 10:50:22 DEBUG (MainThread) [alexapy.alexalogin] GET: redirected from
https://alexa.amazon.de/api/bootstrap
2019-09-24 10:50:22 DEBUG (MainThread) [alexapy.alexalogin] GET:
https://www.amazon.de/ap/signin?showRmrMe=1&openid.return_to=https://alexa.amazon.de/api/bootstrap&openid.identity=http://specs.openid.net/auth/2.0/identifier_select&openid.assoc_handle=amzn_dp_project_dee
_de&openid.mode=checkid_setup&openid.claimed_id=http://specs.openid.net/auth/2.0/identifier_select&openid.ns=http://specs.openid.net/auth/2.0& with
2019-09-24 10:50:22 DEBUG (MainThread) [alexapy.alexalogin] Not logged in: An exception of type ContentTypeError occurred. Arguments:
2019-09-24 10:50:22 DEBUG (MainThread) [alexapy.alexalogin] No valid cookies for log in; using credentials
2019-09-24 10:50:23 DEBUG (MainThread) [alexapy.alexalogin] GET: redirected from
https://alexa.amazon.de
2019-09-24 10:50:23 DEBUG (MainThread) [alexapy.alexalogin] GET:
https://www.amazon.de/ap/signin?showRmrMe=1&openid.return_to=https://alexa.amazon.de/&openid.identity=http://specs.openid.net/auth/2.0/identifier_select&openid.assoc_handle=amzn_dp_project_dee_de&openid.mo
de=checkid_setup&openid.claimed_id=http://specs.openid.net/auth/2.0/identifier_select&openid.ns=http://specs.openid.net/auth/2.0& with
<CIMultiDictProxy('Host': 'www.amazon.de', 'User-Agent': 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.3; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/68.0.3440.106 Safari/537.36', 'Accept': 'text/html,applicati
on/xhtml+xml, application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8', 'Accept-Language': '*', 'Referer': 'https://www.amazon.de/ap/signin?showRmrMe=1&openid.return_to=https://alexa.amazon.de/api/bootstrap&openid.identity=http:/
/specs.openid.net/auth/2.0/identifier_select&openid.assoc_handle=amzn_dp_project_dee_de&openid.mode=checkid_setup&openid.claimed_id=http://specs.openid.net/auth/2.0/identifier_select&openid.ns=http://specs.openid.net/auth/2.0&', 'Accept-Encoding': 'gzip, deflate', 'Cookie': 'session-token="Bc+yuSiMMeXt0viKO37PRYI+5JVQnTjQOV8V924WLiIKVZilTNcAY7/Ot2qAIWY9/wylx5wvpP4bj+oLu/5WNVAbLmd6IZWNkbtj/99R6Gx3VN/r4BkzmUsxpwKoOMB9p356uW9ayRzPemKmRmyllQ8822SdXrCbZwhtFN4u4P4z8hRNCs+wpzde2OUrZi3aFSWHQhxK3Hh4ufrQbhU/vwEBKsmPmxUOslj+wiSYmH4="; ubid-acbde=262-1885261-7052166')>
2019-09-24 10:50:23 DEBUG (MainThread) [alexapy.alexalogin] Processing https://www.amazon.de/ap/signin?showRmrMe=1&openid.return_to=https://alexa.amazon.de/&openid.identity=http://specs.openid.net/auth/2.0/identifier_select&openid.assoc_handle=amzn_dp_project_dee_de&openid.mode=checkid_setup&openid.claimed_id=http://specs.openid.net/auth/2.0/identifier_select&openid.ns=http://specs.openid.net/auth/2.0&
2019-09-24 10:50:23 DEBUG (MainThread) [alexapy.alexalogin] Found standard login page
2019-09-24 10:50:23 DEBUG (MainThread) [alexapy.alexalogin] Found post url to https://www.amazon.de/ap/signin
2019-09-24 10:50:23 DEBUG (MainThread) [alexapy.alexalogin] Preparing post to https://www.amazon.de/ap/signin Captcha: None SecurityCode: None Claimsoption: None  AuthSelectOption: None VerificationCode: None
2019-09-24 10:50:24 DEBUG (MainThread) [alexapy.alexalogin] POST:
<CIMultiDictProxy('Host': 'www.amazon.de', 'User-Agent': 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.3; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/68.0.3440.106 Safari/537.36', 'Accept': 'text/html,application/xhtml+xml, application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8', 'Accept-Language': '*', 'Referer': 'https://www.amazon.de/ap/signin?showRmrMe=1&openid.return_to=https://alexa.amazon.de/&openid.identity=http://specs.openid.net/auth/2.0/identifier_select&openid.assoc_handle=amzn_dp_project_dee_de&openid.mode=checkid_setup&openid.claimed_id=http://specs.openid.net/auth/2.0/identifier_select&openid.ns=http://specs.openid.net/auth/2.0&', 'Accept-Encoding': 'gzip, deflate', 'Cookie': 'session-id=259-0378558-4932951; session-id-time=2200035022l; session-token="Bc+yuSiMMeXt0viKO37PRYI+5JVQnTjQOV8V924WLiIKVZilTNcAY7/Ot2qAIWY9/wylx5wvpP4bj+oLu/5WNVAbLmd6IZWNkbtj/99R6Gx3VN/r4BkzmUsxpwKoOMB9p356uW9ayRzPemKmRmyllQ8822SdXrCbZwhtFN4u4P4z8hRNCs+wpzde2OUrZi3aFSWHQhxK3Hh4ufrQbhU/vwEBKsmPmxUOslj+wiSYmH4="; ubid-acbde=262-1885261-7052166', 'Content-Length': '749', 'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded')>
2019-09-24 10:50:24 DEBUG (MainThread) [alexapy.alexalogin] Processing https://www.amazon.de/ap/signin
2019-09-24 10:50:24 DEBUG (MainThread) [alexapy.alexalogin] Error message: Wichtige Mitteilung!
2019-09-24 10:50:24 DEBUG (MainThread) [alexapy.alexalogin] Captcha requested
2019-09-24 10:50:24 DEBUG (MainThread) [alexapy.alexalogin] Found post url to https://www.amazon.de/ap/signin
2019-09-24 10:50:24 DEBUG (MainThread) [custom_components.alexa_media.config_flow] Testing login status: {'error_message': 'Wichtige Mitteilung!\n            Zum besseren Schutz Ihres Kontos geben Sie bitte nochmals Ihr Passwort ein, und geben Sie dann die Zeichen ein, die in der Abbildung unten gezeigt werden.\n          ', 'captcha_required': True, 'captcha_image_url': 'https://opfcaptcha-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/5d84f354069f4e8191d2f8c7b969f1a9.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIA5WBBRBBB3EQNKAH5&Expires=1569315324&Signature=PStIlrKD86kKCCc8L6HJjJ5G%2F1U%3D'}
2019-09-24 10:50:24 DEBUG (MainThread) [custom_components.alexa_media.config_flow] Creating config_flow to request captcha
2019-09-24 10:50:24 DEBUG (MainThread) [custom_components.alexa_media.config_flow] show_form captcha {'email': '[email protected]', 'url': 'amazon.de', 'captcha_image': '[![captcha](https://opfcaptcha-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/5d84f354069f4e8191d2f8c7b969f1a9.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIA5WBBRBBB3EQNKAH5&Expires=1569315324&Signature=PStIlrKD86kKCCc8L6HJjJ5G%2F1U%3D)](https://opfcaptcha-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/5d84f354069f4e8191d2f8c7b969f1a9.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIA5WBBRBBB3EQNKAH5&Expires=1569315324&Signature=PStIlrKD86kKCCc8L6HJjJ5G%2F1U%3D)', 'message': '\n> Wichtige Mitteilung!\n            Zum besseren Schutz Ihres Kontos geben Sie bitte nochmals Ihr Passwort ein, und geben Sie dann die Zeichen ein, die in der Abbildung unten gezeigt werden.\n          '} {} OrderedDict([('password', <class 'str'>), ('captcha', <class 'str'>)])

Thanks! That is one way to go, unfortunately that way is not really what I would like as this group volume will change all volumes to the same level. I would like all echos to change volume with same volume difference.

If I have for example my echos at volume 2, 5 and 7, changing master volume one step would change all to 3,6 and 8…

Also a more fine tuning volume would be nice, like 1-100 instead of 1-10 steps. Thats what this guy did with his script: Alexa master volume control

So I guess it would be possible to integrate with this excellent Echo plugin! :slight_smile:

Hello guys.

Since a week ago I worked with Alexa Media Player installed manually (I think?), then I switched on HACS with the release of 2.2.0 and I’ve also (few days ago, with the launch of 2.2.0) removed the configuration lines and went with the integration which worked perfectly.

However, this morning my Home Assistant is stuck with the “Loading data” message and the log says 2019-09-24 12:45:42 WARNING (MainThread) [homeassistant.components.switch] Setup of platform alexa_media is taking over 10 seconds..

I didn’t change anything and I’m sure it auto-updated the component during the night, causing now this issue. I’ve no idea how to deactivate the integration via ssh since it’s not in my configuration anymore. Any suggestions?

Thanks

EDIT: Okay, I restarted the whole Raspberry and now everything works fine. I did restart home assistant multiple times prior to this, and it wasn’t working…
I’ll leave this message here, with the risk of seeming like an idiot: it still may be useful for someone (and I would also be interested in knowing which was the problem anyway…)

Hi All,

What is de maximum length of text that can be pushed to Alexa ?
And is it possible to use “title” as well?
“volume_level”, “type” I know. but what else then this can you use?

You can easily make this your own. Just create a new Input_number (slide) and connect it (using my formula) to the volume controls from the single entities in the group.

FYI: If you are using Spotify, just change the volume with the Spotify mediaplayer. It uses the same logic of volume management.

Sadly setting the exposed group of the Plugin to a volume will instantly set all entities in the Group to this same Volume Level. But as far as i know, this is inline with how Echo works in the App.

Sorry, I have no solution for that

I don’t know the maximum length, but I do have an automation that cycles through all my devices looking for those that are on or open and builds up a “message” string of all those devices (and this string can get rather large), and pushes it to Alexa using notify.alexa and tts. Alexa has not had any issue with this.

2.2.1 might fix that issue

Refresh your browser cache.

This might be a bit offtopic, sorry about that.

But is it possible to trigger Alexa ask a question, for example “Do you want to turn on the tv?”, and act based on my answer?

I have this done with follow part in configuration.yaml

smart_home:
  endpoint: https://api.eu.amazonalexa.com/v3/events
  client_id: !secret alexa_client_id
  client_secret: !secret alexa_client_secret
  filter:
    include_entities:
      - light.livingroom_all
      - light.dressoir_all
      - light.hallway
      - light.balcony
      - light.kitchen_all

Follow the tutorial on this page:

2.3.0 is out.

Two features in this release:

  1. Notifications are now exposed as sensors. This means you can see upcoming alarms, timers, and reminders. For those of you who understand templates, share anything you create on the Wiki!
  2. We have a clear_history service to delete voice history (thanks to macbury who submitted this months ago and I finally added it). Use at your own risk since there isn’t an undo. Also read the warning in the docs if you’re using last_called sensors while deleting history.

Also added fixes for the integrations page and added additional logic to catch expired logins. As that’s hard to test, I’ll need logs if it doesn’t work for you.

You should really be on HACS. *While you shouldn’t need 1.4.1 any more, please note you can edit options in HACS 14.x to view more than 5 releases by changing the Integration Options.

Feature

  • add clear_history service (ecbc8b6)
  • add logic to catch login errors (6633598)
  • add basic notifications sensors (465b2ca) (resolves #144)

Fix

  • update to alexapy 1.3.0 (64c5d8f) (fixes #387)
  • catch connection errors in config_flow and inform user (ef06760)
  • prompt for login on disconnect (cb3a8fb)
  • fix bug where unable to relogin using configurator (81a7127)
  • fix bug where import configuration not resumed (6579b6f)

Full changelog.

As always, please use the the Wiki and FAQ if you need instructions or have questions. Also, please help in documenting features in the wiki since this thread is basically unsearchable now. We also use GitHub for bug reports/feature requests .

1 Like

Hello,
first of all thx for the your huge input into Homeassistant, i really appreciate this!!!
One small question:
how can i play in an Alexa Group?
I have a group called “wohnung” and i have an entity called “media_player.wohnung”, which is availible and has 56253 supported_feautures^^.
But if i call following:

 -  entity: media_player.wohnung
    image: /local/AntenneBayern.png
    tap_action:
      action: call-service
      service: media_player.play_media
      service_data:
        entity_id: media_player.wohnung
        media_content_id: Antenne Bayern
        media_content_type: TUNEIN

nothing happens,
it is working with
entity_id:media_player.echo_dot_wohnen
on 1 device.
Do i miss something?
Thx in Advance
Wiesl

Wiki

sry, i am no native speaker.
This means that it can work or not and i have no syntax error or anything?
i donnot understand, what the group “guest.room” or “everywhere” is?
Sry for the dumb question.
My setup is 2 Echo Dots in one group called “wohnen”.
i can play on any of the two Echos via ServiceCall :
entity_id: media_player.echo_dot_wohnen
or
entity_id: media_player.echo_dot_schlafen

but i cannot play any media on both simultanioulsy.
can you please share the workaround or hack for this example.
Thx in Advance
Wiesl

You could just send the same message to both echos using target and putting both of your echos there?

From the Wiki:

doorbell:
  sequence:
  - service: media_player.volume_set
    entity_id: media_player.downstairs
    data:
      volume_level: '1.0'
  - service: notify.alexa_media
    data:
      data:
        type: tts
      target: 
        - media_player.downstairs
        - media_player.upstairs
      message: 'Ding-dong. Someone is at the door.'

Or you can a group in HA. for example “group.alexamedia” and call the automation like this below:

      - service: notify.alexa_media
        data:
          data:
            type: announce
          target:
            - group.alexamedia
          message: "Your Message goes Here!"

I am really struggling here, I am trying to get a basic automation to work. My wife and I work odd schedules and with winter coming it would be good to know if either one gets to work safely.

My use case is when someone arrives or leaves a location, send a tts announcement to a device or group. here is where i am…

this is the basic automation I can’t seem to get to work. If any one has an idea please clue me in…

- id: 'location announce alert'
  alias: ' Jack is leaving work - tts'
  trigger:
  - entity_id: device_tracker.jack
    event: arrive
    platform: zone
    zone: zone.work
  action:
  - data:
      entity_id: media_player.office_2
      message: "Jack has just left work"
    service: notify.alexa_media

Have you looked at the docs or even the post right before yours?

You don’t have the “data:” section syntax correct. It needs a “target:” and “type:” of tts.