Topic: ambientweather.net Amazon Alexa Discussion

[galfert]

Has anyone played with the Amazon Alexa skill integration with ambientweather.net?

If you haven't yet tried it and you have an Amazon Echo you should check it out. It is pretty neat. (I haven't tried Google Home Assistant yet).
Just say, "Alexa ask Ambient Weather for the weather report" and it will speak back all that stats from your console (well actually from your station's Ambientweather.net dashboard).

I have discovered that Alexa will give me the current conditions and it will separately give me the indoor conditions. However I have not been able to get it to give me yesterday's weather nor the weather for a specific previous month. The Ambient website shows these example as skills that should work. But when I ask, "Alexa ask Ambient Weather about the weather yesterday." It talks back and reports that my station was not reporting yesterday and to make sure that my station is plugged in and connected to the Internet. It says the same thing that my station was not reporting in December or any other month. I've had my station reporting with no issues for several months so Alexa is lying. Is anyone else also experiencing this? I'd just like to confirm to see if it is just me. If not I guess perhaps it needs to be reported to Ambient that there is an issue.

Here are the skills that Ambient has published that are supported with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant (from Ambient site):
---------------------------------------------

Works with Amazon Alexa:
The Ambient Weather skill provides Ambient Weather personal weather station owners with the ability to get real-time, and past weather information generated by the devices they have set up at AmbientWeather.net.
Enable the skill and get started: say "Alexa, ask Ambient Weather for a weather report." This will provide you with your outdoor weather report, but you can ask for your indoor weather report as well by saying, "Alexa, ask Ambient Weather about the indoor conditions."
You can also ask for a report about a specific day, month or year! Just say "Alexa, ask Ambient Weather about the weather yesterday." or "Alexa, ask Ambient Weather about the weather in May." or "Alexa, ask Ambient Weather for the weather on August 4th."

Works with the Google Assistant:
The Ambient Weather app provides Ambient Weather personal weather station owners with the ability to get real-time, and past weather information generated by the devices they have set up at AmbientWeather(dot)net.

Link your account get started: say 'hey google, Ambient Weather'... weather report.' This will provide you with your outdoor weather report. You can also ask for your indoor weather report as well by saying, ' indoor conditions', or request the weather history on a specific date.

[Greg_M]

I would never set up an eavesdropping device in my house (or anywhere else).
But that's just me.

[Theo]

I have it working on mine, but I have a show 2 and I am exploring a way to turn it into a 2nd console for my WS-2000.

[WeatherHost]

I don't knowingly allow corporate spies in my house.

[galfert]

I have it working on mine, but I have a show 2 and I am exploring a way to turn it into a 2nd console for my WS-2000.

Great, can you ask it,  "Alexa, ask Ambient Weather about the weather yesterday." Then let us know if it works.

As for your idea to turn the Echo Show into a 2nd console that is a good idea. It should be possible to get it to do that by writing a new skill for Alexa. The ambientweather.net API is published and available to whatever you want. I'm not a programmer so that's as useful as I can be.

[galfert]

UPDATE: Alexa skill fixed and more complete now

Happy to report that Alexa is now fully working with Ambientweather.net. You can now ask it for yesterday's weather. You can also ask it for any previous specific day or month you want (going back 1 year I suppose). Glad they fixed that. Previously it only reported the current weather report.

[davidmc36]

Did you have any issue linking Alexa and Ambient?

When I click to link it just goes to blank page. Says Dashboard in address but........

[Platokidd]

Not since last summer have I used Alexa with Ambient weather.  Her first reply back would be  " Opening Ambient weather and then name both my station. Basically asking what station to open.

Found it cumbersome to use. Maybe the fixed some issue and I should try again. 

[galfert]

I don't remember having any trouble linking the skill to Alexa. But things change and for me it was over 2 years ago and I don't remember. It still works great. I do remember initially that there was an issue when you had more than one console. But that has long been fixed. You can go to your Ambientweather.net dashboard devices and select the default for the Alexa skill. Before you had to by voice select which console, but now it is better with the default if you set it.

If you have trouble I suggest contacting Ambient.

[davidmc36]

Got it all hooked up now.

Linking worked first shot on PC.

I had been trying on mobile device.

 

[galfert]

Well that is good feedback for Ambient. Let them know it doesn't work on mobile....and which mobile you have Android or iOS.

[Rover1822]

Be nice if you could get a skill for the "show" models that displayed data.

Yes, Galfert, I have looked at the API, get's trickier on units that have display as the core API likes voice input, and working out visual for a "show" unit is a bit rough.

So I just load the URL to like Ecowitt.net etc.

[alanb]

I wish Ambient would improve the Alexa skill. I would like to have it report the lightning detector in addition to the other sensors it reports. Also, it would be nice if you could ask for a specific sensor, such as "Ask Ambient weather for the outdoor temperature." Sometimes I don't want to get the full verbose report for all the sensors.