Confused! Will a Fire TV Cube comtrol bulbs?
Discussion
Afternoon all,
In the run up to last winter, I put a smart bulb in the outside light and hall lamp. I had them set up on timers from my phone, and whilst it worked alot of the time, sometimes I would get home to be greeted my darkness. I think the problem was my phone with its reliance on a signal to send the commands to the bulbs. So I've been thinking of getting and Alexa to use to control them but then came across the Fire TV Cube with Alexa. Were got one of the original Fire TV Sticks, but its gone really slow and infuriating to use so we never use it. If I get a Cube, can I get it to control the bulbs independent of my phone?
Any help would be great.
Cheers
In the run up to last winter, I put a smart bulb in the outside light and hall lamp. I had them set up on timers from my phone, and whilst it worked alot of the time, sometimes I would get home to be greeted my darkness. I think the problem was my phone with its reliance on a signal to send the commands to the bulbs. So I've been thinking of getting and Alexa to use to control them but then came across the Fire TV Cube with Alexa. Were got one of the original Fire TV Sticks, but its gone really slow and infuriating to use so we never use it. If I get a Cube, can I get it to control the bulbs independent of my phone?
Any help would be great.
Cheers
gazzarose said:
Afternoon all,
In the run up to last winter, I put a smart bulb in the outside light and hall lamp. I had them set up on timers from my phone, and whilst it worked alot of the time, sometimes I would get home to be greeted my darkness. I think the problem was my phone with its reliance on a signal to send the commands to the bulbs. So I've been thinking of getting and Alexa to use to control them but then came across the Fire TV Cube with Alexa. Were got one of the original Fire TV Sticks, but its gone really slow and infuriating to use so we never use it. If I get a Cube, can I get it to control the bulbs independent of my phone?
Any help would be great.
Cheers
I don't think so, you need a hub of some sort. Echo Plus uses Zigbee:In the run up to last winter, I put a smart bulb in the outside light and hall lamp. I had them set up on timers from my phone, and whilst it worked alot of the time, sometimes I would get home to be greeted my darkness. I think the problem was my phone with its reliance on a signal to send the commands to the bulbs. So I've been thinking of getting and Alexa to use to control them but then came across the Fire TV Cube with Alexa. Were got one of the original Fire TV Sticks, but its gone really slow and infuriating to use so we never use it. If I get a Cube, can I get it to control the bulbs independent of my phone?
Any help would be great.
Cheers
https://www.the-ambient.com/guides/zigbee-devices-...
i'd get a echo hub or something and see if routines work? best thing to do is once you have a dot see in the routies bit if alexa can see your smart bulbs and if so then it can set a routine up aka a schedule to turn your bulbs on and off at certain times.
Be careful this is a very slippery slope and you'll soon end up like me with a Zigbee dongle & a load of xiaomi & ikea smart tech all around your house turning this thing on and that thing off.
Be careful this is a very slippery slope and you'll soon end up like me with a Zigbee dongle & a load of xiaomi & ikea smart tech all around your house turning this thing on and that thing off.
Quick little update.
I threw caution to the wind and bought a Fire TV Cube last week, spurred on with us in Wales facing another lock down.
I can now confirm that it does control Smart stuff. I had to set it up via the app on my phone, but once set up it now automatically turns the hall lamp on at sunset and dims it at 8PM, and off at 11. Its also a massive improvement over my old fire stick. It 'turns on' almost instantly and loads movies so much faster than the Fire Stick.
I'm now looking at getting a an Echo for the bedroom and one for the garage so we can use them as an intercom!
I threw caution to the wind and bought a Fire TV Cube last week, spurred on with us in Wales facing another lock down.
I can now confirm that it does control Smart stuff. I had to set it up via the app on my phone, but once set up it now automatically turns the hall lamp on at sunset and dims it at 8PM, and off at 11. Its also a massive improvement over my old fire stick. It 'turns on' almost instantly and loads movies so much faster than the Fire Stick.
I'm now looking at getting a an Echo for the bedroom and one for the garage so we can use them as an intercom!
Do you have a Single Wifi Network covering the whole House?
I have a Wifi Extender to cover the other Side of the House.
Have read that the Echos will not talk to each other if on different Networks but have not tried it.
Looking at getting the new Dot with Clock Display in November.
For Music the Echo Plus is pretty good. The Dot is Ok.
We have a couple of Smart Bulbs inside.
And a couple of Sonoff Switches that sit between conventional Switch and Bulbs for Outside Lights controlled by an Alexa routine.
I have a Wifi Extender to cover the other Side of the House.
Have read that the Echos will not talk to each other if on different Networks but have not tried it.
Looking at getting the new Dot with Clock Display in November.
For Music the Echo Plus is pretty good. The Dot is Ok.
We have a couple of Smart Bulbs inside.
And a couple of Sonoff Switches that sit between conventional Switch and Bulbs for Outside Lights controlled by an Alexa routine.
imck said:
Have read that the Echos will not talk to each other if on different Networks but have not tried it.
As long as both Echos are connected to the internet they can communicate.Even works with an Alexa app on a smartphone etc
https://www.amazon.co.uk/b?ie=UTF8&node=140727...
I've got a Mesh network in the house/garage so should be fine. We don't really expect to be using them much for music, apart from radio in the garage, although maybe we'll use it when we've got it, even then it'll probably more for background music than actally sitting down and listening to.
I think I'll get the Gen3 Dot for the garage, and wait til next month to get the Gen4 with a clock for the bedroom. We've just got to keep it secret from our 4 yr old, my gran has got one and when hes over there he talks to Alexa non stop!
I think I'll get the Gen3 Dot for the garage, and wait til next month to get the Gen4 with a clock for the bedroom. We've just got to keep it secret from our 4 yr old, my gran has got one and when hes over there he talks to Alexa non stop!
sgrimshaw said:
imck said:
Have read that the Echos will not talk to each other if on different Networks but have not tried it.
As long as both Echos are connected to the internet they can communicate.Even works with an Alexa app on a smartphone etc
https://www.amazon.co.uk/b?ie=UTF8&node=140727...
Planning on getting one that won't be in range of the main Wifi.
I used Alexa on my Phone when we first got it. Playing music randomly for the Mrs at home when I was at work.
Have also used the drop in from Work from home.
Gassing Station | Computers, Gadgets & Stuff | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff