Amazon Echo

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#1808541 28-Jun-2017 22:41

Bullet has been bitten and I placed my order for a echo show. Not going OS anytime soon so it was my first time with youshop be interested to see what the charge from the states will be.

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kryptonjohn

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#1808578 29-Jun-2017 07:37

Look forward to hearing how it goes, GNFB.

Regarding calling with the echo (dot), I have got this going now. Getting the contacts sorted stumped me and there are still some mysteries but...

First of all, having bought three in one go they all arrived pre-configured with my name and amazon account. So for the 2nd and 3rd ones I had to disassociate them from my account, create new amazon accounts and re-associate each with those. For the new accounts I needed to setup the kid's phone numbers on the accounts and it needs to be valid as it sends a confirmation code SMS to them. Then you need to go into messages on the phone app to enable messaging. I never setup the phone app on the kids phones - I just logged in and out of amazon accounts on the app on my phone, and when in the app you select which dot you are connecting to.

Having enabled calling in the app, it looks in the phone's contacts for records that correspond to amazon accounts and that becomes your echo calling contacts.

There's a facility in there to setup a family group and you can restrict calling to that group on each dot.

So my experience with these things so far is they work great, but getting them setup is likely to be way beyond most non geeks.

Note: You could leave them all on one account but as has been pointed out, if you call one you are calling all - they would all ring at once and you wouldn't know who is calling who.

I'm not aware yet if it is possible to make conference calls.

When I was testing this out, the two dots were in neighbouring rooms. I found that if you are talking, it cuts out the sound from the other party which made natural conversation tricky until you got used to it. Not sure if this was due to cross-over or if it will improve when they are out of hearing range of each other.

darylblake

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#1808585 29-Jun-2017 07:58

Does anyone have an Echo or Echo dot for sale? If not I will order on Amazon. Just thought I would try here first.

kryptonjohn

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#1808588 29-Jun-2017 08:06

There's usually some on TM but at ridiculous prices compared to Amazon/Youshop.

The only problem with ordering from Amazon is the power adapter - you need a 9W NZ micro-usb power source.

reven

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#1808686 29-Jun-2017 10:10

I bought a echo dot 2 off trademe for $125 delivered which isnt too bad to have it the next day. its about nzd$90 delivered from bhphotovideo.com but you have to wait a couple of weeks.

My latest set (1 echo, 2x echo dots) have arrived in auckland now via youshop. hopefully in the next day or two they get delivered.

calling works well, "call home", "call [person]" but it doesnt work on the amazon tap.

kryptonjohn

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#1808714 29-Jun-2017 10:33

Does it not even work on the Tap if you click the button?

Very interested in getting an echo but as there's already a BT TV soundbar speaker in the lounge I can't justify it!

How much did YS charge for 2 dots and an echo? 3 dots was $16.

Cheers

JohnO

reven

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#1808715 29-Jun-2017 10:36

nah "calling is not supported on this device"

theyve got hands free now on the tap, so thats cool, but the microphone array i dont believe is as good as the other devices.

im hoping for a s/w update to add this in

kryptonjohn

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#1808720 29-Jun-2017 10:40

Re the array - it's supposed to prevent two dots (or echos) responding to the same person's command - I think they need to be a certain distance apart for that to work. When I was setting up multiple units in one room they were all responding at once, but they were only 3-4m apart.

Next jobs to do - see if I can get the Vera beta with amazon integration and get the dots talking to the home automation, and maybe get a harmony hub and get both the dots and the vera talking to that.

Jeez, I thought these things were supposed to save me time not consume it!

reven

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#1808722 29-Jun-2017 10:41

the vera automation works pretty well. but if you add devices to vera and have to rediscover them in alexa, do the following

1. unlink the skill

2. renable the skill

3. in the new window to authenticate with vera, sign out then back in

if you dont do step 3, often it says "no devices found on your account".

kryptonjohn

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#1808737 29-Jun-2017 10:58

Oooh, thanks reven - Alexa will make the Vera so much better. I'm afraid I'll be nagging you for more tips and advice in the future!

Any word on when it will be out of beta and into the general release?

richms

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#1808744 29-Jun-2017 11:05

I have 3 echos in my room at the moment, 2 dots and the tap with the responding thing enabled and it works fine. Say alexa and they all light up, but then 2 of them will go out and only one listens. When music is playing it makes the other 2 deaf so saying alexa next or whatever always works, unless I am at the desk right beside that one when it will hear me and wake up but since another one is playing, saying next has no effect.

There was some article about intercom feature being a thing now, but never tested it. Was not happy that the app on my phone even forced me to set up calling before I could get into it and there seems to be no way to disable calling totally since I dont want it and probably never will.

Richard rich.ms

reven

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#1808775 29-Jun-2017 11:10

kryptonjohn:

Oooh, thanks reven - Alexa will make the Vera so much better. I'm afraid I'll be nagging you for more tips and advice in the future!

Any word on when it will be out of beta and into the general release?

nah i have no clue when it will be out of beta.

im wanting them to add support for open/close commands instead of just on/off. saying "turn on curtains" to close them and "turn off curtains" to open them is a little odd, but makes sense if you think about it. "open"/"close" is more natural though.

also wish amazon supported google play music.... its the best music service IMO. currently having to use spotify and pandora (spotify doesnt do radio on alexa, pandora doesnt do specific songs/albums/artists).

there is geemusic, but you have to install/host that yourself on a public facing server somewhere, and then its "alexa, tell geemusic to [COMMAND]"

kryptonjohn

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#1808795 29-Jun-2017 11:17

richms:

Was not happy that the app on my phone even forced me to set up calling before I could get into it and there seems to be no way to disable calling totally since I dont want it and probably never will.

I did see a reference to disabling calling in some help documents from Amazon - it involved phoning their support number!

kryptonjohn

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#1808799 29-Jun-2017 11:19

reven:

im wanting them to add support for open/close commands instead of just on/off. saying "turn on curtains" to close them and "turn off curtains" to open them is a little odd, but makes sense if you think about it. "open"/"close" is more natural though.

It's like the whole HA-Bridge HUE lighting emulation - it's surprising what you can do if you don't mind seeing the world as a dimmable bulb!

kryptonjohn

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#1809587 30-Jun-2017 13:11

Trying to trick Alexa into setting a non US location using the Chrome RequestMaker extension... it sends back 200 Request OK but the change is not sticking in the Alexa - all I see is the original US address.

Has anyone managed to get this to work?

Cheers

JohnO

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