Amazon Echo

Author
Discussion

PixelpeepS3

8,600 posts

142 months

Tuesday 13th November 2018
quotequote all
feef said:
feef said:
I'm no audiophile, so my music setup consists of a bluetooth speaker. As I had that, I thought I'd get an Echo Dot rather than the full Echo with the speaker built in.

It generally works fine, but I do find that if I tell Alexa to "turn on the coffee machine", and activate the Wemo switch, the singular "OK" response isn't heard but all subsequent replies work well. It appears that Echo doesn't wait for the bluetooth speaker to 'wake up' if it's not done much for a while, and so the "ok" is lost.

If I preface the command with "Alexa Hello", I'll hear a " 'lo" form the speaker as it wakes up and outputs the tail end of the word, and then later commands are fine until it goes to sleep again.

Anyone know if there's a way to ensure the echo keeps the bluetooth link alive?
Found a solution to this.

Set the Echo to play "start of request" sounds (in the Alexa App, device settings - [echo] - sounds - request sounds) , that way it starts it's response with a 'bong' which is enough to wake the speaker, and then the actual response is audible.
That bloody bong!!!

got a sonos beam last weekend, alexa built in... found out you can't disable the bong on a beam #FML

feef

5,206 posts

183 months

Tuesday 13th November 2018
quotequote all
PixelpeepS3 said:
feef said:
feef said:
I'm no audiophile, so my music setup consists of a bluetooth speaker. As I had that, I thought I'd get an Echo Dot rather than the full Echo with the speaker built in.

It generally works fine, but I do find that if I tell Alexa to "turn on the coffee machine", and activate the Wemo switch, the singular "OK" response isn't heard but all subsequent replies work well. It appears that Echo doesn't wait for the bluetooth speaker to 'wake up' if it's not done much for a while, and so the "ok" is lost.

If I preface the command with "Alexa Hello", I'll hear a " 'lo" form the speaker as it wakes up and outputs the tail end of the word, and then later commands are fine until it goes to sleep again.

Anyone know if there's a way to ensure the echo keeps the bluetooth link alive?
Found a solution to this.

Set the Echo to play "start of request" sounds (in the Alexa App, device settings - [echo] - sounds - request sounds) , that way it starts it's response with a 'bong' which is enough to wake the speaker, and then the actual response is audible.
That bloody bong!!!

got a sonos beam last weekend, alexa built in... found out you can't disable the bong on a beam #FML
gah that would be annoying.

In my case, you never hear the bong, it's sent but all it does is wake the speaker, and never actually heard.

boyse7en

6,722 posts

165 months

Tuesday 13th November 2018
quotequote all
How can you get around Alexa mishearing names of bands or towns?

I wanted to listen to some throwback grunge of my youth and requested songs by Hole, what i got was music by Houle (or maybe Hule)...

Similarly if I ask for weather report for a town near where I live in Devon, it always gives me the weather for a similar-sounding town somewhere in Massachusetts. Again, not much use.

gbrown2014

220 posts

113 months

Tuesday 13th November 2018
quotequote all
Hi,

I have a Sonos beam with Alexa built in, does anyone know how to do the voice training without triggering alexa?

Every time the speaker says Alexa for the training it thinks i am talking to her normally and gets stuck in a loop


Chuffedmonkey

910 posts

106 months

Tuesday 13th November 2018
quotequote all
Does anybody know if Amazon music offers a music subscription that allows you to play music an multiple devices at the same time. I have Amazon Music that costs 7.99 but I can only play it one device at a time. Come Christmas my young one wants an Echo but ill have the same problem as I can only play music on 1 device at a time.

They do the 5 account deal for £15 but that is 5 seperate accounts and I would rather my lad didn't have his own account. I also don't mind paying the 15 quid but id like it all on 1 account. Netflix seem to offer this with the TV service.

Sixpackpert

4,558 posts

214 months

Tuesday 13th November 2018
quotequote all
gbrown2014 said:
Hi,

I have a Sonos beam with Alexa built in, does anyone know how to do the voice training without triggering alexa?

Every time the speaker says Alexa for the training it thinks i am talking to her normally and gets stuck in a loop
Not tried it yet, will have a play at the weekend and see what occurs.

Cotty

39,538 posts

284 months

Tuesday 13th November 2018
quotequote all
gbrown2014 said:
Hi,

I have a Sonos beam with Alexa built in, does anyone know how to do the voice training without triggering alexa?

Every time the speaker says Alexa for the training it thinks i am talking to her normally and gets stuck in a loop
You can change the Alexa wake word to something else, I know "computer" is one of the wake words. Do the training then switch back to Alexa as the wake word.

gbrown2014

220 posts

113 months

Tuesday 13th November 2018
quotequote all
Cotty said:
You can change the Alexa wake word to something else, I know "computer" is one of the wake words. Do the training then switch back to Alexa as the wake word.
Tried this already, voice training includes all of the trigger words so had no luck there. Sonos support don't have any clue

LeadFarmer

7,411 posts

131 months

Monday 19th November 2018
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Echo Show...

Which CCTV cameras are compatible? I assume Ring cameras, but any others?

ecsrobin

17,118 posts

165 months

Monday 19th November 2018
quotequote all
LeadFarmer said:
Echo Show...

Which CCTV cameras are compatible? I assume Ring cameras, but any others?
Chuck into amazon a few show up.

Zoon

6,701 posts

121 months

Monday 19th November 2018
quotequote all
LeadFarmer said:
Echo Show...

Which CCTV cameras are compatible? I assume Ring cameras, but any others?
Nest and Ring work on mine.

bristolracer

5,540 posts

149 months

Monday 19th November 2018
quotequote all
boyse7en said:
How can you get around Alexa mishearing names of bands or towns?

I wanted to listen to some throwback grunge of my youth and requested songs by Hole, what i got was music by Houle (or maybe Hule)...

Similarly if I ask for weather report for a town near where I live in Devon, it always gives me the weather for a similar-sounding town somewhere in Massachusetts. Again, not much use.
Alexa snooze results in the news being played
Alexa play fip radio gets me a message that she cannot find my fit bit .

PostHeads123

1,042 posts

135 months

Monday 19th November 2018
quotequote all
Mine just farts, burps and does a drum roll on command, I can also ask it to insult me ... £25 quid well spent lol sometimes it plays music to.

philv

3,936 posts

214 months

Monday 19th November 2018
quotequote all
Apparantly the echo can now stream to a speaker via bluetooth, like the dot.

Anyone know if it is possible to stream a digital stream to a bluetooth receiver/dac?
Rather than use the crapoy dac on the dot/echo?

Zoon

6,701 posts

121 months

Monday 19th November 2018
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Alexa struggles to understand "cupboard" for some reason

LosingGrip

7,817 posts

159 months

Tuesday 20th November 2018
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Just got one...

Parents have the Google one, but couldn't say no to the Echo for £55. Not sure what I want to do with it...at the moment its a very expensive alarm clock...

Skyedriver

17,849 posts

282 months

Wednesday 21st November 2018
quotequote all
As a complete novice in this, is the Echo Plus currently about £110 (inc a Hue bulb) worth the extra over the Echo at £55. Would use it for radio and don't know what else as it's totally new to me

Zoon

6,701 posts

121 months

Wednesday 21st November 2018
quotequote all
philv said:
Apparantly the echo can now stream to a speaker via bluetooth, like the dot.

Anyone know if it is possible to stream a digital stream to a bluetooth receiver/dac?
Rather than use the crapoy dac on the dot/echo?
Not sure you'd gain anything with the quality loss over bluetooth.

Abc321

453 posts

95 months

Wednesday 21st November 2018
quotequote all
LosingGrip said:
Just got one...

Parents have the Google one, but couldn't say no to the Echo for £55. Not sure what I want to do with it...at the moment its a very expensive alarm clock...
+1

Mine gets delivered today (hopefully). I'm still not 100% sure what it does apart from tell you the weather.

ecsrobin

17,118 posts

165 months

Wednesday 21st November 2018
quotequote all
Skyedriver said:
As a complete novice in this, is the Echo Plus currently about £110 (inc a Hue bulb) worth the extra over the Echo at £55. Would use it for radio and don't know what else as it's totally new to me
No far better to get an echo and a hue hub kit. The plus doesn’t offer full bulb functionality.