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I use CQC via Alexa daily to control lights, security, irrigation, and other general automation. My wife gave a veto on wall mounted touch screens, so most everything is done through triggered events, timed events, or voice commands.
For future development, it would be nice to have a generic driver for serial and ip devices. For instance, I use Hue Lighting and understand how to group lights and set scenes, but the driver included does not accommodate these features. I'm not confident I could write, or in this case, edit the driver, but certainly can setup a serial connection and send commands to accomplish what I need. Same for controlling other various equipment like TV's, Amps, Projectors, etc.
I share the same concerns regarding adoption and continued use/development. Is there a guide on driver development, or can the community even generate new drivers? What is the latest on revision control, etc? Sorry I saw a lot of material from Dean about this going open source, but I don't frequent the site enough to even understand the current state of things. Like others, I hope he is doing well. I know he poured a lot of his time into this creation.
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I use it every day too. I use Alexa interface a lot - turn on the tv, turn on sonos etc. But I also still have my PC screen with buttons and lights on for when I don't feel like hearing my own voice.
This truly is the ONLY stable thing out there. Sad to see it go/slow down.
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09-13-2021, 07:32 AM
(This post was last modified: 09-13-2021, 07:34 AM by kfly.)
(09-13-2021, 03:02 AM)karenlee Wrote: This truly is the ONLY stable thing out there. Sad to see it go/slow down.
And the only one that allows users to create beautiful GUI screens.
![[Image: tXf3Tpg.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/tXf3Tpg.jpg)
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Denon 3808ci, 2112ci ,Sonos, NoVo Grand Concerto, Z-Wave(Lights,Locks), Hue, SmartThings,
iPads,Tivo,Hikvision,Elk-M1,TED5000,Somfy RTS blinds+ZRTSI, Amazon Echos+Dots, Polk XRT12,
Honeywell Wi-Fi 9000, Caleo Wi-Fi Thermostats, Rainmachine
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I wish we could get some other developers interested, but there just hasn't been any interest at all.
Dean Roddey
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I posted on r/homeautomation to see if there's any interest, and they pinned it for me. If any of you are Redditors, feel free to post what you think so that folks there will know that it's not just some random piece of junk or something.
https://www.reddit.com/r/homeautomation/...ping_take/
Dean Roddey
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If my own feelings about Home Auto are anything to go by, I think the winner in the long run is going to be the software that doesn't rely on the cloud - including for voice control.
This is why CQC is so stable. I was very excited about Alexa at first, and got one for every room in my house. I used it for so many things. Now, I hardly use it at all because I just lose the will to live when a phrase which I've used for over a year suddenly doesn't work anymore because some numpty did an update 'in the cloud' and broke everything. Sometimes, they just suddenly decide a word is reserved, so even though you have happily used that word in your routine/command for 2 years, suddenly you just get dumb Alexa saying something like 'here's a station I thought you might like' when you've asked for a playlist that you've asked for 100 times before successfully.
I suspect a lot of people, like me, are getting tired of all these cloud solutions where you have zero control about what updates are applied to equipment you have purchased. It's like you simply don't own anything any more.
I don't need an Alexa to chat with. I would be happy with a set of voice commands that I have created, and never change.
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(09-23-2021, 10:42 AM)karenlee Wrote: If my own feelings about Home Auto are anything to go by, I think the winner in the long run is going to be the software that doesn't rely on the cloud - including for voice control.
This is why CQC is so stable. I was very excited about Alexa at first, and got one for every room in my house. I used it for so many things. Now, I hardly use it at all because I just lose the will to live when a phrase which I've used for over a year suddenly doesn't work anymore because some numpty did an update 'in the cloud' and broke everything. Sometimes, they just suddenly decide a word is reserved, so even though you have happily used that word in your routine/command for 2 years, suddenly you just get dumb Alexa saying something like 'here's a station I thought you might like' when you've asked for a playlist that you've asked for 100 times before successfully.
I suspect a lot of people, like me, are getting tired of all these cloud solutions where you have zero control about what updates are applied to equipment you have purchased. It's like you simply don't own anything any more.
I don't need an Alexa to chat with. I would be happy with a set of voice commands that I have created, and never change.
For the enthusiast market I agree, but if we are talking about the masses, simplicity is always going to win out. The Alarm.com platform, for instance, is getting much better. Although CQC is still vastly superior in flexibility, the non HA enthusiast, can have lights, thermostats, security, and more all automated fairly reliably and inexpensively (if you don't count the monthly draw of blood). For the vast majority, that is all they want.
I'm curious based on your post. Are you using the native CQC voice control for your main interface? If so, what type of setup do you use? I find myself yelling at Alexa like an abusive husband at least once or twice a day.
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A change in policy is why our Alexa support was killed. They just suddenly decided that they wouldn't support the open ended replacement token in the phrase definition syntax. So immediately anything that depended on recognizing words that aren't predefined was broken, and recognizing non-predefined words is fundamental to a lot of things you'd want to do.
Dean Roddey
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(09-23-2021, 03:49 PM)jokermac Wrote: I'm curious based on your post. Are you using the native CQC voice control for your main interface? If so, what type of setup do you use? I find myself yelling at Alexa like an abusive husband at least once or twice a day.
Sorry, I completely missed this. Even though it was some time ago, I'll answer now. I use the Hue ha-bridge driver for Alexa interface to CQC. It's still working for me after all these years, and I rely on it heavily. I've programmed CQC + Alexa for a multitude of commands - I can select pre-specified radio stations (I have a driver with a list of all the stations I listen to), I can select Sonos Playlists (Alexa, play my party music), I can group and ungroup rooms, set volume etc etc. I can do more with this CQC-ha-bridge driver than people can do with just the Sonos and Alexa integration which is rubbish.
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