Amazon Echo

[Jinx]

Jonnny said:

Do people find, when talking to others about Echo/Smart stuff - people are either a big fan, or people think it's pointless and lazy?

There seems to be no inbetween

Laziness is the father of invention.......

[Blown2CV]

Jonnny said:

Do people find, when talking to others about Echo/Smart stuff - people are either a big fan, or people think it's pointless and lazy?

There seems to be no inbetween

you are forgetting a group of people who don't have one because they don't trust how their data is being used.

[juice]

Blown2CV said:

you are forgetting a group of people who don't have one because they don't trust how their data is being used.

They know I turn my lights on and off.....a lot, cos it's fun !

[PixelpeepS3]

Cotty said:

juice said:

Next, our driveway is dark. So next on the list is to sort this out. Going to look into the Lightwave RF stuff as I read it links to Alexa easily. Being able to switch the driveway lights on by command will be fantastic !

Of use a motion sensor, not sure of the Philips one can be used outside though.

lightwave also do a motion sensor which can be grouped with multiple/single items.

personally, i'd prefer to have both motion and a manual override for external lighting.

[PixelpeepS3]

Jinx said:

Jonnny said:

Do people find, when talking to others about Echo/Smart stuff - people are either a big fan, or people think it's pointless and lazy?

There seems to be no inbetween

Laziness is the father of invention.......

Mrs Peep regularly comes to bed (after sitting with her feet in the ice bucket for several minutes..) forgetting to turn various lights off - living in a bungalow, any lighting left on can be seen so being able to mumble 'alexa, lights off' is a godsend.

(lights off is a routine which turns every smart light in the house off, along with a sarcastic "did she forget to the turn lights out again" comment from alexa chucked into the mix)

[anonymous-user]

Echo dots in

Lounge
Bathroom (Sonos Play) - music - obvs!
Kitchen - great for cooking timers
Workshop (seperate building) - Alexa, play radio 6 music, as I walk in each morning

Controls:

Samsung Smartthings
Which controls
- whole house lighting - everything, kitchen units, the lot (Alexa, bed time, alexa turn on ounge lights, alexa, turn off computer light, alexa, set wall lights to 20% , etc etc)
- Flood sensors - have internal heating overflow tank
- Motion sensors (motion activates kitchen lighting), motion in mail shed tells me when parcels have been delivered/ collected - push notification (and voice notification over my sonos'es - lounge, workshop, kitchen bathroom)
- Temp sensors - aquarium - with alerts and power overrides to heaters
- Power sockets - one example - if I leave my soldering station on for more than 2 hours, it gets turned off by a smartthings rule.

Hive - I can say, "Alexa, set thermostat to 20", and the heating comes on.

Logitech Harminy Elite - fully automated home cinema, and I can control it all through Alexa, though in the main it's "Alexa , turn on BBC1", or, "Alexa, turn on Amp Sonos, play radio 2 in the lounge".

I've run out of things to automate :-)

Amazon dots at £20 a pop are just superb, and on top of it all, my Mrs can call me through the "Drop in" feature to see if I need another coffee in the workshop :-)

[K50 DEL]

evoivboy said:

Black Friday, down to £54.99
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Amazon-Echo-2nd-Generatio...

In a moment of madness I bought one of these.....
It's now sat in my kitchen and apart from listening to a US based radio station for 5 minutes has done nothing else.

What do people actually use these things for?

[Sixpackpert]

K50 DEL said:

In a moment of madness I bought one of these.....
It's now sat in my kitchen and apart from listening to a US based radio station for 5 minutes has done nothing else.

What do people actually use these things for?

Reminders, timers, shopping lists, games, control lights/heating etc etc.

Download the app and enable a skill for your chosen radio station such as Absolute, Heart, Kiss etc then you can listen to UK stations.

[Watchman]

RogerDodger said:

Echo dots in

Lounge
Bathroom (Sonos Play) - music - obvs!
Kitchen - great for cooking timers
Workshop (seperate building) - Alexa, play radio 6 music, as I walk in each morning

Controls:

Samsung Smartthings
Which controls
- whole house lighting - everything, kitchen units, the lot (Alexa, bed time, alexa turn on ounge lights, alexa, turn off computer light, alexa, set wall lights to 20% , etc etc)
- Flood sensors - have internal heating overflow tank
- Motion sensors (motion activates kitchen lighting), motion in mail shed tells me when parcels have been delivered/ collected - push notification (and voice notification over my sonos'es - lounge, workshop, kitchen bathroom)
- Temp sensors - aquarium - with alerts and power overrides to heaters
- Power sockets - one example - if I leave my soldering station on for more than 2 hours, it gets turned off by a smartthings rule.

Hive - I can say, "Alexa, set thermostat to 20", and the heating comes on.

Logitech Harminy Elite - fully automated home cinema, and I can control it all through Alexa, though in the main it's "Alexa , turn on BBC1", or, "Alexa, turn on Amp Sonos, play radio 2 in the lounge".

I've run out of things to automate :-)

Amazon dots at £20 a pop are just superb, and on top of it all, my Mrs can call me through the "Drop in" feature to see if I need another coffee in the workshop :-)

Damn, I never thought to put one in the workshop. I have a spare (bought too many at £20 a pop) so that's where it can go. It will also provide me with better music options than the Google CCA. Great idea. Thanks.

My workshop is dusty on occasion. Have you protected yours in any way? I think I'd like to.

[anonymous-user]

Dusty in mine too. Never worried about it. Also have sonos amplified unit with 4 x QAcoustics speakers .

Mine is linked took my sonos with RCA leads so I get the full features through amplified speakers :-) (sonos can be set to switch to Phono in automatically when it sees a signal).

[mattyn1]

Having just rashly bought some novostella smart bulbs and Tekwin plug adapters I now see the wisdom in having more than one dot about the house.

Question raised by my wife - does only the nearest dot respond to voice commands? I assume the answer is yes as many have these in kids bedrooms etc, but wanted to make sure. Ta.

BTW - the bulbs and adapters are awesome - tricky to set up to be fair but even for a tech luddite like me, as long as you can follow a process it is ok.

Both work with Smart Life app which is also surprisingly simple to use.

Mrs now wants the whole house done including the kitchen light. Now that being a standard kitchen strip light, I guess I need to fit a suitable switch. Those I have seen seem to be screwless - will they easily fit a standard one gang one way light switch recess?

[tenohfive]

mattyn1 said:

Question raised by my wife - does only the nearest dot respond to voice commands? I assume the answer is yes as many have these in kids bedrooms etc, but wanted to make sure. Ta.

Yes.
It's only really a bit messy when you're in earshot of both, both hear the wake word but only one heard what you say - then you get "Okay," in one ear, and, "I'm sorry, I couldn't understand that," in the distance.

[Jonnny]

RogerDodger said:

Samsung Smartthings
Which controls
- whole house lighting - everything, kitchen units, the lot (Alexa, bed time, alexa turn on ounge lights, alexa, turn off computer light, alexa, set wall lights to 20% , etc etc)
- Flood sensors - have internal heating overflow tank
- Motion sensors (motion activates kitchen lighting), motion in mail shed tells me when parcels have been delivered/ collected - push notification (and voice notification over my sonos'es - lounge, workshop, kitchen bathroom)

Motion Sensors.. Do you use these for lighting, rather than telling Alexa to turn on the kitchen lights when you go there, the sensors pick you up and turn them on?

What lighting does Samsung Smartthings work with?

[mattyn1]

tenohfive said:

mattyn1 said:

Question raised by my wife - does only the nearest dot respond to voice commands? I assume the answer is yes as many have these in kids bedrooms etc, but wanted to make sure. Ta.

Yes.
It's only really a bit messy when you're in earshot of both, both hear the wake word but only one heard what you say - then you get "Okay," in one ear, and, "I'm sorry, I couldn't understand that," in the distance.

Terrific - thanks

[samsock]

The last time I tried a smart plug hub (I think it was energenie) it was very frustrating to use due to random reaction times ranging from 5s to 15s. Is this the same for hue etc? Whats the best hub for Alexa nowdays?

[PixelpeepS3]

samsock said:

The last time I tried a smart plug hub (I think it was energenie) it was very frustrating to use due to random reaction times ranging from 5s to 15s. Is this the same for hue etc? Whats the best hub for Alexa nowdays?

I use these cheap smart plugs from amazon - they're like £9 each and they work without a hub - seem fine to me - you can also set some pretty funky conditions with their own app... ie, if the air pressure ougtside drops / raises above x, turn Y switch on etc...

[samsock]

PixelpeepS3 said:

I use these cheap smart plugs from amazon - they're like £9 each and they work without a hub - seem fine to me - you can also set some pretty funky conditions with their own app... ie, if the air pressure ougtside drops / raises above x, turn Y switch on etc...

Which ones please?

[mattyn1]

I have just bought Teckin adapters - work brilliantly! Me and my smart home are definitely in the honeymoon phase!!

These: https://www.amazon.co.uk/TECKIN-Monitoring-Functio...

[samsock]

mattyn1 said:

I have just bought Teckin adapters - work brilliantly! Me and my smart home are definitely in the honeymoon phase!!

These: https://www.amazon.co.uk/TECKIN-Monitoring-Functio...

Can I ask what the response time range is on these? Just want to make sure I'm not duplicating myself as the last lot I had were tosh

[JohnWest]

I have a Spot en route (freebie for switching bank account), Hive heating being installed tomorrow and a Dot coming early January (bought in the Amazon Black Friday event). This is my first foray into creating a Smart Home and can see many benefits of these devices, voice control is a nice touch but I''m aiming for automation. As an earlier poster mentioned, lights coming on before you realise you need them on is a nice touch.

My question, possible not really Echo related (but automated Smart Home related) is: if I have a Hive motion sensor and a Hive bulb, do I need a Hive hub to be able to connect the sensor and bulb to allow the light to come on between set periods of the day? Or is there a more intelligent system that recognises dawn/dusk so that through the year I don't have to adjust these periods?

Thanks.