Timers still not updating reliably after 4.6.5 fix

[dpgh947]

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Describe the bug

Alexa timers not being updated in HA reliably, even after the fix to the previous reports of this in 4.6.5

To Reproduce

Set an alexa timer, look at HA sensors.

Expected behavior

Timers should appear, count down, and get reset at end, or if the timer is cancelled.

Screenshots

System details

• Home-assistant (version): 2023.6.3
• alexa_media (version from const.py or HA startup): 4.6.5
• alexapy (version from pip show alexapy or HA startup):
• Amazon 2FA is enabled (y/n). <!---We will not debug login issues if unanswered--->: Y

Logs Please provide logs.

I have a debug log but am not sure all sensitive info is removed? Serial numbers are mostly obscured but still appear in some URLs logged

Additional context

I have been waiting on this fix as I have some automations which rely on timers (for example, if a cooking timer on my kitchen echo ends, I send a TTS alert to other echoes in case we can't hear the kitchen). I installed 4.6.5 straight away this morning and tested. First time I set a timer, it wasn't picked up in HA at all. I then enabled debug log and set another timer, it also was not picked up in HA for around 30 seconds, so I then cancelled the timer, at which point it WAS then picked up in HA. So I then had the situation where HA had an active timer sensor, but there was no actual live timer on the alexa device. The only way out of this was to reload the integration.

I have the debug log for this, but as noted above, I am not sure that all sensitive info is blocked out of the log? I can see most occurrences of serial number are blocked out, but there are still some visible in URLs that are logged. Is this an exposure?

[elarsson1]

@NivaBarCar I suspect you could get this to work with Emulated Hue just as well, rather than relying on the Alexa skill and the HA Cloud subscription. The key, I believe, is using a light entity instead of an input_boolean (which shows up in Alexa as an on/off switch) as the trigger. You could create a virtual light, that is dimmable, using the Virtual Components and expose that via Emulated Hue instead of the input_boolean and then Alexa would be able to turn it on at low brightness before your schedule alarm time.

[popy2k14]

I have no update but a workaround for alarms that I have tested for a while and that I'm using now. (sorry if the code section is not working fine I tried)

Information Workaround works for:

• Trigger an automation at the time the alarm goes off

Workaround does not work for:

• Trigger an event before the alarm goes off

Description

1. Create a boolean trigger helper switch via settings / devices / helpers
2. Add the "Emulated Hue" integration via editor and configuring the configuration.yaml (example - exchange - with spaces please):

emulated_hue: --type: alexa --host_ip: your_home_assistant_ip --listen_port: 80 --expose_by_default: false --entities: ----input_boolean.your_alarm_trigger_helper_name: ----name: "Alarm trigger helper" ----hidden: false

3. Save configuration.yaml and restart HomeAssistant
4. After reload has finished open your Alexa app and ask her to detect new devices
5. After a while she will announce to have found new devices
6. Within section "lamps" you will find a lamp called like your trigger alarm helper
7. Within alarm settings set a new alarm as you wish and activate a "wake-up light"
8. Within general alarm settings you can select the wake-up light for each Amazon device separately
9. Here select the "lamp" named like your alarm trigger helper
10. You can adjust the time before the alarm but this has no effect on the trigger
11. If everything works fine you can see a little star next to your set alarm within Alexa app

Now when the alarm goes off the trigger will be switched "on" within HomeAssistant. Within HomeAssistant now you can set up an automation when the helper is switched "on" and react on this and after going through your steps deactivate the trigger again so that it works again next time.

Hope that helps some of you to achieve something independent from Amazon API.

:-) that's the exact workaround i have implemented for all my wakup light's and the work reliable!

But i have automations which checks if something is playing and if not play something. That does'nt work because the integration has no current play status.

Is there also an workaround?

[popy2k14]

Now, when I speak to a device, all I see coming in are PUSH_EQUALIZER_STATE_CHANGE and PUSH_VOLUME_CHANGE, so now it isn't sending PUSH_ACTIVITY either.

This is a key point. If Amazon has disabled this, then there will be no updates possible without going the polling route.

Above you mentoned an API throttle limit, will 10 minutes work well and dont trip the limit? In other words, how fast can i go without tripping it?

You'll know you've hit the limit when your account gets blocked or all of us who use the API get blocked. Amazon doesn't publish that type of info.

Any chance to get volume updates working? Thx

[amaisano]

I was going to implement @elarsson1 's idea but found out Timers (which I used for tons of cool automations) don't provide any Alexa-side routine or trigger effects like the wake-up lighting. So i'm still looking for a better way to workaround this for timers. I suppose I can create a routine that creates an alarm when asked a certain way, which might be the way to do it for now.

As of now, I've increased my "completely reload the Alexa integration" automation from every 12 hours to every hour, and even that is fairly useless for timers, since A) it doesn't capture snooze command changes and B) many timers are created on the fly and expire within the hour.

I could increase the integration reload frequency more but I read I will start getting throttled...

[Bastian007]

Issue still exist for newest update 4.7.0

[popy2k14]

@alandtse Is it possible to get an poll feature and/or poll service?

So if users automations are using data from Alexa (timers, alarms, volume, ...) are working again? I know we can't poll too often, but maybe some automations can work again.

Thx a lot

[GRClark]

Updated to 4.7.1 and still not working for timers.

[ifflanb]

Same for me 4.7.1 is still broken.

[amaisano]

Please review the release notes. Neither of the releases that came out recently promise or describe any fixes to this situation. Do not expect it to be magically fixed when the number goes up.

[dpgh947]

The only thing that will fix timers is Amazon reverting the api changes they made which broke them in the first place. The only dependency I had on timers in HA was an automation that announced in the lounge if a kitchen timer went off. It was pretty useful when I was cooking and wandering about, it's a shame it's gone, but I've quickly learned to do without it.

[alandtse]

Follow #1953 for update since it's the same root cause now. Closing dupe.