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Home Automation, Amazon Alexa/Echo devices, etc???
- Thread starter Melensdad
- Start date
About 7 months since my last post in this thread and now I have some real life experience with Amazon's Alexa home automation.
Generally I'm pretty positive about it. I figured out how to set up groups and a couple routines for lights and such.
Turning on the lights in our kitchen used to be 3 switches at 2 different switch plates but now it's a simple voice command. Recessed lights in our living room were also 3 different switches, now they are 1 voice command, or they can be controlled in sub-groups, and all can be dimmed, from the easy chair. I have a morning command that is used when I get up before dawn or if I get up in the middle of the night. It turns on 3 strategic lights that get me enough light to get around without falling down the stairs, etc.
BIG DOWNSIDE is it only works while you have an internet connection. So when we lose our connection we lose voice control. Still can use the switches, so it just goes back to normal operation. But I think it should have a home hub rather than requiring a live internet connection.
UPSIDE is the convenience. And if you buy stuff when it's on sale it is inexpensive. I have exterior cameras that automatically display on the various screens around my home when movement is detected, and that can actually be limited to HUMAN movement versus getting set off by the dogs running around like idiots in the back yard because my cameras have the ability to distinguish the difference between a dog, a bird or a 2 legged pest.
Generally I'm pretty positive about it. I figured out how to set up groups and a couple routines for lights and such.
Turning on the lights in our kitchen used to be 3 switches at 2 different switch plates but now it's a simple voice command. Recessed lights in our living room were also 3 different switches, now they are 1 voice command, or they can be controlled in sub-groups, and all can be dimmed, from the easy chair. I have a morning command that is used when I get up before dawn or if I get up in the middle of the night. It turns on 3 strategic lights that get me enough light to get around without falling down the stairs, etc.
BIG DOWNSIDE is it only works while you have an internet connection. So when we lose our connection we lose voice control. Still can use the switches, so it just goes back to normal operation. But I think it should have a home hub rather than requiring a live internet connection.
UPSIDE is the convenience. And if you buy stuff when it's on sale it is inexpensive. I have exterior cameras that automatically display on the various screens around my home when movement is detected, and that can actually be limited to HUMAN movement versus getting set off by the dogs running around like idiots in the back yard because my cameras have the ability to distinguish the difference between a dog, a bird or a 2 legged pest.
I have no clue!
I tend to bark orders at Alexa.
It was funny, I was teaching a family friend how to use some commands and she was very polite to Alexa, even would say THANK YOU after the task was completed. (Alexa can be programed to cut off after a command, or to be in a sort of conversational mode). I look at, think of, Alexa as a tool. I tell it what to do, it does it.
I like the 'announcements' from the cameras that are broadcast, even if I have crappy slow internet and don't always get an instant camera image, I do get the announcement that there is a specified type of motion that sets off an alert. I like being able to adjust the lights from my chair, turn them off from my bed, etc.
I used to have some X-10 stuff, that worked too, but this is 100x better. There are other brands to consider too.