Posts made by Richard Binckley

@Russ Well, it appears the alexa software in order to accommodate several different phrases to do specific commands, there is not much a third party can do about it. Seems like just using "Channel" or "Select Channel" will cause alexa to try to attribute te command to a fire TV device. I have run into other conflicts like trying a command "run Judy Justice" and it would try to bring up the prime TV judy justice channel on my Echo Show! Ended up using "run Barbara's Judy Justice" and it works fine.
Thanks again for this great software package. I have a combination of TP-Link light switches and X10 light switches and using your software allows me to alexa connect the X10 switches saving me from changing them out.

@Russ
Thanks for the reply. I've tried a couple of those and the problem is with the alexa end. Since I also have some firesticks and a fire tv DVR, alexa will be confused with some of those commands and try to run on the fire devices giving the reply, "<fire device> won't do that."

It appears that what I want to do is just not in the cards due to alexa software constraints, so I'm going to move on.

@Russ I have tried several different ways to be able to do this command:

Alexa, run Richard's Select Channel 202

Where:
On the default PC is the command Richard's Channel Select with parameters set to true
On \RAB-DVR PC is the command Channel Select with parameters set to true.
202 is the parameter I want passed to the \RAB-DVR PC.
Not sure if this is possible.
Thanks for your help.

@Russ Yes, that gets the download, but I was looking for installation instructions to get it added to the recognized commands. So what I did to get it to work was to copy the tcmd-windows-amd64.exe to the C:\AHK\ folder and rename it to tcmd.exe

Then I entered the command as this:
C:\AHK\tcmd.exe --computer "RAB-DVR" --trigger "Dog the Bounty Hunter"

So there must be a way to eliminate the path to the tcmd.exe and treat it like an internal or external command. I never done that manually as installers usually do it.

But anyway I have the tcmd method working thanks.

PS Edit:
One other thing, I was not sure about the computer name, but after trying the "samsung" voice name, I changed it to the "RAB-DVR" network name and it worked.

@Russ Thanks, I'll try that. I use the ini file for more than just for the TriggerCMD to pass other data between the PCs, so that is what I used. Is there a place where information like this is available online? All I saw was the instructions.

@Russ Thanks. Since there is a voice entry for each command and another for the name to use for the computer, it took me a bit to realize I needed to edit the computer to fill in that voice instead of the command voice. Love the app and my wife loves it too.

@Russ Thanks.

I don't know if this is the right place for this post and if not, please relocate where it needs to be.

My wife is visually impaired can I use TriggerCMD to set up voice commands for her. We have a combination of Alexa enable light switches and x10 light switches. So I set up the TriggerCMD combined with and autohotkey script to control the x10 light switches. My home automation system consist of several PCs, one of which is a central server and the TriggerCMD default computer where the commands for the X10 light switches are located. There are two more PCs that are used as HTPCs running Windows 7 Media Center.

On my wife's HTPC she can either tune and local broadcast stations or youtubeTV cable stations using a remote control. She can also access other streaming services by entering a channel number that I have assigned to that streaming service. This all goes into an autohotkey script that calls up the appropriate streaming service and runs a URL for that channel. For example, I have assigned channel 2004 to run the Dog the Bounty Hunter on Pluto. When she enters the 2004 on her remote the script will run the appropriate URL and go through all the steps required to get it to full screen with the sound unmuted.

And all of that works great except she has a hard time remembering what channel does what. So for her favorite channels I have set up a TriggerCMD for each so that she can say for example, "Alexa run Dog The Bounty Hunter."

I started out with the TriggerCMD on her PC. However, she needed to say, "Alexa run Dog the Bounty Hunter on Samsung". I used the voice Samsung as her PC name because the actual name was BSB-DVR and TriggerCMD would hear other letters or words for the letters spoke. So using a full word instead of a series of letters seems to be the best way to set up your computer voice name. She found it confusing to have to say, "Alexa run Dog the Bounty Hunter on Samsung" and why not just "run Dog the Bounty Hunter."

So to do that I needed a method of putting the voice commands central server with all of the X10 light switch commands and having the central server tell the remote HTPCs what channel to run.

Autohotkey to the rescue. What I did was to have the autohotkey script on the server write the channel number to a configuration (.ini) file on the server. Autohotkey has some Nifty built-in functions for IniWrite and IniRead. Then on the HTPCs the autohotkey script for the television operation will read the configuration file on the server once per second looking for the channel number trigger to be other than zero. If a number is detected then the script will call up the appropriate channel number and write a zero to the server configuration file to clear the trigger.

Here is the server command:
{
"trigger": "Dog the Bounty Hunter",
"command": "C:\AHK\alexacommands.ahk 2004",
"OffCommand": "",
"ground": "foreground",
"voice": "Dog the Bounty Hunter",
"voiceReply": "OK",
"allowParams": "true"
}

Here is the \server\WMC\0-Triggers.ini server configuration file:
[Commands]
Lenovo-PC=0
BSB-DVR=0
RAB-DVR=0
server=0

Here is the alexacommands.ahk autohotkey script on the server:
#SingleInstance Force

Arg1 = %1%
Arg2 = %2%

;MsgBox %Arg1%***%Arg2% ;for debugging

if (Arg1 = 2004){
MsgBox,,, Run Dog The Bounty Hunter, 2
IniWrite, 2004, \server\WMC\0-Triggers.ini, Commands, BSB-DVR
;the HTPC network name (BSB-DVR) is hard coded for the HTPC this command
;is intended to control.
}
if (Arg1 = 202){
MsgBox,,, Run CNN, 2
IniWrite, 202, \server\WMC\0-Triggers.ini, Commands, BSB-DVR
}

Here is the part of the code that checks for the trigger on the HTPCs:
#SingleInstance Force

PCName$ = % A_computername

SetTimer, WinCheck, 1000

;Contents indicates which hotstring to jump to on startup
IniRead, StartPage, C:\WMC\YTconfig.ini, Config, StartPage
if (StartPage <> "none")
{
IniWrite, none, C:\WMC\YTconfig.ini, Config, StartPage ;reset StartPage
gosub %StartPage%
;StartPage contents has the number of the channel where to start.
}

/* The body of the HTPC script */

;timer function to check for new trigger:
WinCheck:
Trigger$ = 0
IniRead, Trigger$, \server\WMC\0-Triggers.ini, Commands, %PCName$%
if (Trigger$ <> 0){
MsgBox,,, %Trigger$%, 2
;reset StartPage:
IniWrite, %Trigger$%, C:\WMC\YTconfig.ini, Config, StartPage
;Clear Trigger
IniWrite, 0, \server\WMC\0-Triggers.ini, Commands, %PCName$%
run, \server\WMC\HTPC.ahk
}
return

I have made some playlists on my music server and I use an autohotkey script to run the selected playlist.

I would like to be able to say, "Alexa play Abby Road on Music Server."

I can say, "Alexa run Abby Road on Music Server." and it works fine.

I also have another trigger for the default server which is used to open and close an air vent damper and I'd like to be able to say, "Alexa Air Vent open." vs "Alexa Air Vent on"

Is there anyway to add new action words to the alexa app?

@Russ Thanks for adding this to the agent software. I would suggest adding a note indicating computers other than the default computer needs to have the voice field filled in. Took me a minute to figure out the edit button brings up the page to enter the voice parameter.