Amazon Echo - no thread yet?

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a_skeleton_03

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Lanx said:
Microsoft is gonna do their home/alexa in the fall with Cortana.

I almost want one just to say Cortana, anyway buying and moving into a home a month or 2 away, my rough guess on all this new stuff is
1.google home
2.smart things hub
3.any z-wave device

yes?
Click to expand...
I use Alexa with one Echo and 4 dot's. For lights I use Philips Hue only. No switches, all bulbs. Chamberlain is my garage opener. Nest upstairs and downstairs for climate.

There are only two spots where I want a switch but haven't looked into it. One is my electric light fireplace so I can say "Alexa, Flame On" and one for the flood lights outside so I can turn them on with a voice command.
 
Omayga

Omayga

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got a question for you guys who are familiar with the Philips Hue lights

Is there a light switch that works with the hue lights to basically keep the light on so that it can still be toggled off / on with the app, but the bulb will be off? Is this what the Hue Dimmer Switches do? We are wanting to use them as a indicator for rooms being empty / full for patient care in the office, and while things seem to work great with the app, we would like to find a manual wall switch that works so when the doctor leaves the room they can just flip an extra switch and the outside indicator light will be off but can still be turned on by the app. Was messing around with a set of Hues tonight and it seems if you connect them to a socket with an actual switch (or put into a lamp or something) and manually flip the switch or turn it off the Hue app won't be able to turn it back on (which makes sense, but im looking for manual switches that will work with it and get around this)

is the Hue Dimmer Switch what I am looking for to provide a manual off but still allow the app to turn things on without having to turn it back on at the dimmer switch first?

thanks in advance
 
meStevo

meStevo

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Yes, they do what you expect they do, if I understand the question.

I have one of these, came with one of the kits I bought at some point: Philips 458141 Hue Dimmer Switch - - Amazon.com

I can use that to turn the lights off and on instead of barking at Alexa, but can also still use the app and voice commands too.

It's not like a wall outlet that shuts off power to the light which of course makes it not controllable. It's still 'on' as far as power goes when you use the Hue switches. They're simply a substitute for the app/voice commands.
 
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Omayga

Omayga

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picked up a dimmer switch today and paired it up

works exactly like you said (as expected) and completely solves that problem I had. Thanks for the quick reply, its much appreciated.
 
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meStevo

meStevo

I think your wife's a bigfoot gus.
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Yeah, a form of that deal has been around for a few days. Was going to get our 3rd Dot but it disappeared from the Alexa deals page (get another +$10 credit if we used that).

Edit: it never reappeared on the page, but tried again on our Echo and got it ordered.

Think today I'm only in for some USB-C cables and a Dot.
 
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Palum

Palum

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Be warned, apparently at some point in the transition from the old echo app to the new multi-featured 'Alexa' one, my settings got nuked and my 'auto buy' reenabled. The lady was watching TNG in the background and we started laughing because every time someone said 'Computer' in the show, it would turn on. I wanted to be lazy so I just turned the volume down on the echo instead of resetting the keyword just to watch Star Trek. Long story short somehow Captain Picard ordered a case of toothpaste which is being delivered tomorrow and I didn't even realize how it happened until I got an 'Alexa order credit' today.
 
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Borzak

Borzak

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Don't lie, you were atching porn and have 100 dildos coming.
 
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edko

edko

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a_skeleton_03 said:
I use Alexa with one Echo and 4 dot's. For lights I use Philips Hue only. No switches, all bulbs. Chamberlain is my garage opener. Nest upstairs and downstairs for climate.

There are only two spots where I want a switch but haven't looked into it. One is my electric light fireplace so I can say "Alexa, Flame On" and one for the flood lights outside so I can turn them on with a voice command.
Click to expand...

I just got the Echo and the 3 light color starter. Hooked up the hub and it's working great. This fucker is addictively fun to play with and I am so glad I wait on tech and miss out on fun shit....

Any "Must have" skills besides the Hue lights? Hooked up the Pandora and regular junk already.
 
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a_skeleton_03

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edko said:
I just got the Echo and the 3 light color starter. Hooked up the hub and it's working great. This fucker is addictively fun to play with and I am so glad I wait on tech and miss out on fun shit....

Any "Must have" skills besides the Hue lights? Hooked up the Pandora and regular junk already.
Click to expand...
I weirdly have no special skills at all.

I just do Spotify and my lights with it.
 
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Palum

Palum

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I don't think there are any skills I use that are meaningful, to be honest. They are all very awkward to use, you have to 'invoke' them and then certain commands are disallowed from 'operator overflow' - IE if you use a skill to control home automation you have to say "Computer tell abc to turn off the kitchen lights" because it has a backwards 1990s view of interface that requires special context clues to tell it to use a skill rather than just going 'gee this skill controls lights as well'.

It's kinda trashy for most use. It's definitely still years behind Google for asking questions and consistency.
 
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edko

edko

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Yeah so far pretty slim. I picked up a tide skill that will give me the highs/lows right nearby, but when I go out I need multiples so it's more of a gadget feature. So yeah, I see what you're saying.

The IFTTT stuff looks interesting so I am reading up on that.
 
Tarrant

Tarrant

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So my blue tooth speaker bit the dust (Braven) and so I've been shopping around for a new one. I have a harman kardon studio 3 that I've pretty much hijacked for work which leave me without one at all at home.

I don't need anything as big as the HK, so I was thinking about getting the Echo (the large one, not the dot)

Does anyone have one of these? Are they pretty good? Any feed back on them?

Thanks in advance.
 
McCheese

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There's a thread on the Echo in the tech forum.

I have one of these and a Google Home. Google Home is more useful for everyday stuff (news, traffic, weather, information questions, fun) but I use my Echo all the time for music (Amazon Prime). I'm no audiophile but it sounds great to me and Amazon's streaming music service is good.

I also take her jokes and tell them at the bar to impress the ladies.
 
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Tarrant

Tarrant

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If you had to choose google home (I didn't even know it was a thing till now) or an echo what would you get?

And I'll go check out that thread, thanks McCheese.
 
Tarrant

Tarrant

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So I'm looking at getting an echo but I can't ever foresee using smart lighting. My homes switches were all wired in great locations and i can turn on quicker than telling the app to do it. Is there some other unforeseeable reason I need smart lighting?
 
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