Alexa app on Android can't find my ESP32

[benpeart]

This is quite likely user error here so I'll be explicit about what I'm doing outside of getting the sample app to build and connect to my network.

I do not have a Philips bridge of any type nor an Alexa device. I'm only using the Alexa app running on my android phone.

I'm trying the EspalexaColor sample and it can successfully connect to my WiFi and I can ping it and it responds to web requests.

In the Alexa app, I add a new device and select the "Philips hue' as the device type. I answer "No" when asked if it is Bluetooth enabled. It then asks for a hub - I've tried the "Philips Hue V1 bridge (Circular shape)" with no success - Alexa doesn't find any devices and I get no debug output from EspalexaColor. If I select "I don't have a hub" it says a hub is required.

Should this combination (Alexa app without a hub) work or do I need to purchase some other device? If it requires an additional device, do you have recommendations on which to purchase? Should I get an Echo Plus, Echo Show, the 4th gen Echo, or a Philips Bridge?

Thanks

Web page output for http://192.168.1.252 is:

Not Found (espalexa)

The debug serial output from EspalexaColor is:

Connecting to WiFi
Connecting............
Connected to Mountain Meadow Farm
IP address: 192.168.1.252
Constructing device 1
Adding device 1
Espalexa Begin...
MAXDEVICES 10
Done
Not-Found HTTP call:
URI: /
Body: 
AlexaApiCall
Not-Found HTTP call:
URI: /favicon.ico
Body: 
AlexaApiCall

Ping output:

C:\EspalexaColor>ping 192.168.1.252

Pinging 192.168.1.252 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 192.168.1.252: bytes=32 time=60ms TTL=255
Reply from 192.168.1.252: bytes=32 time=171ms TTL=255
Reply from 192.168.1.252: bytes=32 time=78ms TTL=255
Reply from 192.168.1.252: bytes=32 time=82ms TTL=255

Ping statistics for 192.168.1.252:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 60ms, Maximum = 171ms, Average = 97ms

[kawapiki]

As i know it works only, if you haven an alexa device, so you can't discover them with phone. As you se there's no any discovery message from the device, in discovery phase you'll see some requets in the output.

[MartinMueller2003]

Actually there are discovery messages when my phone learns devices. I have similar issues with one of my projects and it seems the lib is VERY sensitive to CPU usage by an ISR. I have tracked the issue down to a UDP flush that does not seem to need to be there. Removing the flush allows the entire discovery to complete. However, I do not know what issue the flush was addressing so...

Martin