Amazon Echo

[ollie05]

Got a dot the other day. Clever bit of kit, voice recognition is spot on.

Bit that bugged me is that I wanted to try it with free Spotify, but u need premium to get it to work with the dot.

Got the 3 month unlimited prime music for 99p just to see how I get on, as I'm not spending a tenner a month just for music.

Works well together. But on top of sky, broadband and every other monthly payment, I can't be arsed with another one just to have voice activated music. Will probably just connect phone via Bluetooth, then play free Spotify, YouTube, my own music via the phone.

Ah well there may be another 99p offer at the end of this 3 months

[Zoon]

Has anyone worked out how to get the echo to play the same music as sonos?
I imagine it cannot be done.

[Cotty]

ollie05 said:

Got the 3 month unlimited prime music for 99p just to see how I get on, as I'm not spending a tenner a month just for music.

There is a ton of music on Prime that you do not need to pay extra for. However it is usually older stuff which is fine for me. Mind you I downloaded the soundtrack to the TV show Black Sails the other day and that is quite recent. Its just a case of poking around to see what is there.

[tenohfive]

tenohfive said:

Has anyone on here got a latest gen Echo and can comment on music quality? I've got a few cheapish Anker SoundCore BT speakers and that level of quality is fine - if it's less than that, not so much. The Dot just doesn't cut it and I never did get around to sussing out why it dropped BT connection (which isn't ideal anyway, so I can justify getting a full fat Echo.)

Bump...anyone with a 2nd gen Echo (or Echo Plus) able to comment on music quality?

[Cotty]

tenohfive said:

Quick heads up for British Gas customers - you can potentially get a free set of Hive controlled lights and hub:
https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/free-hive-light-b...

I don't see any down side there.

Cheers just ordered the hub and two bulbs, gratis.

[durbster]

tenohfive said:

Quick heads up for British Gas customers - you can potentially get a free set of Hive controlled lights and hub:
https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/free-hive-light-b...

I don't see any down side there.

The down side is you are a British Gas customer

[sas62]

durbster said:

tenohfive said:

Quick heads up for British Gas customers - you can potentially get a free set of Hive controlled lights and hub:
https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/free-hive-light-b...

I don't see any down side there.

The down side is you are a British Gas customer

Thanks for this. £118 hive order placed for free, based on having a BG boiler maintenance contract only.

[audi321]

Me too, thanks for the info!

[B17NNS]

tenohfive said:

Quick heads up for British Gas customers - you can potentially get a free set of Hive controlled lights and hub

Superb, thanks

[Blown2CV]

Nests are 20% off and free installation tomorrow i think... Hives are not as good I understand.

[sgrimshaw]

sas62 said:

Thanks for this. £118 hive order placed for free, based on having a BG boiler maintenance contract only.

+1 Homecare 400 customer, BG do not supply my energy

[tenohfive]

Glad it was of use.

My Hue bulbs turned up today. 5 minutes of googling and tweaking got them working with SmartThings (without the Hue Bridge, direct to the ST hub) and they're now working with the Echo Dot. That's all good. And I've got some routines/rigged them up to motion sensors quite happily.

The bane of my existance right now though is trying to fathom out why my Dot when connected to any bluetooth audio device (two speakers, and now a set of headphones for testing purposes) kicks temporarily disconnects my wifi - for other devices too, my phone gets booted off as well. I've tried switching between 2.4ghz and 5ghz on the router (VM Superhub 2.) I've seen on forums that other VM customers have had similar issues but I'm not sure if it's router related or Dot related. I'm currently on chat to Amazon but not holding my breath. If anyone has any bright ideas I'm all ears.

[B17NNS]

tenohfive said:

Glad it was of use.

My Hue bulbs turned up today. 5 minutes of googling and tweaking got them working with SmartThings (without the Hue Bridge, direct to the ST hub) and they're now working with the Echo Dot.

Do you get full Hue functionality with the SmartThings hub?

[ecsrobin]

B17NNS said:

tenohfive said:

Glad it was of use.

My Hue bulbs turned up today. 5 minutes of googling and tweaking got them working with SmartThings (without the Hue Bridge, direct to the ST hub) and they're now working with the Echo Dot.

Do you get full Hue functionality with the SmartThings hub?

No, from the smathThings forum:

“Groups, scenes, transition times, alerts, local API (that all third party Hue apps use), etc.”

It also won’t be HomeKit enabled for users of iOS.

[tenohfive]

ecsrobin said:

B17NNS said:

tenohfive said:

Glad it was of use.

My Hue bulbs turned up today. 5 minutes of googling and tweaking got them working with SmartThings (without the Hue Bridge, direct to the ST hub) and they're now working with the Echo Dot.

Do you get full Hue functionality with the SmartThings hub?

No, from the smathThings forum:

“Groups, scenes, transition times, alerts, local API (that all third party Hue apps use), etc.”

It also won’t be HomeKit enabled for users of iOS.

I don't know if that's the party line, or current, or not. The ST community seem good at workarounds.

Don't take this as gospel as I've only tested some of this - others I've put into place but not tested. And this is on basic white bulbs:

I can:
Turn on/off
Dim to any %
Trigger with sensors
And incorporate all the above into SmartApp's (i.e. landing light flashes if motion is detected, but only when in Night mode.)
Add to rooms
Add to Scenes
Control via Alexa

I don't know what full functionality looks like. But so far it's looking like I can do a lot with them.
One word of warning though - I saw some forum comments indicating that there is a risk that if set up to work without the Hue Bridge it may be irreversible i.e. you can't then plug a Hue Bridge in and expect the ST functioning bulbs to work through the bridge. (They'll still work through ST though.)

[RizzoTheRat]

Are the TP-Link HS100 smart plugs any good? They've just dropped from £25 to £20 on Amazon.

[kingston12]

RizzoTheRat said:

Are the TP-Link HS100 smart plugs any good? They've just dropped from £25 to £20 on Amazon.

Thanks for the heads-up, I have just ordered two more.

They had a really good deal on recently where you could add one to any Echo purchase for £10. I wanted to take advantage of that, but I just don't need any more Echos!

I think that the plugs are really good. I moved to them from Belkin Wemo, which I started having trouble with. These have been rock solid.

[RizzoTheRat]

I assume they operate directly from the Echo without needing a bridge of any sort?

Might have to buy a couple because manmaths, but I'm struggling to work out what I'd switch with them at the moment Light switches would probably make more sense for me.

[ecsrobin]

RizzoTheRat said:

I assume they operate directly from the Echo without needing a bridge of any sort?

Might have to buy a couple because manmaths, but I'm struggling to work out what I'd switch with them at the moment Light switches would probably make more sense for me.

I got the tp-link switch with the echo offer for £10. I’d happily of paid £25 after using it.

I have my TV, AppleTV, PS4 and phone chargers in an extension lead. Now I just say “Alexa TV on/off” and the whole setup turns on off. So simple but Very useful.

[RizzoTheRat]

Yeah, the TV/PS3/Media/Speakers plug is the main use I could think of for them.

2 of them on the way then

Amused to notice the standard price is £24.99 but a twin pack is £54.99