how smart has your home gone?

Just noticed an annoying software issue with Echo Show units where every 12s the screen can fade out to black, just to fade back in again. eg: Show time ---> 12s fade to black --> show nothing --> show time --> repeat.

I can reproduce this on a Gen 1 Show and a Show 5 and Show 8. All of these have all Home Content turned off as I just want the time shown. At times they seem to get into the above loop/issue, at other times it stops. If it's not happening, "Alexa, show home" seems to kick it off.

It's very annoying as it looks crap and grabs your attention when it shouldn't.


If you have any Home Content enabled: Time Shown --> 12s --> Fade to something (eg: weather or a tip) --> Fade back to time --> Repeat...
If you do not have any Home Content enabled: Time Shown --> 12s --> Fade to nothing --> Fade back to time --> Repeat...


Just spent 2hrs on Amazon Support reporting it...

Here's a video of the Echo Show bug:-


The issue can be reproduced at will by either:-
1) "Alexa, show home"
2) If "Adaptive Brightness" is enabled, cover the lens (eg: pretend it's night) and let the display darken. Take hand off lens so the display returns to normal.
 
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Anything happen? All OK?

Yeah all OK. In the vid he looks like he's about to do something. Sees the cam (the button lights up when detects someone) and runs.

I accidentally left door unlocked last night too!

Hopefully was just kids pranking. But you never know!
I'm certainly sold on these now!
 
Yeah all OK. In the vid he looks like he's about to do something. Sees the cam (the button lights up when detects someone) and runs.

I accidentally left door unlocked last night too!

Damn! That's good news.

I check the doors religiously each night lol. My Mrs has left one unlocked on a couple of occasions.

I do want a smart door lock eventually but yet to find one that really ticks all of the boxes.
 
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Damn! That's good news.

I check the doors religiously each night lol. My Mrs has left one unlocked on a couple of occasions.

I do want a smart door lock eventually but yet to find one that really ticks all of the boxes.

I'm just not sure if I'd trust one to lock. Like mechanical failure etc. Would I always have to 'check' anyway?
 
I have my Ajax alarm set to perimeter protection at night. Front and back door, downstairs bathroom window, garage roller door, PIR Cam along the side of the house and Dual PIR Curtain across the entire rear. If a door was accidentally unlocked or somebody tries to gain access to the side or rear of the property we are going to know about it. If they approach any of the vehicles between midnight and 6am the Driveway Camera will strobe and I will get a notification, similarly if they approach the front door I will get a notification. If they trigger the alarm, then Homeseer will run a routine to turn on all of the smart lighting internally and externally. 5 x CCTV Cameras record 24/7 and I have various Ajax PIRs with Cameras. Fortunately It hasn't had to earn its keep yet, and hopefully never will.
 
Jesus how big is your house ?
I had 18 CAT6 ports in my previous house and the guys running the cable were laughing at me asking if I was running a data centre.
Current house although bigger will likely have less ports as wifi will run most things and a single Unifi AP is running whole house wifi (in fairness haven't thorough tested outdoor coverage yet)

Also, how do you deactivate the motion sensor automatically when you are on your PC ? this sounds very useful.
When I built the house (there's a thread on here) I flooded the property with Cat 6 for future proofing. I started on the principle that each TV would need a 4-way socket behind it (2 for HD over ethernet) and 2 for data. Then I tried to cover each room in the same basic layout by having a 2-way socket on the near, middle and far end of each wall (both sides) as I wasn't entirely sure on the layout AND I ran a cable to the ceiling of each room for IR blasters.

Having a vision where all the electronic devices would be situated under the stairs and controlled remotely meant I needed a lot of options. The crazy part was, I hadn't even though about proper Wi-Fi coverage during the build. I ran it for ages off a centrally-positoned wifi router :cry:

However, to anyone thinking of doing the same (and I did this for my parents when they built) I used the spare cabling in the ceilings to have an access point close enough to each room for the signal to be epic everywhere. I actually have 3x UniFi access points internally and 1x UniFi access point on a pole by the Sky Dish for external areas.

Obviously, things have moved on since I built (as mentioned I've ditched the IR system and use the ceiling cables for wi-fi access points, I now use HDbaseT to pump 4k video over a single cat 6) and gone are the two landlines which I initially patched over the network cable (each with a possible max of 4 possible handsets) so that was a 8-way patch bay in itself that I no longer use. My bottleneck now is the 24 port switch as I've maxed that out with wired devices!



Thankfully I pulled and terminated the cables myself during the first-fix stage (during that winter in 2010 where we had a load of snow), so I pretty much had time to do things how I wanted and I didn't have anyone else to judge... except the electrician that questioned which I wanted a 32A supply under the stairs :D.

This is the script/automation that I've sent up in the Apple Home app. It's a simple if statement that exits the shortcut if the "PC" (a philips smart plug I called PC) is turned on. I trigger the smart plug by scanning a NFC tag that I've attached to the edge of the desk near the PC, so that when I sit down (and scan) the motion detection is turned off. Unfortunately, the iOS shortcuts app can't use power draw as a variable as I initially looked in to seeing if I could trigger the automation based on the power draw of the plug, but no dice.

 
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So many patch panels for so few cables :p

I assume most of the empty ports are connected at the back for spare/redundant runs?
Everything in the rack is hard wired so much of it doesn’t need to be patched to a particular room.

For instance, the following items exist in the rack and are directly wired to the switch:

Fibre modem
Router (w feeds for 4x access points)
4x raspberry pi
Hue light bridge
PS4
Blu-ray player
Apple TV
AV receiver
Intel NUC Plex server
NAS

The rest of the patch ports go to the different rooms in the house with the exception of the top 16 (8 are for access points, 8 are for telephone extensions). The other bigger panels are broken up by floor e.g Top 48 are for upstairs, the bottom 48 are for the downstairs.

I think the only devices not hardwired is my tv (doesn’t have an Ethernet port) and a printer which I’ve moved to the utility room as my arcade machine is occupying the space it took in the living room :p
 
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Because I had to structure cable my house after we moved in, it was 10 years old and 3 storeys, it wasnt possible to get all of my patch RJ45 sockets cabled back to my main patch panel so I have a pair of Cat 6 cables that run to the top floor, where my cinema room is These are connected to a 16 Port switch that is LAG'd to my main 24 port switch in Node 0 (I wish I had pulled fibre in hindsight). My node 0 has a 48 port patch panel feeding a 24 port switch - I included a lot of redundancy in my wiring, but sadly not enough in the right places. I only fed my office with 6 network sockets, which was way too few, so that now has a local 8 port switch and I only fed my kitchen with 2 network sockets so that also has an 8 port switch. My main 24 port switch is full and now needs a second switch. Currently my house has over 2km of Cat6 and I probably need to add another 300m, but that is a major job for another day. My point is no matter how much structured cable you have its never enough. I also have 50+ devices hanging off 4 Ubiquiti APs as well as ZWave and Zigbee networks. Smart hones can get buy quickly.
 
Here's a video of the Echo Show bug:-


The issue can be reproduced at will by either:-
1) "Alexa, show home"
2) If "Adaptive Brightness" is enabled, cover the lens (eg: pretend it's night) and let the display darken. Take hand off lens so the display returns to normal.
Are any other Echo Show owners able to reproduce this (ugly/pointless fade out/in) issue?
 
can anyone reccomend a smart switch that works with a phillips hue bulb to control the light on my landing.

i want to have a light come on to act as a night light but do it regardless of the state of switches at the top or bottom of the stairs.
 
can anyone reccomend a smart switch that works with a phillips hue bulb to control the light on my landing.

i want to have a light come on to act as a night light but do it regardless of the state of switches at the top or bottom of the stairs.

Need more details.

If you use something like Home Assistant, then this would be easy. If you've only got Hue, then you'd need a switch that you can integrate with the hue bridge - again assuming you have a bridge and not just BT bulbs.
 
Need more details.

If you use something like Home Assistant, then this would be easy. If you've only got Hue, then you'd need a switch that you can integrate with the hue bridge - again assuming you have a bridge and not just BT bulbs.

i have alexa devices and a hue bridge.

currently use the hue app to turn on a few lights in the evenings, was hoping to do the same but not have to worry about having to switch the landing light on then turn it off with the hue app to run the automation later in the evening.
 
can anyone reccomend a smart switch that works with a phillips hue bulb to control the light on my landing.

i want to have a light come on to act as a night light but do it regardless of the state of switches at the top or bottom of the stairs.

Yes, Signify (Philips) actually do their own smart module to use with their bulbs. Have a look at their pages.
 
can anyone reccomend a smart switch that works with a phillips hue bulb to control the light on my landing.

i want to have a light come on to act as a night light but do it regardless of the state of switches at the top or bottom of the stairs.
Hue's v2 dimmer switch is now the right size to screw directly into/over a regular light switch socket.
 
stil looks like an American size plate ? 125x80
https://www.philips-hue.com/en-gb/p/hue-dimmer-switch--latest-model-/8719514274617#overview
am i looking at wrong thing.
No that's the V2 one. The V1 version (which had different symbols for the on and off buttons) was narrower and couldn't cover a UK light switch box. The new V2 one (which you've linked to) is a tad wider, and just wide enough to properly cover and screw into a tradition Uk light box socket.

This means you can wire the light circuit on, so the Hue bulbs are always on/powered, and then screw the V2 dimmer switch over the light switch socket.

I've does just this for an old light switch in one room. And to a new light switch for some exterior spot lights (with the electrician hard wiring it at the light switch box itself behind the V2 dimmer switch and putting an isolator switch hidden away for it too). So both use the V2 dimmer screwed in/over a UK light swtich.

In another part of the house where I wanted more tradition rotary dimmers for Hue bulbs I've put this:-

F90T2o1.jpeg

Details here - https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/posts/34714249

NOTE: Ensure the power is FULLY OFF to the light switch before hard wiring it on.
 
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