Problem Interfacing to Alexa

[stig125]

Hi all,

I have created the skill to get Alexa to pass commands onto my VC.
I have port forwarded ok and made the change to the code (line 89) to basically call the TellVoxCommando exe with the text of what I want it to do.

This works, but only some times. I am in the Test section and entering an utterance of 'raise the blinds'. I am Remoted onto my home laptop and can see VC and my blinds... oh..and the cat sleeping on my jacket!

The times it does not work are when I see in VC the words emulate:raise the blinds. If it shows the words raise the blinds then it works.

What causes it to say emulate at times?

It's probably something very basic that I have missed..lol

Thanks
Wal

[jitterjames]

http://voxcommando.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=Getting_Started#History

[stig125]

Hi James,
45 years ago this would have all been a breeze...lol

I have found the problem, thanks to your direction. and renamed the VC commands
Now, I am way out of my depth..
When I tested the skill  from the test page it does everything..
Now I am back home and saying 'Alexa ask vox to Lower the blinds'.. it won't do a thing except tell me it's sorry as it cant find anything in my devices or account

Any help would be sooo appreciated as I am lost now.
Wal

[nime5ter]

Hi,

The first issue was that Alexa was sometimes sending a phrase string that did not match any of your commands.

Now it sounds like you are using the wrong command when speaking to Alexa.

Is your skill "prefix" actually Vox? This is something that you choose when creating the lamda function.

If it is not, then saying "Alexa ask Vox ..." is not going to work.

[stig125]

Hiya,
On the test page it says

Please complete the Interaction Model tab to start testing this skill.
 Enabled  This skill is enabled for testing on your account. 

The skill is available in "Skills > Your Skills" page of the Alexa App when you select 'Yes' above. You can then enable the skill and test its functionality by asking Alexa, ask vox

[stig125]

Hiya again,
If I say Alexa ask vox.. she says she can't find that skill. to find skills go to the skill sction of the Alexa app..
The skill is in my skills.. named voxcommando.

Now that I have tested it working via the test page.. do I have to do anything else to enable the echo to see and use the skill?

Thanks
Wal

[jitterjames]

You just have to enable the skill. I can only assume that you used the word "vox" correctly when following the steps by step guide.

You might want to try with another word if it isn't able to recognize vox correctly. That is why I used Jarvis.

The form field we are talking about here is called the invocation name

[stig125]

Hi James,
I have changed the name a few times, thinking it may not recognise it, and re saved it all.
Each time, on the test page it told me what the ask was.. eg ask vox, ask my vox etc. so I know the naming is ok.
And the skill is enabled in 'my skills'

Does the port you use make a difference? I can't see it does as when I type a phrase on the test page like 'lower the blinds', it carries it out as it should.. using my WAN ip and port. I cant get it to work using my ddns, but i'm not bothered about that.
I used port 80 inbound and port 80 private. Should I try a different port just in case?

Thanks
Wal

[jitterjames]

If Alexa is telling you that there is no skill by that name then you did not yet get to the point where the port matters because Amazon is not even trying to send the request to VoxCommando. So the problem is definitely on the Amazon end of things.

Unless you are very unlucky and have some weird problem with your Echo I think it is safe to assume that you have not followed our instructions correctly.  I recommend you watch my instructional video once and then step through the written instructions again from the beginning, being very careful to get every step right.  We cannot guess which part you did wrong so unless you want to make a video showing us every step you are doing tuen you are going to have to figure out which part you missed on your own.  Sorry.

[stig125]

Hi James,

I will just start again.. set up a new skill and do it all from start to finish.. I guess I must have missed something but the fact the test code worked made me think it was running through the lambda bit ok.

Thanks for your help again

Wal

[Kalle]

For me it sounds that the invocation name vox is a bad choice - try a other one like James recommended (Jarvis or similar).
You can take also a look in your Alexa app settings how Alexa has recognized your command (so you will see how Alexa interpreted the invocation name "vox" - maybe "fox" or similar) and then you know what is going on.

I hope this will help a bit

[stig125]

Hi Kalle,
Thanks for replying.
I have now gone through the complete set up according to James's tutorial and have now got 5 skills.. each with a different invocation name.. Hayley, Jarvis, Samwise, Gandolf & the original Vox.

I am trying to eliminate any error I may have made in the previous versions.

I have 5 skills in my 'My Skills' and only enabled one at a time to test.
All 5 work perfectly on the test page to the sample text input of Raise the Blinds.
All 5 give me the same result from the echo Dot.. I cannot find that skill.. go to the skill section of your Alexa App... so it KNOWS it's a skill I am trying to invoke.

To have not followed the instructions to the letter once would be ok ish, twice would be bad.. but 5 times...lol

Is there any possibility that the UK version of the echo Dot is different than the US version? That's about all I can put it down to.

[Kalle]

No, there is no difference - I use a UK dot in Germany without any problems.
The point is - what you type in the test box must not match what Alexa understand in real, because you "write" the correct command in the test box.
I don't know what is going on with your setup.
Delete all skills and start from the scratch again.

[jitterjames]

What location did you choose in AWS Lambda management?  You should probably be using (EU) Ireland.

Are you sure you got the ARN and app id set correctly?

Send us screenshots of all your setup screens for both AWS lambda and the developer pages and maybe we can spot something.

If you are worried about privacy you can email them to me and Kalle.  I am jitterjames at the evil place of goo gull dot com.

Paul Hibbert (Mr. Wolfie) has a lot of echo tutorials and he is in the UK so you may want to check them out.

https://www.youtube.com/user/wolfsweb