Smart Home crap, or something. (Was: Echo.)

[Tom Servo]

I'd assumed that the Echo is only communicating with the hub, and the hub is what's telling the remote the current status. So, it's probably more correct to say the hub is hanging trying to turn on the xbox, and the remote is just reflecting what's going on with the hub.

I wonder if this has anything to do with how I have to put my XBone into "completely turned off" mode rather than sleep?

Though, come to think of it, you'd think that would affect normal operation then and it doesn't. Works just fine if I use the remote or the mobile app to turn on the XBox, it's only over the Echo that I have an issue.

[thesameguy]

Echo definitely talks to the hub, though I am not sure whether it's Echo->Cloud->Hub or Echo->Hub, immaterial I suppose.

My xbox is in full-off mode as well, fwiw.

It sounds like for some reason Alexa is hanging up communications with the hub, and the remote can't do anything while that happens. Maybe try deleting and readding the activity?

[Kchrpm]

My XBone goes completely off and wakes up fine. My TV did not, so I put it into light sleep mode, but it never affected the Hub.

[21Kid]

Also, this:

https://www.amazon.com/Nucleus-Anywh...253532011&th=1

Nice! I'm sick of yelling downstairs to my daughter when she has her door closed. Worth it!

[thesameguy]

Our neighbors are yellers and I hate it - yell from the yard to the house, the garage to the yard, inside the house so loud we can hear it across 200' and double paned windows. So annoying. I am really interested in the Nucleus, but I feel pretty strongly they missed some major bulletpoints and will fix that in a v2.... so I'm gonna wait on that. A Dot is only $50, so I'll probably pick one up around Christmas and it'll do for a while.

[Kchrpm]

http://phandroid.com/2016/11/10/goog...rd-party-apps/

Google Assistant API opening up in December. Let the voice control race BEGIN! Etc.

[thesameguy]

I ordered some Hue bulbs the other day to mess around with. I'm still happy with Insteon, but there are a few places where just a bulb would do, and since Echo glues different automation protocols together, I figured it'd be a good learning experience. Plus, since Hue bulbs are RGB, I can now get really high and make all the bulbs really pretty.

[thesameguy]

I set the Hue bulbs up last night. Hue installs a lot more quickly than Insteon, lemme tell you. Although identifying the bulbs is annoying, it's not difficult. Philips really could have done a better job there. Whatever. Bulbs are individually identified, but can be grouped into "rooms" so you can control multiples at once. I got the RGB bulbs, which is kind of exciting because you can essentially change the color temperature on the fly. That is pretty handy. Scheduling is a little weird - you don't create an on and off time - you create event times called "routines." A routine could be room or bulb on, or a room off, or a single bulb to bright green. Although a shift from the normal way it's done, it's interestingly powerful - I have lights that come on, get dimmer later, and eventually shut themselves off. Like.

Zero issues getting everything to work in a matter of moments, but I had some problems making Echo work. I don't know whether the issue was my naming convention or her understanding me, but while I could get her to turn on and off bulbs, I could not get her to change scenes. What good is it if you can't say "Alexa, set all lights to red alert!" and have the house go red?

The solution came by - I think - making the room names longer. I could not get "Alexa, turn on downstairs reading" to work, but changing the name of "downstairs" to "downstairs light" fixed it. Either she was having trouble understanding me (which would be a first) or she was having trouble discriminating the name from the action. In any case, as with any intersection of Echo and home automotion, choose your device names carefully.

This experience reinforces my love for Alexa, because her ability to glue multiple home automation protocols together makes my life easier. For multi-lamp fixtures Hue is expensive and honestly troublesome, so Insteon is nice in that situation. For the few recessed and fixed lights an old house like this has, Hue is nice... doubly so in areas where sometimes you want warm light and sometimes you want cold light. And sometimes you want cycling RGB light! It'd be annoying to have to remember which app to open to control any given light, and more annoying to want to make big changes quickly. But, having Echo glue Insteon and Hue together and then creating an Echo group so you can "Alexa, turn on all lights" when you get home is great. Like, realty great.

[Kchrpm]

http://www.androidcentral.com/wynn-l...ery-hotel-room

"Alexa, marry me and this cocktail waitress"

[thesameguy]

Wow. That is kind of a coup for Amazon - that's a lot of exposure!

Edit: There is a sort of brilliance of adding voice control to a hotel room, though maybe it's not thought through all that well - I can see a lot of problems for people trying to employ the technology if they use words or phrasing Echo doesn't understand or correlate. Still, very interesting play.