Emulated Hue, Alexa Skill?

Configuration
1

Hi, newbie question. I’m trying to setup the emulated hue component to expose a switch to Alexa. Do I need to enable a particular skill for the discovery process in Alexa to find the device?

2

No. Emulated_hue does just that, emulates a Hue bridge and doesn’t need any skill to enable on the Alexa side.

With that being said, some of us are having trouble lately getting emulated_hue to work. Not sure what changed, but if it’s not seeing anything and you’ve tried the troubleshooting on the emulated_hue component page then you may have to wait for a new solution coming soon that should replace it.

3

Ok thanks. I shall await the new solution.

4

Give it a go now, still works 100% for me and many others, takes literally moments to set up so you haven’t wasted much if you’re one of the unlucky ones. I think the issue some are seeing is due to something unrelated conflicting but no ones tracked down what it might be.

5

Same result unfortunately, ~/description.xml and ~/api/pi/lights seem correct but Alexa app doesn’t detect any devices.

6

What do you have in your config?

This is mine…

emulated_hue:
  expose_by_default: false
  off_maps_to_on_domains:
    - script
7

Just very basic config:

emulated_hue:
    expose_by_default: true
    exposed_domains:
     - switch

description.xml output looks correct:

<root xmlns="urn:schemas-upnp-org:device-1-0">
	<specVersion>
		<major>1</major>
		<minor>0</minor>
	</specVersion>
	<URLBase>http://192.168.1.94:8300/</URLBase>
	<device>
		<deviceType>urn:schemas-upnp-org:device:Basic:1</deviceType>
		<friendlyName>HASS Bridge (192.168.1.94)</friendlyName>
		<manufacturer>Royal Philips Electronics</manufacturer>
		<manufacturerURL>http://www.philips.com</manufacturerURL>
		<modelDescription>Philips hue Personal Wireless Lighting</modelDescription>
		<modelName>Philips hue bridge 2015</modelName>
		<modelNumber>BSB002</modelNumber>
		<modelURL>http://www.meethue.com</modelURL>
		<serialNumber>1234</serialNumber>
		<UDN>uuid:2f402f80-da50-11e1-9b23-001788255acc</UDN>
	</device>
</root>

As does /api/pi/lights:

{"1": {"modelid": "HASS123", "name": "Wake on LAN", "state": {"bri": 0, "on": false, "reachable": true}, "swversion": "123", "type": "Dimmable light", "uniqueid": "switch.wake_on_lan"}}

But, Alexa still claims no devices. Puzzling.

8

having the exact same issue here with Alexa not finding my devices.

Even if we had to install the Phillips Hue app, it requires an actual hue hub to activate it seems.
I’ve tried every possible solution i’ve found online with no avail.

I’ve started making a custom Alexa skill to create a native skill, which is quite daunting

9

You’ve not spotted all the chatter about the official HA Smart Skill that’s coming very soon?

10

I haven’t, is this confirmed? have you got a link?

11

It already exists but not released to us mere mortals yet…

12

Looks promising. Hopefully not too long till it’s available in the UK.

13

I’ve discussed this in a few topics about emulated_hue already but i’ll repeat here as well. Amazon Alexa Team confirmed to me in an email that the echo shows do not support hue devices without the bridge and i’m guessin that is going to be the case going forward with any devices echo show and newer. I’ve found that if i add an echo dot to my amazon account the show has no problem controlling the emulated hue devices but on its own cannot. Not sure what device OP has but that might be the problem for them as well. I think emulated_hue might be reaching its end of life as a usable component sooner rather than later. The cloud connect/official skill needs to come out soon.

Myself i’ve setup haaska which is a great option but obviously isn’t the easiest route to go. if i had to wager i’d say that the 2nd gen echo, echo spot and such won’t support without an older devices also on the account.

1 Like
14

You’re overlooking the fact that emulated_hue isn’t just used with Amazon Echos when you say it’s near end of life as a component.

15

what other uses does it have? doesn’t work on google anymore if i’m not mistaken?

16

I use it with my Harmony Hub and would still need it for that even when the Alexa Smart Skill is released into the wild.

I’m sure there are other things too.

17

I seem to be having the same issue. Here’s what I’ve found.

I have multiple Alexa dots and tablets. tcpdump does not show Amazon accessing port 8300 during discovery. That leads me to believe that the issue is with my Alexa devices and not the emulated HUE. If I knew more how Alexa to HUE discovery works on a network level, I could be sure.

My firewall allows 8300/tcp and 8123/tcp.

emulated_hue:
expose_by_default: true
host_ip: 10.111.111.6
listen_port: 8300

[root@hass hass]# curl http://10.111.111.6:8300/api/pi/lights
{"1": {"modelid": "HASS123", "name": "Christmas Lights", "state": {"bri": 0, "on": false, "reachable": true}, "swversion": "123", "type": "Dimmable light", "uniqueid": "switch.ge_unknown_type5052_id3038_switch"}, "2": {"modelid": "HASS123", "name": "all automations", "state": {"bri": 255, "on": true, "reachable": true}, "swversion": "123", "type": "Dimmable light", "uniqueid": "group.all_automations"}, "3": {"modelid": "HASS123", "name": "all switches", "state": {"bri": 0, "on": false, "reachable": true}, "swversion": "123", "type": "Dimmable light", "uniqueid": "group.all_switches"}}
18

I might have missed this in the setup instructions…

So Alexa uses UPNP to find the HUE device. I had to allow UPNP through my firewall.

for firewalld I created /etc/firewalld/services/upnp.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<service>
<short>UPNP</short>
<description></description>
<port protocol="udp" port="1900"/>
<destination ipv4="239.255.255.250"/>
</service>

Then reload firewalld:
systemctl restart firewalld
firewall-cmd --add-service=upnp
firewall-cmd --add-service=upnp --permanent

19

You can remove everything bar emulated_hue: from your config as two are defaults and the IP will be auto set at start up if not defined. Don’t know if removing them will help but simple enough to try.

Thanks for confirming you have Dots as that rules out it being down to new gen kit in your case.

Interesting IP.

20

ah see i guess i didn’t realize there was a use with harmony hub. So i retract my statement about it being pointless much longer, and should have said going forward for alexa and google home it’ll be pointless LOL.

1 Like