Some notes on the oddities and things identified during development.
Discovery
Note in Philips Hue API docs that SERVER must contain "IpBridge".
description.xml
These fields must be fixed, change them and Alexa ignores our bridge: - manufacturer - modelName
These can be changed: - modelDescription
We could build the XML data using JSON, then convert it. Prefix element attributes with _. Can improve JsonObjectStream in several ways: - Don't serialise document all at once, but successively parse individual elements. - Add XML as serialisation format (
I did this initially but ended with the RapidXML library as it does a much better job. It was essential for correct parsing of SOAP messages.
Discovery and number of requests
If Alexa is happy with the device info, maybe there's only one request. We see repeats sometimes, for example the dimmable issue gets three requests so perhaps Alexa retries in case it gets a different result. (Madness ?!)
- Deleted 3 devices (one of each type), we get:
- 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 3
Device ID (endpoint)
Not restricted to 8 bits. 0x7fffffff works, 0xffffffff doesn't. We only have room for 24-bits in the unique ID, unless we subvert the MAC address; safer to keep that as-is.
Endpoints don't have to be sequential.
Haven't tested non-numerical ID values.
Alex doesn't appear to take any notice of the uniqueid value. We can change it on registered lights and it still works. It's the endpoint which matters.
For reliable operation, need to go through the proper setup, which is tedious. However, skipping it causes very flaky behaviour, unresponsive devices, etc. and kills the other working ones.
Alexa won't rediscover devices if they've been forgotten.
I fixed this by appending "-01" to the serial portion to make new unique ID values. Clearly Alexa remembers the old ones and chooses to ignore them.
These should probably therefore be either random, or incorporate a value which gets incremented.
After discovery, Alexa just uses the endpoints.
Having said all this, just tried deleting devices then re-addding them and it worked fine.
9/10/19 22:08
Just did it again, delete device, then rediscover. Got it on second attempt. Use specific discovery: hue -> bluetooth NO -> V1 bridge -> Discover.
If state returns 'bri' then it treats it as dimmable light, otherwise just on/off.
25/10/19 13:30
Echo dot won't respond to 'unauthorized user'. Had to change the device serial number _and_ UDN so it treated it as a new device. Suspect the dot would require resetting to get it to work otherwise.
UPDATE: Solution is to just accept provided username when in pairing mode.
Having done this, a user is created successfully and we get a lights/ request, but nothing further. This was with lights starting at ID 101. Changed to 200 and it worked.
Probably the unique light ID is getting stored.
It's also still trying to access lights using the other user ID, which of course are failing:
SerialNumber: dc4f221c2666 Key: 2WLEDHardQrI3WHYTHoMcXHgEspsM8ZZRpSKtBQr SerialNumber: 1c4f221c2666 Key: 3d0a37a229b9420850feec09b8cb350a ``` { "userinfo": { "devicetype": "Echo", "username": "3d0a37a229b9420850feec09b8cb350a" } } ```
Alexa shows description as 'unknown device'
Others say 'Royal Philips Electronics smart device'. The light type "Dimmable light" isn't recognised. Can use "Extended color light" for this and use attributes to indicate no colour support, works fine.
Alexa shows device as 'not responding'
Running two bridges works fine until one of them is shut off, which kills the other one as well. Perhaps waiting half an hour and the Dot might realise it's only one bridge, but I suspect it kills the whole Hue device stack. Delete the offending devices (all of them) and it springs back into life. Disabling them does the same. Stripping it back to one 'dodgy' light and it gives up after a few minutes with 'there was a problem' and the others start working again but it doesn't take much to mess it up again.
Stripping back device info
Returning only state and Alexa picks up on/off and colour lights fine, but dimmable returned as 'unknown device'. Turns out Alexa just doesn't recognise the lamp type, using 'color' and it's fine.