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Tim McDermott

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Everything posted by Tim McDermott

  1. Tim McDermott
    Thanks for the replies, guys. Sorry for my apparent duplicate posts, but I somehow lost track of the first and therefore reposted. Cheers, Tim
  2. Tim McDermott
    With regards to the "Unlock" command in the custom skill, should one disable the custom skill, or if it were to go away, is there existing or are there plans for a PIN-constrained Unlock command? Thanks, Tim
  3. Tim McDermott
    I frequently use the unlock command as my circumstances are not compromised with it, however, with the prospect of it going away, I must ask: is there currently, or are there plans for an unlock command whose prompt would include a PIN or the like? I
  4. Tim McDermott
    Benoit, What is driving my questions is actually my concern for the fate of the ISY custom skill. Is it, and its (admittedly few) unique commands slated to go away?
  5. Tim McDermott
    Benoit, Thanks for the response regarding the (new?) lock status query. Less specifically, can you speak to the future of the "Status" command in the skill. Will it be going away and will there be an equivalent replacement? I find it useful to check up on important automations without having to resort to a GUI.
  6. Tim McDermott
    I make frequent use of the "status" command as in "Alexa,ask ISY for status of front door." I get the reassuring response "Front door is locked." Are anticipated changes going to prevent this exchange?
  7. Tim McDermott
    I have a couple of these: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Jabra-Solemate-Mini-Portable-Wireless-Bluetooth-Speaker-Blue-Sealed-NEW-/371595583040?hash=item5684d29e40:g:PfIAAOSw8RJXB~t5 One of which I use with my Dot. The are well rated, with a lot of bang for the buck.They have both Bluetooth and a line-in with a storable cable. They originally sold at Best Buys for $200; I got a NIB for $40.
  8. Tim McDermott
    I, too rely upon the ISY skill without problem for my Schlage lockset. The only downside, of course is having to invoke "IZZY."
  9. Tim McDermott
    I, too have noticed a bunch of oddly named devices in my lineup. I also deleted them and they have not yet returned. I had thought at first that they were misinterpretations of verbal commands, but upon further consideration, I realized that shouldn't have created additional devices. I, too would be interested in knowing where they came from and how to prevent them from recurring.
  10. Tim McDermott
    UDI really needs to remove references to spokens with regards to the notes field. This has continued to cause confusion for some time now.
  11. Tim McDermott
    I'm not sure if this is related to your issue, but I've been having alarm problems. In speaking with Echo Support (remarkably prompt callback), they tell me that they have problems with times and dates with daylight savings time change approaching. Specifically, when I set alarms,, the verbal confirmation reflects my request, but when subsequently requesting status of alarms, the time of the alarm reported is an hour earlier. Although it makes no sense to me that there are problems this far out from DLST change, I was assured that this was a perennial problem they have yet to resolve, but that the alarm would actually occur at the originally requested time. Go figure.
  12. Tim McDermott
    Given it's out-of-stock status and prices of up to $300 (!?!) on eBay, my thoughts on buying Dots speculatively seem particularly prescient. But that I had acted upon them. Mind you, I don't know why someone would forgo the better value of an Echo for considerably less cost unless they were particularly invested in the smaller form factor or line-out.
  13. Tim McDermott
    In theory I don't see a problem, but I do anticipate you will have issues with signal attenuation and impedance as you increase the number of devices you connect in parallel. Perhaps someone here can propose a circuit or device to overcome these issues.
  14. Tim McDermott
    The Echandelier reminds me of a previous thought of ceiling-mounting a Dot. I would think a Dot would work nicely mounted to a 4" round blanking plate over a standard round junction box containing the power supply. Has anyone tried this yet? I will probably give it a shot when my remodeling commences.
  15. Tim McDermott
    I, too have noticed background noise via the line output of the Dot. I'd imagine this is exacerbated by the Dot's relatively low gain. I do find it annoying, but as an audiophile accustomed to a finely tuned SACD playback system I don't expect much anyway when the source is a streaming service served wirelessly.
  16. Tim McDermott
    The prices they are asking for these accessories are simply ridiculous,but I guess if you need one you're going to pay.
  17. Tim McDermott
    I don't know whether this has been discussed elsewhere in the forums, but I have to wonder if or when Amazon will voice-enable the Alexa app. It seems like a no-brainer to me. I don't know how many times away from home I've almost uttered Alexa's name, especially in the car. Has anyone heard of any such plans? Does anyone wish to speculate as to whether or when this might come to pass or why it might not? I'm sure I'm just one of many who have already requested this of Amazon, but more is probably merrier.
  18. Tim McDermott
    Ditto, now. It seems kind of expensive for Amazon to let the ship date slip while honoring the original delivery date. Perhaps they consider the expense an investment in customer satisfaction.
  19. Tim McDermott
    Well, I continue to keep my fingers crossed as far as a delivery date for my Dot of 3/31. It's supposed to ship "3/29," but here in Eastern time it's not looking good as Amazon still reports it as "preparing to ship." I believe I was probably one of the first to respond to the Prime invitation, so it will be interesting to see if dates slip.
  20. Tim McDermott
    The delivery date for my Dot seems to be holding fast at 3/31, to ship tomorrow. we'll see.
  21. Tim McDermott
    I agree that Amazon ought to publish some sort of release notes detailing the contents of updates, especially given we appear not to be given a choice as to whether they are installed. It appears to me that Amazon is torn between keeping the Echo family of devices on the level of "appliances" with little need for user interaction to maintain and the more sophisticated device they've ended up being.
  22. Tim McDermott
    By "reboot" I mean to say power-cycled.
  23. Tim McDermott
    A simple reboot of IZZY took care of this for me. Given the number of us effected I feel pretty sure we all didn't suffer a simultaneous power outage;-)
  24. Tim McDermott
    Just an observation, but to an outsider, we would likely appear to be some pretty wacky folks. Who other than true geeks would be troubleshooting their smarthomes at 3 (or 4) in the morning. I'm not sure exactly why time I began experiencing the problem, but I believe it was around then for me as well.
  25. Tim McDermott
    Perhaps this is accounting for my problems with Connected Home: Although I've changed nothing with my configuration, as of last evening when I issue a request to turn on/off a previously discovered device I get a new error response "Sorry the device XXXX is not responding. Please check its network connection and power supply." Interestingly, the IZZY skill works fine with the same device. Apparently Amazon has made some change. I'll try rebooting IZZY and report my results.
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