Using outside the US

[coreo]

Im having trouble can some one please help or post a video how too..
I've installed the request maker plugin in chrome and gone to http://alexa.amazon.com/ and checked there's a default us post code..
Then this is where I'm stuck!
It says open request maker.. I presume this means click on the little envelope in the address bar then choose https://pitangui.amazon.com/api/device-preferences/ but this is where I'm stuck I can't find this  line https://pitangui.amazon.com/api/device-preferences/ i've gone through the whole list and I'm lost any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Worked it out you have to not only be at the settings page but also just change the postal code!!! it does say this in the description!!
But if you were like me and thought you have already changed this to your liking previously it's not enough you have to change it to something right at this instances. Other wise when you click the envelope the put comand for https://pitangui.amazon.com/api/device-preferences/ does not appear...
So you have to have literally just changed the postal code on the settings page to something else anything eg.. 90210, then you will see the put https://pitangui.amazon.com/api/device-preferences/ when you click the envelope.  edit to your liking.

Thanks stonewater

[patcat]

Has anybody been able to change their location to outside of the USA?
I have managed to get the time zone changed, (I'm in Australia).
But anything else is proving to be difficult.
If anyone has been successful it would be great to hear..

Cheers..

I changed everything apart from the "label" field and it appears to affect some of the functionality to be local but not all. For example, it was able to give me driving directions to a nearby location, using my own Aussie address as a starting point. It isn't perfect though — sometimes it still uses the US address for things, so it might depend on how you phrase the question to Alexa?

[patcat]

I'm an Australian developer who runs a site called "Dev Diner" that aims to help other developers navigate the world of emerging technology! I put together a quick guide to purchasing and setting up the Echo in Australia, after my own experiences getting it to work this week. I wanted to leave a huge thank you to David for sharing the Chrome extension process as that made all the difference in setting the timezone and a few local bits of functionality!

My guide for any fellow Aussies: http://devdiner.com/answers/how-do-i-set-up-an-amazon-echo-in-australia

[KillaaChris]

So I got myself an Echo Yesterday in Seattle and it's now safe and sound back in London.

But obviously as nice as it is to know the weather in Seattle - I immediately started to play....

Apologies if this has been documented elsewhere on the forum but I couldn't find before posting.

I'm having some success meddling with the address, country and timezone.

You'll need to arm yourself with a copy of request maker for Chrome so that you can mess with the API post requests.

With request maker installed you'll need to visit http://alexa.amazon.com/

Go to the settings for your echo and update the address - chose a US address - the seattle defaults are fine.

Open request maker and you'll see a call to https://pitangui.amazon.com/api/device-preferences/

You can now tamper with the raw data of the post request.

Thus far I've found that setting timezone (which is set by default to null) will OVERRIDE the timezone for the address.

Which means I can ask the time etc and get local london time ;-)

(To see which timezone is correct for you visit https://pitangui.amazon.com/api/available-time-zones?_=1445689862656).

The raw text that I'm using is.

{"deviceAccountId":"XXXXX","deviceAddress":"23 Wenlock Road, London, N17","deviceAddressModel":{"city":"London","countryCode":"UK","county":"London","district":"Hackney","houseNumber":"901","label":"23 WA-305 NE, Bainbridge Island, N1 7SZ, United Kingdom","postalCode":"N1 7SZ","state":"London","street":"WA-305 NE"},"deviceSerialNumber":"XXX","deviceType":"AB72C64C86AW2","firstRunCompleted":true,"postalCode":"98110","responseStyle":"CONCISE","searchCustomerId":"XXXX","temperatureScale":"CELSIUS","timeZoneId":"Europe/London","voiceCastEnabled":null,"autocastToThisClient":false,"isSaveInFlight":true}

As you can see - I've varied a number of parameters which get considerably closer to my address.  The API seems really sensitive to changes to the "label" field - although I've successful updated my postcode to the extent that it shows via the alex.amazon.com site.

It's not quite working for weather but I think it's probably going to be fairly easy to reverse engineer what the API is looking for.

You can mess around yourself - if you get a 200 code then the API has accepted it - 400 means no.

I'll keep looking at this and update what I find.

David

Hi David,

I might be missing something but I get as far as seeing the raw data in the 'Source Code' tab but it will not allow me to edit the raw data.

Do you know what I might be doing wrong?

Chris

[MrSpock]

although I've successful updated my postcode to the extent that it shows via the alex.amazon.com site.

Hello David and all
I have done everything as you describe, the time works now (so thank you for this!) but i i cant see any changes in my post code on alexa.amazon.com under settings, and when i ask it for my location is giving me the US location... not the UK one.

Can you please advise me?

Anyone else any thoughts? (Bellow is what i did)
{"deviceAccountId":"xxxxxxxxxxxx","deviceAddress":"Racecourse Road, Newbury, RG14 7GH","deviceAddressModel":{"city":"Newbury","countryCode":"UK","county":"West Berkshire","district":"London","houseNumber":"64","label":"64 WA-305 NE, Bainbridge Island, RG14 7GH, United Kingdom","postalCode":"RG14 7GH","state":"West Berkshire","street":"RG14 7GH"},"deviceSerialNumber":"xxxxxxxxxxxxx","deviceType":"xxxxxxxxxxxxx","firstRunCompleted":true,"notificationEarconEnabled":false,"postalCode":"98110","responseStyle":"CONCISE","searchCustomerId":"xxxxxxxxxxxxxx","temperatureScale":"CELSIUS","timeZoneId":"Europe/London","voiceCastEnabled":null,"autocastToThisClient":false,"isSaveInFlight":true}
 

[patcat]

For those who might start to have issues with the Request Maker approach (it seems to not quite be working as it used to), I've got a new post with how to set the timezone using Google Developer Tools and cURL over on my Dev Diner site: https://devdiner.com/answers/setting-timezone-amazon-echo-outside-us

[spooni]

Hi, I tried both methods and no luck. After inputting the code in terminal I just get "Message: null" in reply, any tips?

[chrissmit]

Im having trouble can some one please help or post a video how too..
I've installed the request maker plugin in chrome and gone to http://alexa.amazon.com/ and checked there's a default us post code..
Then this is where I'm stuck!
It says open request maker.. I presume this means click on the little envelope in the address bar then choose https://pitangui.amazon.com/api/device-preferences/ but this is where I'm stuck I can't find this  line https://pitangui.amazon.com/api/device-preferences/ i've gone through the whole list and I'm lost any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Worked it out you have to not only be at the settings page but also just change the postal code!!! it does say this in the description!!
But if you were like me and thought you have already changed this to your liking previously it's not enough you have to change it to something right at this instances. Other wise when you click the envelope the put comand for https://pitangui.amazon.com/api/device-preferences/ does not appear...
So you have to have literally just changed the postal code on the settings page to something else anything eg.. 90210, then you will see the put https://pitangui.amazon.com/api/device-preferences/ when you click the envelope.  edit to your liking.

Thanks stonewater

I'm still having trouble getting this to work.
This is what I've done:
Installed the Chrome Extension
Gone to the Alexa settings webpage
Entered a different US time zone
Clicked "Save"
Clicket the white envelope from "Request Maker"
I get a whole lists with all kinds of requests made, but don't see this reference: https://pitangui.amazon.com/api/device-preferences/
The only thing I see is: https://pitangui.amazon.com/api/device-preferences/cached.... (followed by more characters).

What am I missing? and How could I edit the preferences should I ever manage to do this?

Thanks for the help.

[Knightro]

Is there an update on this?

[MakJeng]

I tried the Chrome 'request maker' approach on my new Echo today and it worked fine for my time zone "Australia/Brisbane" but I could not come up with an accepted address syntax. No problem, I will live with that as the correct time is critical. After getting the time sorted and playing with address, something I did unexpectedly reset the timeZoneId back to default :null so I had to repeat the time zone setting. Leaving it alone for the moment.

[patcat]

At the moment, timezone is mainly the most reliable to change. Changing the address seems to be a bit iffy to manage. Sometimes it works, other times... not so much.

Important to note — the label for the address in Alexa's settings *never* changes. So even if your address has been changed, it won't appear there. You'll only know by asking direction related questions like "how do I get to X station?".

Both the Request Maker Chrome extension and the cURL technique which I've got posted work for different people. Not quite sure why it's not consistent with everyone but at least there are two options right?

[dpk174]

I am in Adelaide Australia (GMT + 9.5). I was able to set the Echo Dot to a Guam address, which at least gives me a Melbourne timezone of GMT +10.

Need to find a US address in the GMT + 9.5 timezone. Will try the various US military bases in Japan..

Messing with POST parameters got me nowhere.

[dpk174]

got timezone working !
using curl method : https://devdiner.com/answers/setting-timezone-amazon-echo-outside-us
list of timezones here: https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E29542_01/apirefs.1111/e39371/JSP/TimeZones.html

key bit : .... "temperatureScale"":""CELSIUS"",""timeZoneId"":""Australia/Adelaide"",""voiceCastEnabled"":null ...

[shanek]

I though i would update this as i tried the Request Maker Chrome extension yesterday to change the timezone and it was successful but also i managed to change the address so the forecast is now correct outside the US.  It seems to all be based on the country code and post code and gets data from accuweather.com so im here in NZ getting forecast data fine now.

[kaznad]

Hi,

I used the cURL method and was able to change my Timezone as well as my address. When I ask for the time and my location it gives me the correct location. However when I ask for the weather it says "I couldn't find a forecast for that location." I am located in Singapore. We do not have State, district, or County, it's a small country. I am wondering how I can get it to work. It seems like accuweather does not work if there is a postal code for Singapore address. Any one here from Singapore or has any idea on this?

Thanks.