imagamejunky

I didn't comment on noise because I've been away. I did NOT notice any humming or hissing from any of the grouped sonos speakers. However I am getting a strange random popping noise that is coming from the speaker that is is my living room. I haven't noticed this "pop" coming from my game room where the dot is located. I haven't had much time to experiment since that first day. It's definitely a dot/sonos issues though because I've never heard ANY popping noises from any of my sonos speakers while playing any of the music sources that I've used. Like I explained before, the gain is low on the dot, so I was turning the sonos up very high (almost maxed) and the dot up at 7-9 for music. My cable between the dot and sonos is not loose either. Junky

Yes. That's exactly right. You will need to group your sonos speakers together and have the input set as aux (it's labeled as audio component in the sonos app). And as I explained you also now will have alexa's voice synchronized over all of your grouped sonos speakers. THIS is exactly why I pre ordered the dot. The only downfall is that you will only have voice control in the area of you home where the dot is located. This is why I want another dot. Just so you are aware you can already run your sonos speakers from the echo but it's definitely NOT as easy as this. I've described this other way on other threads. You need a harmony hub, and IFTTT. Since this is a task, you must use the word trigger. This is how I have been running sonos for a while. But I didn't have alexa's voice over the sonos speakers. Junky

Ok. My first impressions.. I installed the dot in my game room so that I could connect it to a Sonos play five via the auxiliary cable. For testing purposes I set the wake word to ECHO for the dot. My two echoes in the house are already set for ALEXA as the wake word. I was quite surprised that the included audio cable is so short. I was thinking that you should get this dot far away from any speaker so that the microphone is not impeded by the music coming out of the speaker. I will experiment with some longer cables later on. I am honestly shocked at how well the dot's microphones are able to pick up my voice in a room with pretty loud music playing. It really is impressive to me. With a pretty loud song playing I can easily say "echo" and it will mute the music and listen to my commands. I didn't realize that the echo dot would play music out of its little speaker system. I guess I didn't read the specifications very clearly before. Without an auxiliary cable connected you can use the echo dot to play music although the sound quality is nothing compared to the echoes sound quality. I'm not saying that I expected the dot to have excellent sound quality I'm just giving a comparison now that I know it has this capability. The gain on the auxiliary out on the dot is pretty low. You have to turn the volume up really high on the Sonos play five and then turn the volume up on the dot pretty loud as well. Don't get me wrong it's working really really well. But I just wish it had more volume output. I've already figured out that I should have ordered two of the dots instead of just one. I would like to have another one in my living room connected to another sonos play five that I have there already. I love the Sonos connectability with that auxiliary cable. I just love it! Here's why. With all of my Sonos speakers grouped together and using the auxiliary input on the Sonos that is in the game room, ALL of the sonos speakers now are broadcasting the voice of Alexa from the dot. This whole house voice that is synced together is exactly what I was hoping having multiple echoes would do but that has not been an option yet. Here is a short video I just posted on YouTube. This is just a simple microphone test example. Junky

I definitely meant as an option. Like sonos does

Those of us with more than one echo know this too well. This is exactly what Amazon needs to fix FIRST. All of the echoes and dots on the same network should be able to sync up and play the same song at the same time without question. No excuse. Junky

My dot was delivered earlier this afternoon. I'm looking forward to being home tomorrow to check it out. I'm excited about the audio out jack the most. Junky

Interesting... I ordered one dot and only one of my echos updated. Hmmmm

Hi guys. Searching with Google hasn't answered my questions. The Amazon kindle forum didn't help either (although I can't figure out why they haven't created an echo forum). So now I'm posting here. Yesterday I noticed that one of my 2 echos was doing something. The blue ring was spinning for 30 seconds or so. I assumed it was updating but I really don't know. I looked in the Alexa app and found that its software version had changed to 3202. What's really strange is that my other echo did NOT update. It still shows version 3077. I unplugged this echo and then plugged it back in according to the Amazon instructions but it has not updated. I found this page that clearly shows that 3077 is the latest version for the echo and 3202 is the latest version of the dot. Confusing.. https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201602210 Why did only one echo update? How do we force an update when it isn't doing it on its own? What's the difference? Is there a webpage out there where we can see the version numbers and hopefully a change log? I would like to know what exactly is changing when the echo just decides to update itself without input from me. And AT THE VERY LEAST a simple notification that an update is coming would be nice. Come on Amazon! If anyone has info on this please post. Thanks guys Junky

"None of you will be complaining about the cloud is down vs little Johnny just got smoked by the automated milk truck." Automated milk truck! Hilarious! Sad, but true Junky

It's back up now. Re-discovered all my devices and it's working again. Wish they would bring back the "OK" acknowledgement. Or at least give us the choice. Junky

Same here. Both of my echos won't control any devices. I tried to discover devices and Alexa found none. Junky

I just got home from the firehouse and tried to turn on a light with the echo like normal. It didn't work because I had a bunch of duplicate entries in the Alexa app. I had her forget the devices and then rediscovered them. I also went into the portal and added multiple entries for spoken names for my devices. I just wanted to say that this has never worked better. I am blown away with how well it is working in my home now. I love having multiple entries for the spoken names. It's going to make it so much easier for people if they don't know what to call something. For example a dining room light or a dining table light or a chandelier all the work for the same device. Thank you for making this an even better product. I'm super happy . Junky

Thanks. I briefly read through the wiki a while back and was under the impression that I would have to be running a PC or RasPi all the time. I'm trying to avoid having to do this. Junky

Please educate me on how to control sonos with a program running on the ISY. Thanks Junky

I've posted these suggestions on another thread. To make this work you need a logitech harmony hub. It's been working fantastically for me. You have to say Alexa, trigger ......

I do actually. I have the main kitchen lights with the spoken name "kitchen" and also lights above my kitchen table with the spoken name "kitchen table" I can say kitchen lights and kitchen table lights and alexa understands without error. If I just say turn on kitchen then she correctly turns on the main lights and doesn't ask which one. I only have those 2 though. Junky

You don't need to wait for an update. Just name your device without the use of light or lights in the spoken field. This is what I'm doing and it works perfectly. When people tell alexa to turn on a device she will ignore the words "light" and "lights" and successfully control the device without any problem. Here's an example that works perfectly for my family. I have a device (kitchen lightswitch) with a spoken name of "kitchen". I can say "alexa turn on kitchen" OR "..turn on kitchen light" OR "..turn on kitchen lights" Alexa will hear the word "the" and ignore it also in the above scenarios. Junky

Admins. I know this has nothing to do with the ISY so if you feel it should be deleted I completely understand. Earlier I posted this about controlling Sonos with Echo and the Harmony Hub. I've made some changes. I thought I would share them because I feel it's working a lot better now. Now I leave the "end sequence" blank for each activity in harmony. These end sequences were causing sonos to stop playing music when I sent another command (like volume up). I have many different harmony activities now for sonos that can be controlled from the echo as long as I create an IFTTT recipe for each one. So far it's working great and I have more control. Example- Alexa, trigger (room name) sonos (volume up, volume down, play, pause, etc..) Now I can tell alexa to trigger sonos to play a particular pandora station. Then later I can tell alexa to trigger volume up (or pause, or whatever) without any issues. Hope this helps someone. Junky

No Connected home control BUT the Echo-IFTTT skill works great with Nest thermostats. You just need to create recipes with whatever possible temp you may want. I have recipes set up for 67-70 degrees for each thermostat. Examples Alexa, trigger nest upstairs to 68 Alexa, trigger nest downstairs to 69, etc etc Works perfect. Junky

I can't comment because I don't have a hue emulator running. I was holding off on running a PC 24/7 or buying a rasp pi in hopes that the connected home would work great. So far it is.

Scenes are working great for me with spoken names. Not programs though. Junky

Alexa with Connected home is having difficulty running isy programs for me. For example she can't run my simple "good bye" program. Are programs supposed to be fully supported? After further testing I know she doesn't like the spoken names "nook" and "chandelier" either. Junky

YES! It works fantastically! Thank you thank you! So far Alexa has not missed a single command. Not even one. Light, lights, bar, landscape, master bedroom, etc.. I'm SO happy. Great work guys Junky

I have a number of insteon switches with names of rooms in the spoken fields. For example, kitchen. I frequently say, "Alexa tell izzy to turn on kitchen light". She responds with saying the spoken name "kitchen". My point is that you can still refer to a light as a light even though that's not the spoken name. Also, Alexa understands upstairs for me. Junky

Are you able to adjust grouped volume this way? What interface are you using for control with the ISY? Thanks Junky