Amazon Echo - anyone have one?

fergie128

fergie128

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deuse said:
I can't get my Hub 2 and 3rd gen lights working as they should.
I can turn the light on\off or dim\bright ok. But the Hue scenes won't work.
Like I try "Alexa, Savanna sunset in living room" I get "sorry I can't find a device with that name" :mad:

I've factory reset everything and started again with no luck. Can anyone advise me?
Click to expand...

I must admit that I have had no problems with this. Best advice I can give is to make sure Alexa can see all the different scenes in the app. For example every scene almost acts like a new device. We have 8 bulbs in the house but it shows as about 64 different devices in the app, "Energise in Ceiling Light", "Sunset in Office" etc.

Then you should be able to tell Alexa to set one specific light or a whole room to a scene. Definitely works for us.
 

deuse

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fergie128 said:
I must admit that I have had no problems with this. Best advice I can give is to make sure Alexa can see all the different scenes in the app. For example every scene almost acts like a new device. We have 8 bulbs in the house but it shows as about 64 different devices in the app, "Energise in Ceiling Light", "Sunset in Office" etc.

Then you should be able to tell Alexa to set one specific light or a whole room to a scene. Definitely works for us.
Click to expand...



Thanks for that :)

What I tried is just using one lamp(living room). The Alexa app can see the 12 scenes but won't change the light.

I say "alexa, bright in living room" and it just goes on about there is no device with that name.
 
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Dutch777

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Having used Alexa and my Hue setup for a few months I am overall really impressed.

The Scenes can be a pain so easiest option is install IFTTT and create your own applets for scenes. so my command for a particular scene is: "echo trigger movie" and all the lounge lights dim and change colour according to that scene
 

BusError

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Mine commands all of downstairs lights. Also hooked to my faceless stereo system; I can tell her to 'turn on speakers' and the audio goes large.
Replaced all the wall siwtches with capacitive ones that have a 433mhz receiver, and I use a Broadlink bridge + Homme Assistant.

I have to say it is pretty damn cool now, even my wife loves it, and she's usually not impressed by tech...
 

OCdude

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I'm more likely to get one now they've made this update :D

"Amazon has added a new wake word to the Echo and the Echo Dot, and it’s the one that anybody who’s ever watched Star Trek wants: “Computer.” You can enable it by opening up the Alexa app on your iPhone or Android phone, then digging down into the settings to “Wake Word.” Where before you would only have seen three options: Alexa, Amazon, and Echo, you should now see a fourth and obviously the best one, Computer."

http://www.theverge.com/tldr/2017/1/23/14365338/amazon-echo-alexa-computer-wake-word-star-trek
 

leaskovski

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BusError said:
Mine commands all of downstairs lights. Also hooked to my faceless stereo system; I can tell her to 'turn on speakers' and the audio goes large.
Replaced all the wall siwtches with capacitive ones that have a 433mhz receiver, and I use a Broadlink bridge + Homme Assistant.

I have to say it is pretty damn cool now, even my wife loves it, and she's usually not impressed by tech...
Click to expand...
So do you have to strategically place the broadcom box for it to be able to see you TV and light switch?
 

Em3bbs

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leaskovski said:
So do you have to strategically place the broadcom box for it to be able to see you TV and light switch?
Click to expand...

If he has 433mhz light switches then it's radio based, not infra red (line of sight) based. The TV probably needs infra red to control it.

I'm using some old B&Q 433mhz plug switches (the ones with the little remotes) and they work well with Alexa, although I made a slightly different Broadlink setup which I think I detailed a bit more earlier in this thread.
 

BusError

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Em3bbs said:
If he has 433mhz light switches then it's radio based, not infra red (line of sight) based. The TV probably needs infra red to control it.

I'm using some old B&Q 433mhz plug switches (the ones with the little remotes) and they work well with Alexa, although I made a slightly different Broadlink setup which I think I detailed a bit more earlier in this thread.
Click to expand...

I also tried the android plugin for broadlink -- bit 1) it's paying and 2) on does /that/ while Home Assistant is 1) free 2) can do a hell of a lot more.
The Android plugin for Broadlink also just doesn't work terribly well. Also, they pillaged open source project and try to make money. I don't like that.

It's still not ideal tho, I'm almost finished with a 433 MQTT bridge system so I can get rid of the broad-link, and also receive the temperature sensor data etc straight to MQTT. I'll post to my github when it's done.

*Ideally* I'd like to remove both Broadlink and Home Assistant, but for now it does the job and was very cheap.
 

Em3bbs

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BusError said:
I also tried the android plugin for broadlink -- bit 1) it's paying and 2) on does /that/ while Home Assistant is 1) free 2) can do a hell of a lot more.
The Android plugin for Broadlink also just doesn't work terribly well. Also, they pillaged open source project and try to make money. I don't like that.
Click to expand...

I'm using this app, hosted on a Fire TV as I have one which is on all the time and the app is free, although does take a bit of working out to be fair:

http://rm-bridge.fun2code.de/

The most annoying bit was getting the Broadlink to record my remote signals via the website, it would be good if they just provided some generic 433mhz on/off signals as I don't care about the old physical remotes for these B&Q remote plugs.
 

BusError

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I wish she could start to understand composite commands soon. it's getting as bit tiresome to send multiple commands at the same time.
"alexa, turn on kitchen light"
"alexa, turn on patio light"
Wish I could do a "alexa, turn on kitchen light and patio light"!
 

The IPB

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BusError said:
I wish she could start to understand composite commands soon. it's getting as bit tiresome to send multiple commands at the same time.
"alexa, turn on kitchen light"
"alexa, turn on patio light"
Wish I could do a "alexa, turn on kitchen light and patio light"!
Click to expand...

Yeah in the same vein, having to ask for items to be added on the shopping list one at a time is very tiresome.
 
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