Amazon Echo

[chasingracecars]

dmsims said:

Translate ?

Alexa can only control other smart devices. People are getting used to being able to control sockets and lights. The issue comes with people wanting to control effectively dumb hardware. It can be done but only by the means of another smart device. The more of these the busier the wifi/networks become.

What an AV specialist does is automate without the need for additional smart devices.

Host as in main processor for example. Alexa being a host to control lights and sockets play music etc.

Whereas Control4, Crestron etc would be the host with the Alexa becoming an interface. Much larger skill set available this way as programmed commands can be requested by Alexa that are stored on the Control4/Crestron processor.

[tenohfive]

chasingracecars said:

dmsims said:

Translate ?

What an AV specialist does is automate without the need for additional smart devices.

I don't dispute that, and I've no doubt the most effective solution is to get a specialist in. But at what extra cost?

Most of my smart home kit was picked up cheaply in sales, as frivolous purchases. If move house it can all come with me, and if the technology gets standardised and I'm on the wrong side of that then I've really not lost that much money. It's a punt on technology that's still really in it's infancy and a bit of fun that - to my pleasant surprise - is actually quite good. The only devices I've had to buy to make the others work have been an ST hub, and you could argue that my Dot's are controllers.

If I had to pay a specialist to come out to supply and fit kit (with a mark up that probably isn't going to be of Black Friday prices) and then had to pay more servicing costs to add more, or to move house, I just wouldn't do it. Because of price. It goes from silly sales spending to a serious purchase. And that inevitably brings SWMBO into the picture. End game.

I'd consider it if a) I was confident I'd still be using the same kit 5 years on, and b) if I was confident I'd still be in the same house 5 years on. At that point it's a home improvement. But the beauty of what's currently out there is it's cheap, fun, largely plug and play and there's plenty of free support available. I can live with it being imperfect with that in mind.

[M3ax]

ecsrobin said:

As long as you have the associated light hub hue/smartthings/hive

I just ordered a Sonos One from Amazon £179 with 3 months free Prime music unlimited. Curries are doing the same deal bit with Deezer rather than prime music.

[page3]

We’re finding Alexa quite good although not for what we were expecting too.

Music integration is utterly terrible and we now don’t bother. Classical is laughably badly recognised. Apple Music doesn’t work at all. Spotify just shouts obscenities.

Logitech harmony support is poor. Keeps stopping working without reason. Renamed labels don’t work.

Plex support is poor. Easier to use a physical controller.

Sonos support is poor. Renaming devices doesn’t work. I don’t want to “play living room” I want to “play Sonos”. No can do.

The setup App is slow, slow, slow. And a mess.

Controlling tplink plugs works really well. Controlling Domoticz home automation (and therefor lightwave switches) works really well. Controlling Nest works well. Doing sums, spellings and other trivia works well.

Edited by page3 on Sunday 17th December 13:58

[LeadFarmer]

page3 said:

We’re finding Alexa quite good although not for what we were expecting too.

Music integration is utterly terrible and we now don’t bother. Classical is laughably badly recognised. Apple Music doesn’t work at all. Spotify just shouts obscenities.

Sonos support is poor. Renaming devices doesn’t work. I don’t want to “play living room” I want to “play Sonos”. No can do.

Mine works perfectly when I say "Alexa, play radio two on Sonos" or "Alexa, play Queen, A Kind of Magic on Sonos".

I do have to specify it being played on Sonos though, as it will play on the Dot otherwise and I don't think there's a way to set a default speaker.

[Nigel_O]

I won £500 of Amazon vouchers last week, so I’ve just treated myself to an Echo, plus a few bits of Lightwaverf kit (plugs, switches, hub etc)

I really couldn’t be doing with replacing all the led bulbs in the house with Hue stuff, so I worked out that replacing switches and plugs allows me to achieve the same thing

Ages since I had a properly new gadget, so I’m really looking forward to this one....

[LeadFarmer]

Nigel_O said:

I won £500 of Amazon vouchers last week, so I’ve just treated myself to an Echo, plus a few bits of Lightwaverf kit (plugs, switches, hub etc)

I really couldn’t be doing with replacing all the led bulbs in the house with Hue stuff, so I worked out that replacing switches and plugs allows me to achieve the same thing

Ages since I had a properly new gadget, so I’m really looking forward to this one....

WiFi light switches can make great sense with the ability to turn them on/off and dim the light. Obviously the Hue bulbs allow you to change colour as well.

[Badvok]

Just recently our echo has stopped streaming after a period (4 hours maybe?) the wife likes to leave it on for the dog overnight. It definitely used to stream radio all night long, is this auto off a new thing?

[33q]

Badvok said:

Just recently our echo has stopped streaming after a period (4 hours maybe?) the wife likes to leave it on for the dog overnight. It definitely used to stream radio all night long, is this auto off a new thing?

Does the dog like Bach?

[anonymous-user]

Is there a reason people seem to be buying hue stuff?

There are loads of smart bulbs around that are cheaper and don’t require a bridge.

I got a free hue bulb with my echo plus and it’s ok but no better than my other smart bulbs plus you can only control it on the echo app not the other one I use for all my other smart devices.

[P4ulB]

Badvok said:

Just recently our echo has stopped streaming after a period (4 hours maybe?) the wife likes to leave it on for the dog overnight. It definitely used to stream radio all night long, is this auto off a new thing?

Subwoofer failed?

[AnotherGuy]

Nigel_O said:

I won £500 of Amazon vouchers last week, so I’ve just treated myself to an Echo, plus a few bits of Lightwaverf kit (plugs, switches, hub etc)

Thread derail : Just out of interest - why LightWaveRF?

I'm refurbing the house at the moment and I've gone Z-Wave using Fibaro control units behind bog standard light switches. Controlling it all using a Samsung Smartthings hub.

When I was doing my research I really couldn't see many advantages to using the LightWaveRf tech. The killer point being that LWRF doesn't have 2 way communication - meaning your hub or app has no way of knowing whether the light that you just asked to turn on actually turned on!

Helpful stuff is here : http://www.vesternet.com/resources/technology-comp...

(no connection, just bought a couple of items from there)

[JimbobVFR]

El stovey said:

Is there a reason people seem to be buying hue stuff?

There are loads of smart bulbs around that are cheaper and don’t require a bridge.

While the Plus can natively control Hue bulbs it's relatively basic control, the Hue bridge and loads of lights on the other hand work really well as a system and make the cheaper ones look cheap. Don't forget with a Hue bridge you can also use the Ikea or Innr bulbs to cut costs a bit.

While I can see the idea behind the echo plus being a good one, it's a bit half arsed as an automation hub

[Watchman]

AnotherGuy said:

When I was doing my research I really couldn't see many advantages to using the LightWaveRf tech. The killer point being that LWRF doesn't have 2 way communication - meaning your hub or app has no way of knowing whether the light that you just asked to turn on actually turned on

LWRF gen2 stuff has introduced 2-way comms although there are currently only a few gen2 products.

[Watchman]

I’ve just been looking at the Fibaro and I remember that I chose LWRF originally because it was significantly cheaper and I couldn’t get enough installation information for Fibaro on-line.

[B17NNS]

JimbobVFR said:

While the Plus can natively control Hue bulbs it's relatively basic control, the Hue bridge and loads of lights on the other hand work really well as a system and make the cheaper ones look cheap. Don't forget with a Hue bridge you can also use the Ikea or Innr bulbs to cut costs a bit.

While I can see the idea behind the echo plus being a good one, it's a bit half arsed as an automation hub

This. A Hue bridge with Innr or Ikea bulbs is the way forward IMHO. All of the benefits of Hue with less of the costs.

As you say, the Plus is limited in it's abilities. Seems for the forceable future a regular Echo or dot along with the appropriate bridges/hubs is the way to go.

[Watchman]

Watchman said:

I’ve just been looking at the Fibaro and I remember that I chose LWRF originally because it was significantly cheaper and I couldn’t get enough installation information for Fibaro on-line.

The Fibaro website now contains the installation details I couldn't find previously. amongst them, their installation instructions for the light switch relay caught my eye because I had tried to do this with LWRF previously.

The instructions show this:




The problem is, there is no "direct" or "clean" Neutral supplied to the wall box. There is only the Neutral that passes through the light bulb, as in my crappy edit below:




In using the N that passes through the bulb, you are passing a small amount of current that the relay uses to energise the switch. If you have LED bulbs, it's enough current to light them up - not at 100% but reasonably "on" anyway.

Edited by Watchman on Monday 18th December 13:49

[Watchman]

Ah, Fibaro has other diagrams which reinforces the conclusion I came to.

If you intend to retain the switches you already have - in my case I have 2 and 3-way "staircase" switches in several locations - then you should install the relay in the light fitting (or in the ceiling nearby) where you can pick up a "clean" N, like this:

[AnotherGuy]

Continuing the thread derail :

Yes Z-Wave makes quite a lot of sense when you are refurbing like I am - I have 45mm deep sockets being installed and I have a neutral at the switch making Fibaro an easy install.

I can't see the images above (as work block image sites) but yes, if you don't have a neutral at the switch you can install the module in-line at the ceiling rose. If the load is less than 50w (like in the case of LED lamps) then you would also stick in a bypass module (http://www.vesternet.com/z-wave-fibaro-dimmer-bypass-2)

The neat thing - as you have alluded to above, is that instead of needing x-number of LWRF specific light switches for a hallway, fo Z-Wave you just need 1 module and your standard light switches (well standard-ish, as momentory rocker switches are preferable)

[Watchman]

Actually, the Fibaro relay is bloody clever in that it takes advantage of the single twin&earth cable running from the ceiling rose to the first wall switch. There’s a switched input into the relay which the LWRF relay doesn’t have. The lack of a single additional cable between my ceiling rose and wall switches is what is stopping me from controlling my ceiling lights with LWRF.