Emulated hue configuration step

Configuration
1

I added this in my homeassistant.yaml

emulated_hue:
  host_ip: 192.168.1.35

Checked the configuration and restarted home assistant.

Using these URL’s I can see that the emulated hue is working fine.

http://192.168.1.35:8300/description.xml
http://192.168.1.35:8300/api/pi/lights

Then I scanned for new scenes but none were found

So I disabled the Alexa cloud integration with Nabu Casa, assuming that the emulated hue would take over.

But all my devices are now unresponsive in the Alexa app.

I guess I’m missing a step somewhere?
Any help is appreciated.

Thanks

2

1 - be aware that if you more than a certain number of exposed devices, then it just won’t work. And it is very easy to be over the device limit, so configuring to cherry pick the devices you do want to expose gets better results.

2 - Alexa is easily confused when the whole lot of devices it can ‘see’ changes. I usually ‘forget all’ from the Alexa Web interface (not the app!) and then do a new search.

3 - something else that’s on the tip of my tongue but I can’t quite remember

3

So this is the content of http://192.168.1.35:8300/api/pi/lights

So I know my devices are found in emulated_hue

And this is my http://192.168.1.35:8300/description.xml

I have also disabled Home Assistant Cloud, deleted all devices in the Alexa app, and asked it to scan for new devices.

But it doesn’t find any.

What I’m I missing here?

4

Any chance I have to enable to Hue skill in alexa?

5

No.

If I’m reading your first paste correctly you’re exposing 67 devices, I think the limit is 48, that’s why it isn’t working.

6

I only see 10 or so, the number goes up to 67.

@aristosv is UPNP turned on in your router? It’s pretty much required. Other than that, the lights look good. I don’t see any overlapping names. Entity_id’s are good and unique. It should be working.

7

UPNP is not turned on, on my router. Can I do port forwarding instead? Which ports must be opened for HA?

8

You’d probably need to port forward the default hue port which is 8300 I think. Not sure if that will work. I believe UPNP is required on alexa’s side for Hue gen 1 bridges.

9

I’m having trouble grasping the way emulated_hue works.
Obviously emulated_hue component is enabled and can see the entities in Home Assistant.

But how will alexa communicate with Home Assistant? Won’t I have to enable the Home Assistant skill in alexa? And to do that, don’t I need the Nabu Casa subscription?

10

No, it does not. Alexa has a built in function that talks to hue that is outside of skills. In the amazon alexa app:

  1. go to devices
  2. Click plus to add device
  3. Select brand (phillips hue).
  4. Select bridge type (Gen 1)

Don’t remember steps after that.

Alexa talks over the network using an API to hue bridges. Emulated hue emulates that communication.

Also, do you have a gen 1 or gen 2 dot?

11

After step 4 the instructions say to press the button on the Philips hue bridge and press the “Discover Devices” button in the Alexa app.

Obviously there is no Philips Hue bridge (since its all software in HA) so I just pressed the “Discover Devices” button in the Alexa app, it searched for 20 seconds, but didn’t find any devices.

12

That button is always being pressed in emulated hue. If you have description.xml link and it works, then the ‘button is being pressed’.

  1. Is upnp on?
  2. Do you have a gen 1 echo or gen 2 echo on your network?
13

right, upnp. I’ll get to that.
I have a gen 2 echo dot. This one.

shopping

14

I have no idea how to get around UPNP being off. I’m sure there is a way but for the time being just see if that’s the issue.

15

So I enabled upnp on my edgerouter x and confirmed that the rules are there. Valid for any requests from eth0 to switch0.

xml%20-%20EdgeRouter%20X
xml%20-%20EdgeRouter%20X779×196 5.91 KB

I then followed the process to scan for new devices using the alexa app and choosing the gen1 Philips hue bridge option, but again, no devices are found.

I also opened port 8300 on the router and forwarded it on 192.168.1.35, but no luck. Alexa can’t find my entities.

Any idea on what I could be missing here?
Thanks

16

Also, this is my configuration.yaml, although I don’t know if it’s relevant, since we know that the bridge can see my exposed devices.

emulated_hue:
 host_ip: 192.168.1.35
 off_maps_to_on_domains:
 - script
 - scene
 expose_by_default: true
 exposed_domains:
 - light
 entities:
  script.boomeranghd:
   name: "BOOMERANG HD"
  script.disneyjunior:
   name: "DISNEY JUNIOR"
17

Sorry I missed your response. I’m not sure what to tell you. It should be discovering. Have you tried discovering via the desktop browser? https://alexa.amazon.com/

18

This is really annoying. Even Home Assistant detects that there’s UPNP capabilities on the network now.

1
2

I even removed everything and left only one entity to be detectable in Home Assistant, to be sure I’m not breaking any limits.

emulated_hue:
 host_ip: 192.168.1.35
 off_maps_to_on_domains:
 - script
 - scene
 expose_by_default: false
 exposed_domains:
 - script
 entities:
  script.boomeranghd:
   name: "BOOMERANG HD"
   hidden: false

3

And I tried scanning from the Alexa app on my phone, and from the Alexa portal.

But still no luck, for some reason it doesn’t detect anything.

edit…
Could it be that I have to configure UPNP in Home Assistant for this whole thing to work?
edit again…
No it doesn’t

19

No, that shouldn’t matter. It should just find it. I’ve done some digging and other people have said upnp doesn’t matter either. I have a unifi secure gateway which is essentially the same as an edgerouter. Do you have any special settings in set your router? Anything that you did that is unique in comparison to a normal setup?

20

I have plenty of reserved IP addresses on the DHCP and an IPSec VPN tunnel configured. Other than that it’s all pretty default. This has to be something else. Is there any detailed documentation on how to set this up? Or is it just the component page?