Smart Home

JASinIL2006

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I was listening to a story on the radio that NPR was doing a story about voice-controlled assistants on display at the big CES show, and every time they mentioned Alexa my Echo Dot lit up and tried to figure out what I wanted. Pretty funny...
 

redneck joe

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Well I sent everything back and ordered a new dot and locally bought a new Hue start kit. No go - even on a new amazon and hue account. Not sure what I did to kill it. So, looks like TP link plugs for the lamps and Lutron Caseta switches for everything else.
 

bassman284

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Wow. All this stuff sounds incredibly entertaining. Completely freaking useless but entertaining as hell.
 

redneck joe

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Lutron's Caseta system also has plug in lamp modules. If your lamps are not dimmable, you can reconfigure the device to be switching only.

http://www.casetawireless.com/pages/products.aspx


don't see any plugs? I'd prefer to stay all one device family or at least minimize the number of families I use.

I want EVERYTHING dimmable. The kitchen for example I have 4 100 watt spots over the island and along the L shaped cabinet side I have have 5 of the same. I typically run about 35% when cooking etc and 10% one bank when eating (mood lighting baby...). If I need all on for a few min at 100% like two nights ago when I was installing my new Rev a Shelves it is great, otherwise I like dim.
 

redneck joe

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Wow. All this stuff sounds incredibly entertaining. Completely freaking useless but entertaining as hell.

alot like most hobbies; cool - fun - expensive - but really not needed....


I think soon it will be the norm rather than the exception. 'Smart homes' have been around for a long time - I remember Bob Villa and This Old House did one like in the mid 80's and I did some basics back in the early 90's in my second house but it has always been semi unreliable and very clunky to use. Even with phone apps, still clunky to use - it would be easier to walk to the switch and flip it. Apps are great if you are away and want to change light patterns / furnace temp, etc.

Moving to a voice program, with good voice recognition, is the game changer imo. And I'm just playing with the smart home - the connection to the vast quantity of information on the internet thru a small device on you counter (or i'm waiting on a cool holder that goes in a wall plug) is where it all become a useful thing to have. Plus the "pull my finger' skill i installed last night. Wife was not amused.

Per reports from this years CES, Alexa is now licensed to go into Ford vehicles. GE is already building her into certain appliances. ETC. It is coming to you like it or not and remember this is only about 3 year old technology - think of another 20 years what it will be. I'm stoked...


I've been saying for about 20 years now when I first took a memory stick out of my Sony Mavica (which I still have and it still works) and put into a card reader hooked to my laptop; if you want to know our future watch Star Trek. There was a scene of Spock inserting what we now would call a mini CD into the Enterprise console and pausing, looking at Kirk or someone and stating 'this contains the entire history of Earth and the Human race. At the time I first saw it I thought no way (even tho I grew up with both parents working for IBM). As I slid my memory stick into the slot my mind flashed to that scene I saw as a child and thought - the future is here.

Even the Economist (great magazine if you are not aware of t) has debated whether Star Trek predicts the future or give humans direction to build it. And the reason I went back to Alexa even tho I will never apparently be able to use Phillips Hue is that I can rename it to 'Computer'. Really. I'm that big of a dork.



Here is an interesting read; my dad's blog. As I said, he was a lifer with IBM (so was stepmom) - he started shortly after he came back from Vietnam and retired from them. Depending on how you read about 5-10 minute: Keep in mind as well his post was 7 years ago. (oh and he spends a couple month each year in Paris so that's why there is a bunch of frenchie references)



http://noellivefromparis.blogspot.co...-big-bang.html
 

sam am I

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Think my sickness started when I was 2 yrs old and I'm an addict........

My parents tell my that a looong time ago we were at a Taco Time in Pacific Beach and I somehow pulled a wall clock cord out of the wall socket and ends up because my finger were so small, that they wrapped around the back of the plug as I was pulling it out and I got the s**t shocked out of me!! Guess I screamed so load that the entire restaurant came running to see what happened.

Never lost interest since then I reckon and thoroughly enjoy anything electron, scratched out a decent living doing so. It's all good man!! There are of few of us out there Joe, you're not alone.
20170220_201524.jpg
 
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sangerwaker

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don't see any plugs? I'd prefer to stay all one device family or at least minimize the number of families I use.

I want EVERYTHING dimmable. The kitchen for example I have 4 100 watt spots over the island and along the L shaped cabinet side I have have 5 of the same. I typically run about 35% when cooking etc and 10% one bank when eating (mood lighting baby...). If I need all on for a few min at 100% like two nights ago when I was installing my new Rev a Shelves it is great, otherwise I like dim.

Not sure what you mean by plugs. Here is what I mean on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_...B00KHSXB60&rh=i:aps,k:B00JJY1QG0+|+B00KHSXB60

Use the in wall versions for replacing switches or dimmers.
Switch example:
https://www.amazon.com/Lutron-PD-6A...LRCG38+|+B017LRCGR4+|+B017LRCHU0+|+B017LRCHIM

Dimmer example:
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_...LAXFQA+|+B00KLAXNC6+|+B00KLAXFK6+|+B00KLAXJFC

Note the above are examples and may not be correct part numbers for your particular location/load type/wattage.
 

redneck joe

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missed the plug on the side of the plus - the one that looks like a light switch. Thanks I'll check it out and if it works order a couple. Won't need too many. Wish it went in the wall but oh well.
 

sangerwaker

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Lutron makes some controlled receptacles for their higher end stuff...just not for Caseta. And they are EXPENSIVE. Nice thing on the Caseta plug in module is you can control 2 lamps simultaneously. One plug in on each side.
 

JASinIL2006

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So I came home to find one of the cats on the table, meowing at my Echo Dot. Alexa would respond with "I'm sorry, I can't understand what you said."

I have a feeling that one of these days I'm going to get home and find a case of tuna on the porch that someone ordered from Amazon...
 

bruceb58

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Wow. All this stuff sounds incredibly entertaining. Completely freaking useless but entertaining as hell.
Yeah...people were saying that about the iPhone when it first came out. Some people think to the future and others don't.

I have a vacation rental and I use the VERA system with multiple Z-Wave components that get controlled. I can change the codes on my locks, check to see if the garage door is closed and control lighting and I can control it wherever I am.

My vacation rental home is in the mountains so I try to keep the lighting dimmer during the late evening. I have the lights dim as the night progresses but have them brighten up temporarily for 5 minutes motion is sensed in case a renter arrives late.

Although I haven't done it yet(just haven't gotten around to it) I can integrate Amazon Alexa into it. For example I can lock all the locks from my bed with a voice command. I can ask Alexa if the garage door is closed.
 

bruceb58

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So I came home to find one of the cats on the table, meowing at my Echo Dot. Alexa would respond with "I'm sorry, I can't understand what you said."

I have a feeling that one of these days I'm going to get home and find a case of tuna on the porch that someone ordered from Amazon...
In the morning, I ask Alexa for news and I get my morning briefing while I am lounging in bed. Sometimes I mess with the dog and have it play cat sounds. My dog knows not to react when I ask for news but when I say cat sounds, he runs over to the Echo dot and stares at it.
 

garbageguy

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvT_gqs5ETk

:thumb:

[/QUOTE]

Yep, that'll be us by the time we finally get that in our house.

But we are jazzed with our new garage door opener - amazing how it knows how to open the door when we push a button... Really though, it was intuitively easy to program the opener installed in my car. I suspect the smart home thing will be like lots of tech - exponential improvement if graphed vs. time.
 

redneck joe

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anyone know of a Bluetooth device that i can sling alexa over to my old school amp/surround sound? I've got it hooked up to surround sound inside and two sets of outside speakers, one set on driveway for boat work and one set back patio for pool relaxing.
 

sam am I

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I use this (Is a speaker adapter/converter found on the Echo's certified speaker list, see below) and then the RCA out jacks into my ole Pioneer......

There are tons (see link Echo Dot Speakers) of speaks out there the ole gal will hook up with but, it's the only adapter I stumbled on in a quick search when I was doing the same hook up back some time ago.

It comes with wall transformer (it doesn't use batteries and goes into stand by and actively waits around for previously paired source/s when they show up in range) and can pair to several B.T. sources at once...Smart Phones/Alexa/Ipads/Ipods etc.
 
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