Emulated Hue depending on a specific Echo being online (was: EH not working in 0.61)

Configuration
1

Since I updated to 0.61, my Emulated Hue config does not work anymore. While I can see the devices in http://:8300/api/pi/lights , Alexa claims she can’t reach any of them. Removing a device and re-discovering it in the Alexa App did not help.

Looking at the release notes of 0.61, there’s a breaking change - config of devices for Alexa moving from customize to the cloud component. But the Emulated Hue page still refers to customize - which of the two is correct?

I also tried the cloud variant:

cloud:
  alexa:
    entity_config:
      light.schalter_stehlampe:
        name: 'Stehlampe'
        description: 'Stehlampe neben Couch'
        display_categories: 'LIGHT'

But no change, Alexa is completely disconnected from my HASS setup. In the meantime I upgraded to 0.62.1, but that also didn’t fix it. Nothing helpful in home-assistant.log either. I’m clueless…

Any ideas?

2

If you can discover them in Alexa app but not control them it sounds like a networking issue. Have you tried rebooting your Alexa device?

Emulated hue is working fine here through all the versions you mentioned.

3

There wasn’t any change to emulated_hue, you read it wrong and everything works just as before. The change was quite rightly to Alexa which refers to the Smart Home Skill.

4

There are quite a few reports of emulated_hue breaking for people. It used to work for me but now it doesn’t

5

Is emulated hue somehow storing the IP address of one Alexa device?

I had replaced my main Echo device (a Dot) with an Echo Spot and after that none of my various Echos could reach HASS. Once powering up the Dot again, it works (on all Echos), but taking it down, none of the Echos can reach HASS.

At the same time, Alexa can control my Philips Hue bridge / devices, independently of the Echo Dot being powered on. HASS seems to depend on that Echo Dot device being active, while other smart home devices don’t. Any ideas how to resolve that?

I tried re-booting HASS, all Echos, searched config files for the IP of that Echo Dot (none), nothing helped.

PS: Renaming topic.

6

I believe the consensus was that echo hardware and correlating firmware versions, beginning with the spot, are implementing newer versions of the hue API, which are not supported by emulated_hue.

7

Oh, that’s sad to hear. Was there a thread on this? Did anyone try to contact Amazon?

8

I initially have problem with latest Echo not discovering enulated_hue and resolved it in this thread

9

Hm, this is weird, I tried listen_port: 80, and then nothing worked, even when the Echo Dot is online.

10

Dozens of them :slight_smile:

11

Did you do the second bit, that’s vital.

1 Like
12

No, I didn’t try the second part - and honestly have no clue what that’s meant to do.

13

On a RPi, Python software (i.e HA) is not allowed to use port 80. You can configure it but it will not be able to use it.
If you connect to the RPi by using ssh and run the command

sudo setcap ‘cap_net_bind_service=+ep’ /usr/bin/python3.5

That will give give Python permission to use port 80

You can test its working by browsing to -

http://m.y.i.p/description.xml

and getting a response.

Note -

http://m.y.i.p:3200/description.xml

should get a responce without having configured listen_port: 80

14

Hey Guys!

I have the same problem. My Echo (2nd Gen) can’t find any devices. I have tried almost everything what i could find on the internet.

Changing the “listen_port:” to 80 with the command “sudo setcap ‘cap_net_bind_service=+ep’ /usr/bin/python3.5” also didn’t work for me.

I can browse “http://m.y.i.p/description.xml” and http://m.y.i.p//api/pi/lights. Everything looks fine in these .xml Files. I only have a handful switches.

Maybe i have to bye myself an extra Echo Dot… :frowning:

1 Like
15

Just had a thought on this, may well be irrelevant but…

I use the Kodi component and wanted to use websockets but it didn’t work using 8080. I set it to use port 80 and it works perfectly with no extra command needed. I’m using hassio if that makes a difference.

16

That’s interesting. I’m also using hassio, and afaik I can’t run any sudo commands on that - right? (It definitely doesn’t work when simply logging in through ssh)
Not sure if I now should start setting up Kodi… sounds like overkill just to get that port “unlocked”.

17

Interesting… :thinking: I have connected now an Echo Dot (2nd Gen) which I bought from a friend today afternoon and when the configuration was finished, I saw all of my devices now… very strange…

18

Echo dot 2 works fine on HASSIO prior to .62, not sure what issue is, have tried everything.

19

That’s what most people find, Dot Gen 2 is the same gen as the Echo Gen 1 and, usually, works fine with emulated_hue.

20

FWIW, I have a second gen Echo Dot and it stopped working with emulated_hue around November 2016.

@Klaus, may not be worth your time trying to bind to port 80 and set permissions to allow non-root processes to bind there. Your best long term solution may end up being Home Assistant Cloud, or Haaska if you don’t want to pay the monthly fee.