Device/ Room naming tricks (aka found several devices with that name, which..!)

[chrisgla]

Loving the Sonos and Dropin/ Calling additions but it's made pre-existing issues I have with device or room names much worse (or at least more visible)!

For example, Alexa history shows command received clearly:-
"set study heating to twenty one degrees Today at 10:58 AM on Study Echo"
Alexa asks  "found several devices with that name, which one did you want?"
I confirm and Alexa then actions.

Devices I have with "Study":-

• "Study Echo" (a dot)
• "Study Heating" (connected as Honeywell Total Connect Comfort Thermostat skill)
• "Study Sonos" (connected as Sonos player in Study Sonos)
• Not sure if it matters, but I have SmartThings with a "Study" room although no devices shared from SmarThings with Study" in name.
  

Even when Alexa clearly hears "set Study Heating to 21 degrees" she still queries which device and only actions when the same name is repeated.

Seen some posts saying delete the "lights", "heating", etc portion, but not sure how this can work- for instance if I say "play radio 1 on study" Echo needs to differentiate between the Study Echo dot and the Sonos.
I'd love to simplify to:-

• "dropin on Study" (goes to dot)
• "play radio 1 in study" (routes to Sonos and not the dot)
• "setting study to 21 degress" (routes to Evohome as it's the only Thermostat)
• "dim study to 21%" (routes to SmartThings where I have a connected dimmer in that room)

Looked at many, many posts and tired a few tweeks to names but still struggling- any suggestions? It never seems to be that Alexa doesn't hear me, just that she thinks she has multiple routing options...

I have four skills- SmartThings (with skill limited to few devices and no duplicates via other interfaces), Honeywell Connected (Evohome), Sonos and Hue.

Any suggestions or pointers to an FAQ on best naming....

Thanks!

[scottrods]

Quit naming everything by the room they're in. Name them by who will be using it or North South east west, Up, down, left, right, inside, outside, front, back, David's, John's Bill's, Angie's, mom's dad's Oldest, younger, anything but things that are the same. If you want to name a group inside any one skill, by a single name, like say 4 Hue lights by "Bedroom" group name, that would make sense, as long as you don't name another group "Bedroom 2" or some close name like that.

Be creative and keep the names is distinct as possible until the AI gets better... these are all still relatively new and AI voice and context issues are still being worked out. So everything you can do to avoid similar names of ANYTHING, is helpful. The AI cannot think... you can.

I have had to change bulb names due to similarity in one case. I had one bulb named "his lamp" and added one recently and named it "east lamp" and the AI cannot distinguish between the two every time... Had to rename one to eliminate the confusion.

[blace21082]

What type of verbal error are you getting when it does NOT work? I have deleted the rooms in the Hue app and have bulbs named very simply (ie; kit 1 and kit 2 for the 2 bulbs in my kitchen) If i say "Alexa turn on/off kit 1" it works flawlessly, same with kit 2. If i then go into the Alexa app, group those 2 lights as "upstairs" (not Kitchen as to confuse the AI) and ask Alexa to "turn on upstairs" she replies "Sorry, I couldn't find Upstairs."

Ive searched a bunch of sites and cant seem to find a solution that works. I have 6 bulbs that work flawlessly via Alexa, if i ask for 1 bulb by whatever I name it in the Hue app. But groups (Alexa app) or Rooms (Hue App) are recognized in the Alexa app but yeild the same "cant find" error message.

[renegade600]

for testing purposed try another name for the upstairs group and see if it works

[scottrods]

Just as a reminder... Make sure and discover devices after renaming anything or grouping anything differently. Seems to be one of the most common mishaps with Hue and Alexa.

[blace21082]

I found the answer for my issue. For weeks I was using one of our Alexa devices to try to control the Hue rooms, set up in the Hue app and linked with Alexa. My wife has an Echo and I have a dot. After hours and hours of forgetting devices, rediscovering devices, resetting hue bridge and my dot...
Last night it hit me: who is profile is my dot currently under? My wife and I have separate accounts so we can play our individuals music playlists. My dot was connected to my wife's account! I asked Alexa to switch to my account (the email is use for Amazon and hue). All commands now work flawlessly.