ekz
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Post by ekz on May 18, 2022 2:38:39 GMT
I just got an echo dot, where can I go from here? I got it mainly for the clock/speaker but I'd be interested in learning more about setting up a house-wide system with more. [br There's so much you can do the possibilities are almost endless, but a simple way to start is by adding a light bulb and or plugs to devices. Really you need to think about what you want to achieve longer term. i.e. save money by bring more energy efficient? save time by automating aspects of your daily routine? improve security? cool pointless stuff? Then gradually buy smart tech in sales to build up your eco system. To give an idea, my favourite automation is that all my lights turn off, and unnecessary appliances get powered down and the burglar alarm is armed when I say 'Alexa, goodnight'. Need a fair amount of extra smart kit to get to that stage mind you. Honestly mostly just dumb, pointless, fun shit. My current idea after reading some stuff online is to have another Alexa speaker underneath the pool table connected to smart led strips, and then also run them through the garage and out over the deck for barbecues etc. Re: stuff inside the house, I've been looking at the smart power plugs and light bulbs to do similar things to what you've done but the price gets really high, really quickly. I'd also need additional alexas etc too. Think gradually buying bits and pieces on sale will definitely be the way to go, after deciding on what it is exactly I'd like to do. Thanks for the reply btw. |
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malek86
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Post by malek86 on Nov 22, 2022 9:18:46 GMT
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Bongo Heracles
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Post by Bongo Heracles on Nov 22, 2022 9:35:49 GMT
I suppose its a bit like twitter. A decent idea thats hard to monetise. They sold at cost/a loss because they intended them to remove an engagement barrier and drive further sales but all people use them for is turning the lights on and listening to radio 2.
I imagine as a voice protocol, it will endure in some capacity but we have probably seen the end of cheap amazon devices.
They also didnt help themselves by being shit outside america. They lack so many functions over here.
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malek86
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Post by malek86 on Nov 22, 2022 9:45:49 GMT
Tbf, even if mine had lots of functions, chances are I'd still only use it for music and my bed light. I lack the imagination to do more than that. And to be entirely honest, even the bed light is just a caprice of mine. Sometimes I think I'd be better off just raising my damn arm thirty centimeters to reach the switch.
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Bongo Heracles
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Post by Bongo Heracles on Nov 22, 2022 9:58:56 GMT
I have a few routines for groups of things, mainly energy saving, but some of them are gimped by non-US functionality.
Like, for example, a smart bulb. I would like to be able to set it to turn on and gradually get brighter in the morning as part of an alarm routine. You can do that in the US. In the UK, you cant and have to create a hundred steps to make the bulb become a percent increment brighter every minute.
But, yeah, I dont think its lack of imagination particularly, its lack of needing to solve a problem you dont have. If you can shout 'alexa, play radio 6', 'Alexa, time 20 minutes' and 'Alexa, turn the lights off' at it, what more do you need?
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crashV👀d👀
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Post by crashV👀d👀 on Nov 22, 2022 11:00:08 GMT
There is also no fucking way I'm allowing purchases over it, ever!
The amount of wierd crap I can imagine turning up at our door is just to much
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malek86
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Post by malek86 on Nov 22, 2022 11:21:56 GMT
There is also no fucking way I'm allowing purchases over it, ever! The amount of wierd crap I can imagine turning up at our door is just to much Besides, it's not like it would benefit them any. You'd still buy stuff the regular way. It's not like anybody would ever say "mmmh, I want to buy something, but I feel too lazy to get the phone now... might as well give up then... oh wait! I know! Let's use Alexa instead! Man, that totally saved my purchase decision!". Maybe it would be interesting to drive sales of audiobooks, but that's a pretty niche market, I feel. And nobody would pay an extra to have news or weather dictated by Alexa. They'll only ask as long as it's free. So yeah, this stuff is kinda cool, but not something you can easily make a profit off unless you are selling the device itself at a profit (and even then, I don't know how expensive it is to run the whole infrastructure). |
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Post by brokenkey on Nov 22, 2022 11:25:52 GMT
I think it's more when you discover you're out of cornflakes, you were supposed to say order me some cornflakes.
I read an article yesterday suggesting the Alexa division at Amazon was on its knees because it was losing so much money.
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Bongo Heracles
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Post by Bongo Heracles on Nov 22, 2022 11:49:44 GMT
I had a 'why are there never any fucking teaspoons?' incident and asked alexa to order me some. The amazon choice for that day seems to have been a pack of 24x so now, yeah, we have plenty.
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malek86
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Post by malek86 on Nov 22, 2022 12:40:44 GMT
I think it's more when you discover you're out of cornflakes, you were supposed to say order me some cornflakes. I read an article yesterday suggesting the Alexa division at Amazon was on its knees because it was losing so much money. Perhaps, but now that everyone has their phone with them all the time, you'd just grab that, go on Amazon, and order some cornflakes. Don't think it's something that would somehow drive up even impulse purchases. |
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Post by Dougs on Nov 22, 2022 13:00:29 GMT
I have a few routines for groups of things, mainly energy saving, but some of them are gimped by non-US functionality. Like, for example, a smart bulb. I would like to be able to set it to turn on and gradually get brighter in the morning as part of an alarm routine. You can do that in the US. In the UK, you cant and have to create a hundred steps to make the bulb become a percent increment brighter every minute. But, yeah, I dont think its lack of imagination particularly, its lack of needing to solve a problem you dont have. If you can shout 'alexa, play radio 6', 'Alexa, time 20 minutes' and 'Alexa, turn the lights off' at it, what more do you need? I bought a smart plug with the intention of setting a routine for when it was on/off, mostly for the heated dryer which I kept forgetting to turn off and would often be on for 24hrs+. I couldn't find a way to make it work, most likely my fault, so gave up and just set an alert instead. The voice recognition on the speakers is also shit. Fine if you want a genre of music or something broad but useless for specifics. |
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Post by Dougs on Nov 22, 2022 13:01:30 GMT
I think it's more when you discover you're out of cornflakes, you were supposed to say order me some cornflakes. I read an article yesterday suggesting the Alexa division at Amazon was on its knees because it was losing so much money. Perhaps, but now that everyone has their phone with them all the time, you'd just grab that, go on Amazon, and order some cornflakes. Don't think it's something that would somehow drive up even impulse purchases. Ideally want you want us it linked to your supermarket favourite list or something. So you'd ask Alexa to add Cornflakes to your shopping list and it would automatically be part of your weekly shop. |
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mrpon
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Post by mrpon on Nov 22, 2022 13:23:14 GMT
I use the Google Hub in my kitchen to sync up with Google Notes for my shopping list. Y'know, hands covered in flour etc..
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Bongo Heracles
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Post by Bongo Heracles on Nov 22, 2022 13:26:29 GMT
I bought a smart plug with the intention of setting a routine for when it was on/off, mostly for the heated dryer which I kept forgetting to turn off and would often be on for 24hrs+. I couldn't find a way to make it work, most likely my fault, so gave up and just set an alert instead. This is the problem with smart bulbs and a few other things. You are giving control of it fully to the app so, while a smart bulb seems great, when you leave a room you have to use the app or tell it to turn off rather than just flicking the switch. |
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Post by stixxuk on Nov 22, 2022 14:26:22 GMT
I find smart bulbs work really well for lamps in slightly inconvenient places. e.g. I have 2 lamps in opposite corners of my lounge.
Also you can get smart switches so you can use voice or switch, but it's another device (and expense) to consider.
edit: I also have one in my hallway, where I just use the switch - but the advantage of the smart bulb is I can adjust the brightness and warmth.
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malek86
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Post by malek86 on Nov 22, 2022 14:42:10 GMT
I know you can get some smart switches, but they are relatively expensive (at that point you might as well take the hit and forget to turn off your clothes dryer once per month?), and the last time I looked, it seemed like they would only work with some specific wiring. A bit too much of a mess.
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mrpon
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Post by mrpon on Nov 22, 2022 15:07:50 GMT
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Post by Destria on Nov 22, 2022 15:23:46 GMT
I've got a lot of these installed: www.vesternet.com/products/z-wave-fibaro-universal-dimmer-2-250w. These have the advantage that you can use your existing switches, as well as an app/smart speaker. Quite fiddly to fit...You can install them behind the switches (needs either a deepish back-box, or a little spacer to make the switch stick out further, or in the ceiling rose. They usually work without having any special wiring in the switch (a "two-wire" solution), but this does need to have a minimum load, which can be a problem with LEDs (though you can get around that by putting a little "bypass" in the ceiling rose). In the ceiling rose they usually work fine with anything, but that usually is harder to fit due to space. They also usually need a special hub to connect them to Google/Alexa and such. So convenient once in, but fiddly to set up. |
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Post by muddyfunster on Nov 22, 2022 20:27:20 GMT
We use our echos a lot for lights, but also got shopping lists, timers, reminders, video doorbell, announcements and as an intercom.
Admittedly I'm pretty big on smart home stuff so have gone the extra mile and got Home Assistant set up.
You can use Text to Speech to get custom notifications and announcements which are quite powerful. An example: when I run the 'goodnight' echo routine that turns lights off and sets the alarm, I added a check that looks at current power usage in the house and checks if it is higher than 'normal'. If it is then Alexa says 'power is higher than usual, have you left something on?'. Stops us wasting electricity.
Also regarding lights off, there are ways to do presence sensing. I only bother with this is in the kitchen as we often pop in and out. I've linked my ring alarm motion sensor to home assistant. If the sensor hasn't seen motion for 15mins, lights off.
Lastly we also have Philips hue dimmer switches in a lot of rooms. If you get the Iyoki or Samotech hue dimmer switch covers off Amazon you can leave your existing wiring alone, in case your ZigBee network goes down and you need the old school switch. These just fit neatly over the top.
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ozthegweat
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Post by ozthegweat on Nov 25, 2022 20:14:40 GMT
We have quite a few home automations (Apple HomeKit, Philips Hue, HomeBridge) going on in our flat with combined kitchen, dining and living space: - We have heat recovery ventilation, but if left running 24/7 during the winter months, we'd have extremely dry air. With a Hue plug, the system is automatically turned on around bedtime and off in the morning, plus intermittently during the day, for a total of 12 hours per day.
- There are motion sensors in the entrance hallway (no need to turn on the light when coming home in the dark) and in the kitchen, that turn off the lights after 5 minutes of inactivity.
- Another automation is for our open-plan living area, where the lights turn on 1 hour before sunset if someone is home (i. e. if one of our iPhones is home).
- Although the TV supports HomeKit, I use it with Homebridge (running on a Synology NAS), as it offers more option for automations. This way, I can switch inputs with HomeKit scenes. With these, I have eliminated the need for the TV remote, as the Apple TV's remote is able to change the volume of the Sonos Arc (connected via eARC to the TV), and the connected devices can turn the TV on and off.
- We have a HomePod mini positioned in the middle of the living area, so we can bark commands at it: "Switch to Xbox/PlayStation/Apple TV" (the above-mentioned TV inputs), "Good night" (turns off the TV and the lights in the living area, turns on the lights in the bedroom), "Vacuum the kitchen/entrance/bedroom/etc." (iOS Shortcuts with the Roborock app).
- We also have a room sensor that reports temperature and humidity, and I planned to let our air humidifier run when humidity dropped below a certain level. Turns out that I needed to let it round permanently anyway, and that HomeKit didn't support automations based on sensors like humidity or temperature. But this is possible since iOS 16 I believe.
We recently moved the Roborock from the open living space to another room, now I'm planning to get a door sensor and extend the Shortcuts so it checks first if the door is closed before running the Shortcut.
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Post by gammonbanter on Nov 27, 2022 20:15:29 GMT
I've got all this bollocks but the thing it is best for is summoning radio 4 to play when you're in the kitchen.
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crashV👀d👀
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Post by crashV👀d👀 on Nov 27, 2022 21:23:17 GMT
Finally bought a ... smartplug!
Alexa turn on tall Lamp. It's actually quite convenient so I'm gonna buy some more and use one for the heater in my office.
Parents have bought us some blink security gear (doorbell, camera and wallplug mount for the sync-hub).
I've held off for a while as I could never decide on one but brother in law has this and it works great and stores stuff locally
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ozthegweat
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Post by ozthegweat on Nov 27, 2022 22:14:31 GMT
For anyone buying new stuff, right now there's a big shift towards Matter/Thread, so I would encourage everyone to only buy devices that support it. And HomeKit will get a completely new architecture with iOS 16.2 coming next month. Exciting* times!
*nerd alert, I know
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Post by muddyfunster on Nov 27, 2022 22:21:24 GMT
One of the best uses for a smart plug will rear its head any day now: fairy lights.
Not having to reach round the back of the sofa/ behind the TV cabinet/under the tree is a thing of great beauty.
Alexa, Christmas lights OFF!
Three sets of the buggers off in 2 secs rather than 2 mins.
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Post by gamingdave on Nov 28, 2022 14:16:01 GMT
I have hue bulbs in a few rooms, but mainly only use them in the lounge where I have a few scenes depending on what we are doing: full brightness soft white for when needed, softer again (heading to orange) light for most of the evening, only the front lights (hidden behind speakers) for when watching TV/gaming, off for films.
Using a Harmony remote, they are synced to certain activities but I can also manually select between them with dedicated buttons.
Have a Google speaker in the kitchen, but it only ever really get's used for Spotify.
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crashV👀d👀
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Post by crashV👀d👀 on Nov 28, 2022 15:07:03 GMT
Anybody recommend any light switches?
We have GU10 LED spotlights in living room so don't fancy replacing each with a smart bulb.
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Post by muddyfunster on Nov 28, 2022 17:14:25 GMT
ZigBee or WiFi and how do you want to control them?
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crashV👀d👀
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Post by crashV👀d👀 on Nov 28, 2022 18:40:15 GMT
WiFi I think but I could be convinced otherwise. Want to use alexa primarily but fall back to app or still retain manual control via faceplate
If it ends up being good I might want to expand out to other switches (1,2 & 3 gang).
Anybody got a movement sensey one?
I seen a few on Amazon but a lot of random Chinese names. Also need to whip off my current faceplate and see if I have neutral or not
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Post by muddyfunster on Nov 28, 2022 21:30:49 GMT
WiFi is mostly fine if you have a decent home network.
People tend to choose ZigBee because its a proper mesh network that comes into it's own once you have devices in each room. Also it's much lower power than WiFi so anything that uses batteries lasts longer. Lastly it's more secure as ZigBee devices don't have direct access to internet. Although you can make WiFi as secure by having a separate IoT SSID, but that's effort.
You generally want devices that can operate totally locally so that if the manufacturer switches off their servers your device doesn't stop working.
If you have a Echo Gen 4 (I think) they have ZigBee Router functionality built in. Otherwise you may need to buy one if you fancy ZigBee.
WiFi wise Shelly are meant to be good. Haven't got any myself though.
ZigBee I like Aqara as good balance of being well made but fairly cheap and theoretically will support Matter at some point
Both are capable of totally local operation of you ever need to.
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Post by muddyfunster on Nov 28, 2022 21:47:30 GMT
Also a recommendation for smart plugs with energy monitoring: www.mylocalbytes.com/products/smart-plug-pmThese are preflashed with Tasmota which is a fully local and open source protocol. I use them with home assistant but there are ways to add direct to Alexa I think. Think there are also android apps if you prefer. I'd prefer ZigBee but these are less than half the price and work very reliably. |
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