New Dot

[kgividen]

I have to agree with Alex (above).

 

When I use Alexa, turn off all lights it turns off the lights in only that room (24 lights)

 

That is the way I set it up, but I don't feel I have any use for Alexa in other rooms as far as HA goes. I am not going back to the clapper level for bedroom lights in the middle of the night, yelling Alexa, turn off the bedroom light.

 

I want HA light control, not waking my spouse up by yelling or clapping. She may want some action and I am not bothering with that nonsense, when I am dreaming of a better class of people. Geeeesh!

 

Oh man...not me...I have them everywhere now!  When I'm feeding the baby or have kids crawling all over me or reading books to them it is WAY convenient to just tell my house to do whatever I want it to do or play music or tell a joke or get the weather or add a todo or check my calendar.  Being able to do something with just voice is awesome when I've got spitup all over me or cleaning up a mess in the kitchen and I need that light on in the corner.

 

My wife loves our echos and now that we have 6 more dots we're going to have almost complete coverage in our home.  

 

I have an all off button by the garage door and my wife doesn't use it any more because she just says "Alexa, turn home off" as she's walking out the door with her hands full.  She loves it...which makes me love it even more!

[kohai]

I'm still trying to get my brain around the idea of wanting to talk to my home.  I don't even talk to my cell phone or my cars that have voice functionality -- I find it generally frustrating because it never understands me.

 

Is there a correlation between people that talk to their phones and people that want to talk to their homes?  (that rhymed)  

[kgividen]

I'm still trying to get my brain around the idea of wanting to talk to my home. I don't even talk to my cell phone or my cars that have voice functionality -- I find it generally frustrating because it never understands me.

 

Is there a correlation between people that talk to their phones and people that want to talk to their homes? (that rhymed)

That's probably a fair question. In my case I don't talk to my phone much in the car cause it's a pain. My truck has SYNC so I use that a bit to make phone calls and such.

 

I just find my hands are busy a lot doing stuff at home so it's way convenient to talk to it. Like when I'm doing dishes. Or in the theater room I'm too lazy to get out of my chair to adjust lighting or whatever and it's easier than pulling out my phone even.

 

 

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[kgividen]

Course I suppose the NSA can be enthralled with my completely normal boring life with all these dots everywhere.

 

 

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[giomania]

OK just so I understand while I am setting up my Dot's

 

I will have 6 total. 4 of them I want to be able to use the same wake but be zone specific meaning same command but the closest one will respond with just that lights-Basically those will be in the individual bedrooms. The other 2 will have the same wake word as the other 4 but be in the living/kitchen area and they can control the same lights..So is this the correct way below, all on one Amazon acct. And I will have to program the spoken words for each portal acct, correct?

DOT #1 Living/Kitchen area Portal acct #1

DOT #2 Living/Kitchen area Portal acct #1

DOT #3 Bedroom #1 Portal sub acct #2

DOT #4 Bedroom #2 Portal sub acct #3

DOT #5 Bedroom #3 Portal sub acct #4

DOT #6 Bedroom #4 Portal sub acct #5

You will also need 5 separate Amazon accounts, as far as I understand it. Each separate Portal account is linked to each separate Amazon account, which allows customization of the spoken commands for the given linked devices.

 

Aside from the complexity and pain of all those additional accounts--made easier with the use of a password manager--, you lose Prime Music on all but your primary Amazon account.

 

Mark

 

 

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[Ajax]

Ok so it should be more like this...

 

DOT #1 Living/Kitchen area Portal acct #1 Amazon acct #1
DOT #2 Living/Kitchen area Portal acct #1 Amazon acct #1
DOT #3 Bedroom #1 Portal sub acct #2 Amazon acct #2
DOT #4 Bedroom #2 Portal sub acct #3 Amazon acct #3
DOT #5 Bedroom #3 Portal sub acct #4 Amazon acct #4
DOT #6 Bedroom #4 Portal sub acct #5 Amazon acct #5

 

That sucks about the prime music

[stusviews]

you lose Prime Music on all but your primary Amazon account.

 

You can add one additional account to your Prime account. And there are a some music sources available that do not require Prime, such as Pandora and Spotify.

[giomania]

I forgot about that because I have already ceded my secondary Prime benefits to my Mom.

 

 

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[giomania]

I have experienced two instances of the new dots dropping Wi-Fi I am using 5.0 Ghz, but the units are stationary and do not move. I'm just wondering if anyone else has experienced Wi-Fi dropping on the new dots.

 

Thanks.

 

Mark

 

 

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[Ajax]

Not yet but I had one hell of a time getting my first one to connect since my router is both 2.4/5 Ghz I have the same SIID and login to keep things simple but apparently the DOT's don't like that at all... Had to label each SIID different with its own password.

[giomania]

Up until recently I also had a single SSID and password for both the 2.4 and 5.0 GHz radio's.

 

That was how the original Dot and the full-size echo were connected and they didn't have a problem with initial connection, nor subsequent performance.

 

When I set up my dedicated IOT router I separated the radio SSID's, so now I have to actively choose which one but for stationary devices it shouldn't matter, unless the radio is fickle like that.

 

 

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[kgividen]

I have to say I really like these new dots for control.  I have two sitting right next to each other and when I say "alexa" both turn blue rings on but then they do in fact recognize that only one needs to respond so it turns the other off.  Which seems to be working very well even on the same table.  

 

They're a great size, look cool and seem to be working really well for control.  They were also a piece of cake to setup 6 of them quickly with the new app.  

 

The combination of Alexa and the portal is really working well for me.

 

Now if we could only get that uniqueID...

[apnar]

Ran into a corner use case yesterday with multiple dots in range.  I asked alexa to set a timer, the nearest one set the timer just as it should.  When the timer was going off, I asked alexa to cancel the timer from the same spot.  This time the one that was slightly further decided it was closet (I suspect due to the nearest one doing echo cancelation around the timer noise) and told me there were no active timers to cancel.  I had to physically move closer to the one that had the timer going off to acknowledge it.

[apnar]

I'm looking for 3 key features to make the Echos what I really want them to be:

 

1) unique IDs in requests so we can make "turn on the lights" work reasonably.

 

2) ability to have a Dot output voice feedback via local speaker but music through aux out/bluetooth.  I have a number of Dots next to good speaker systems but want to be able to use voice commands without having to turn speaker systems on.

 

3) sync music amongst Echos. I can't see how this wasn't a day one feature when they started selling 6 and 12 packs.

[stusviews]

Although a bit awkward 1) can be accomplished now via separate portal sub-accounts. I, too, would like to be able to sync both music and timers. A problem I see is that if unique IDs become a reality, then syching would be more difficult.

[giomania]

I think unique IDs would need to be supported by Amazon (obviously) as well as the ISY portal.

 

Outside of those limitations I would see it operating the same way does now. Instead of having ISY Portal sub-accounts you would have the unique IDs that you would create the spoken commands for each desired device.

 

The big benefit would be the need for only one Amazon account and that all the devices can have prime music as well as the other prime features that can't be shared.

 

Mark

 

 

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[blueman2]

ESP is not working for me.  Just got my new Dot and placed it next to my existing (gen 1) Dot.  Both on same account.  I ask time, they both answer and not in synch.  Software version on Gen2 Dot is 561179520, on Gen1 Dot is 4172.  What gives?

[giomania]

Those are the same software versions I have on my generation one and generation two Dots, respectively.

 

You said you placed them next to each other maybe if they are too close to ESP doesn't work? Maybe you should try moving them further apart?

 

 

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[apnar]

ditto.  I just did a test asking for thee time within range of a gen 1 and gen 2 dot with those same versions and it worked as expected.  They were about 30 feet apart though.

[stusviews]

ESP is independent of the Gen 2 Dot. I started using ESP a week or so before the Gen 2 Dot was available. I do notice that, on occasion, two Dots within about 6' of each other will respond consecutively. But, this is the first release of ESP. It'll probably improve.

[larryllix]

Best Buy got the Dots in yesterday.

 

The online deal was no deal at all.

 

[stusviews]

Best Buy got the Dots in yesterday.

 

The online deal was no deal at all.

 

Unless one wanted 5 or 6. The on-line deal included one free with the purchase of five. Want 5, get one free; want 6, pay for 5

[Scottmichaelj]

Unless one wanted 5 or 6. The on-line deal included one free with the purchase of five. Want 5, get one free; want 6, pay for 5

Wait I am confused. You can get six.for.the same price as five? The better deal seems to be buy five and get one free!

[stusviews]

Let's do the mathematics.

 

Buy five (5), get one free. The price for five is 5 x 49.99 = 249.95. But, you really get six (6). So, the cost for each is 249.95 ÷ 6 = 41.65 each.

 

Want six (6), pay for five (5). So, you get six (6)  for the price of five (5). The price for five is 5 x 49.99 = 249.95. But, you really get six (6). So, the cost for each is 249.95 ÷ 6 = 41.65 each.

 

So do you want six of one or half a dozen of the other

[blueman2]

lets see.  Buy 5, and get 20% more for free ($50 value / $250 purchase price).  Or buy 6 and get 16.67% price reduction (50 savings / 300 value).  I am going to demand the 20% free.  I will refuse the 16.67% price reduction.  I am so smart.