Amazon Echo

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Ultimate Geek
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#1502219 1-Mar-2016 16:00

Awesome thanks for replying d0t. I will certainly give it a go when my Echo arrives in a couple of weeks!

In the meantime, I've created a separate post outlining the Arduino code and OpenHAB config for the Garage Door opener if anyone is interested or needs to build the same...

http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=141&topicid=192198

Cheers

networkn

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#1502227 1-Mar-2016 16:11

d0t:

chimera: SumnerBoy, what's the advantage of UnityFire vs the HA bridge from Armzilla? I see UnityFire publicly released today, perhaps a little too soon to adopt?

Hello Chimera, SumnerBoy & all :)

I am the author of Alexa-HA and just wanted to give you a quick summary as to why this project has been created. I've been using OpenHAB for years, and everything in this v1.0 release has been mostly working great for my needs for quite a while. Certainly some improvements are needed but it is stable today. Realizing the larger potential for Home/Work automation, I abstracted the configuration and open sourced it for anyone to use. The main differences between Alexa-HA and the Amazon Echo HA Bridge are:

Its a custom Skill, not a Hue bridge emulator, so it can do practically anything imaginable via custom Amazon Skills Kit intents - (i.e. set temperatures, set colors, get states, and much more, not just ON/OFF/DIM)
It can provide verbal feedback to the user via Alexa's voice - (i.e. 'I have turned your office lights ON' or 'I have dimmed your foyer lights to 20 percent', and not just 'OK' for every command)
It can be used to check the values of any item in OpenHAB - (i.e. 'What is my living room humidity?' or 'Whats my house power consumption?')
It can issue arbitrary voice commands to VoiceCMD items, triggering OpenHAB custom rules - (i.e. 'Give me a status update' replies with "Your home temperature is a comfortable 73 degrees, with a humidity of 20 percent. The Data Center peaked at 56 degrees today. There have been no security violations or vital infrastructure alerts. My battery backup is ONLINE at 100 percent capacity. At current load of 39 percent I can remain online for approximately 120 minutes in the event of a power outage."... And yes, all of that is accurate for my setup :-D)
Most importantly, it uses ASK's slots & utterances to automatically build as many possible structures of speech used for possible commands. This boots accuracy out of the box and means you can heavily customize anything via Alexa-HA's configuration file making it easier and more natural to interact with. To get a better idea of what that means here, look at the new 'samples' directory in the GitHub project page.
While Alexa-HA is a bit more complicated to get setup, I implore you all to give it a whirl and get involved!

Best regards,

.

Whilst this doesn't really apply to me (I have "alexa" but I don't have any automation gear), I applaud you joining and making yourself known!

d0t

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Wannabe Geek
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#1502366 1-Mar-2016 19:17

Whilst this doesn't really apply to me (I have "alexa" but I don't have any automation gear), I applaud you joining and making yourself known!

Cheers to that :)

You could utilize Alexa-HA with OpenHAB in demo mode by installing the EchoSim (without HA gear), but as mentioned in the Alexa-HA docs that is something 'which needs tested' :) More importantly, OpenHAB can likely do quite a lot for your current IP network alone - for instance monitoring your website/network appliance/PC/device availability, voice controlling VOIP phones, Wake-On-LAN packets for power ON devices, starting/stopping apps on your various machines (and even issue commands to apps if they provide CLI controls!), remote for your KODI HTPC, play Pandora in various rooms, etc. Add Alexa-HA into the mix and you have voice control over everything mentioned.

All - Please share your thoughts for improvement on our GitHub issue tracker!

https://github.com/unityfire/alexa-ha/

jbard

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#1505955 4-Mar-2016 13:29

Seen as no one has posted about it yet I will link to the new Amazon Echo Dot: https://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=14047587011&ref=ODS_HA_P_surl

Looks really cool for larger homes with the need for multiple Echos. Also the fact you can connect it to external speakers will be a plus for some users.

networkn

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#1505958 4-Mar-2016 13:33

jbard:

Seen as no one has posted about it yet I will link to the new Amazon Echo Dot: https://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=14047587011&ref=ODS_HA_P_surl

Looks really cool for larger homes with the need for multiple Echos. Also the fact you can connect it to external speakers will be a plus for some users.

I am actually thinking of getting a dot for home, where I have for the longest time wanted to be able to play music FROM Alexa to my Airplay Compatible AMP. I will take my Echo to the office.

The only challenge for me is that Echo is in Kitchen, and Amp is in Lounge, which are connected but have 3/4 Wall separating it.

wanghou168

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#1505973 4-Mar-2016 14:11

I have an echo as well, keen to get an echo dot for the bedroom.

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richms

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#1505988 4-Mar-2016 14:21

Ordered 2 dots, and 1 of the portable one. The portable one doesn't seem to have a wake word on it which is a shame, I hope it isnt crippled like the one in the fire TV is.

Richard rich.ms

wanghou168

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#1506029 4-Mar-2016 15:16

richms:
Ordered 2 dots, and 1 of the portable one. The portable one doesn't seem to have a wake word on it which is a shame, I hope it isnt crippled like the one in the fire TV is.

The portable is not always on, you have to press the mic to get it listening. I find a bit annoying, the whole point is it should be always on ...

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richms

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#1506038 4-Mar-2016 15:34

I was hoping it would be always on when on charge or something. Im more worried that it will be useless like the fire tv one that cant turn wemo off and on and cant play spotify directly.

Richard rich.ms

wanghou168

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Ultimate Geek
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#1506066 4-Mar-2016 16:06

richms:
I was hoping it would be always on when on charge or something. Im more worried that it will be useless like the fire tv one that cant turn wemo off and on and cant play spotify directly.

Yep, i am holding off on buying the portable one, will wait for reviews.

But definitely ordering echo dot when i get home

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OTHER: Thinkpad E14 + Asus Vivobook + Intel NUC5i3 + A family of Raspberry Pi x 9 + Amazon Echo

kemosabe

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#1506124 4-Mar-2016 18:00

richms:

Ordered 2 dots, and 1 of the portable one. The portable one doesn't seem to have a wake word on it which is a shame, I hope it isnt crippled like the one in the fire TV is.

Ordered two dots? How did you do that, thought there was a limit of one per prime account?

I ordered one of each. The tap could be annoying having to press the button, but saves me taking my echo out to the garage so often. Interesting so many echo users are ordering more, says something about how well these are perceived. Just concerned now I will end up with both coming in one box and will get charged customs duty :-(

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richms

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#1506134 4-Mar-2016 18:28

I said alexa order an echo dot. Said yes. Did it again. Tried third and she said it was limited to 2 so she couldn't order more at this time.

Richard rich.ms

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#1506289 4-Mar-2016 22:40

Perhaps separate discussions about Amazon Echo from Dot/Tap - continue here for Amazon Echo, new thread for Amazon Dot/Tap here.

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SumnerBoy

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#1506814 6-Mar-2016 11:19

Amazon Echo purchased...just waiting for it to arrive at the YouPost depo...can't wait to get my hands on this!

chimera

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#1510078 9-Mar-2016 18:41

Echo turned up today. Pretty cool. Couple things though, on a previous page someone mentioned to set the timezone to American Samoa which is currently 1 hour ahead on NZ, but asking Alexa the time she thinks its 3 hours ahead.

Second, I can add my Spotify account however it warns me that its not a US account and may have problems playing some music from it. I can't play any music from it. Any idea how to change to a US account without recreating it? I have a premium account through my Spark mobile, so its all tied in already.

Other than that, she picks up most things I ask. Added my Wemo light switches easily, although asking to turn the deck lights on she says something about unable to find a dick - which of course my wife cracked up laughing at...!!!

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