My goal is to tie Alexa in with non-cloud based home automation systems. I deal with traditional dealer installed lighting automation systems from companies like Lutron and Vantage which have a very rich set of host commands that allow them to respond to commands from other Audio Video systems like Control 4, Cresteron, HAI, Savant, ELAN, etc. A lot of these are hardwired systems and integration is done through traditional RS-232 ports, or through Ethernet via Telnet or SSL serial strings.
These are very simple - in the case of Lutron Homeworks, you'd send a command like "KBP <address>" and it would simulate a key button press for a particular keypad button. Vantage does a similar thing and as long as the main processor is on the home network and has a local IP address, any other device on the home network can reach them so RS-232 is usually reserved for things like shade controllers or older devices.
So anyway, I want to know if there is a way to accomplish this via the Echo. In other words, is there a way to tell Echo to "Echo, turn on the kitchen lights" and have Echo use the LAN (not the cloud) to send a string command to a local IP address with the commands for that particular automation system?
Currently, only Lutron's Caseta system which was born on the cloud can work with Echo, but trust me, there are 100's of thousands of existing systems (older Radio Ra, new Radio Ra2, Vantage Qlink, Vantage Infusion, Lutron Homeworks, shades, pool equipment, TV's, et. etc. etc) that could benefit from the ability to send string commands to them.
