Amazon Echo Club

[tubemonkey]

Get a parrot

[OtinG]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

That's the opposite of what I want. I NEED them to be tied to a specific Echo device. I already have groups that I can use from any echo in the house. But I don't WANT the living room echo to be able to turn on the bedroom lights. And I don't want my bedroom echo to be able to turn on the living room tv. I can't have a simple, concise name like "Bedroom Light" because their are multiple bedrooms with different people using using different echos to control the lights.

What I need is a way for "Bedroom Lights" to only work for the lights in Bedroom A when spoken to Echo A (located in Bedroom A). I don't want Echo B in Bedroom B to be able to control Bedroom A's "Bedroom Lights."

I'm not sure if it is possible to link a single Echo device with specific smart home devices, but it might be. I do know that you can link one Echo device to a Fire TV, and I think you can only link one to it. So obviously Amazon has the ability to do that, but whether 3rd party smart home devices have that ability built in is another story. That is also why it gets rather complicated. We are limited by what the 3rd party manufacturers build into their devices, and how well they integrate those features and functions. Good luck, and I understand your frustrations. I certainly think Amazon needs to get more engineers who actually use these devices to work on them. They don't always seem to understand how people use them in the real world.

ETA: In the meantime you will likely have to find a workaround that you might not like as much. Amazon obviously did not design the Alexa smart home systems to be as complex and all encompassing as many of us would have liked. You CAN do it through clever, well thought out naming schemes associated with Groups, though you obviously don't want to, and I understand that. But it is what it is, a smart home system designed with a few controls and purposely kept on a level that people can set up without calling in system engineers to set it up and maintain it for them. If they make it too complex, customers would so complain.

[OtinG]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Get a parrot

LOL1 I'm glad my cats cannot talk. I wouldn't want to discover a $1,000 worth of kitty treats on my front porch! Just to be safe I keep one-click purchasing turned off.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by OtinG

LOL1 I'm glad my cats cannot talk. I wouldn't want to discover a $1,000 worth of kitty treats on my front porch! Just to be safe I keep one-click purchasing turned off.

It's a brave new world we live in. Parrots talking to computers and cats joy riding on roombas. Is this a harbinger of things to come?

Tell me you have a roomba for your cats

[OtinG]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

It's a brave new world we live in. Parrots talking to computers and cats joy riding on roombas. Is this a harbinger of things to come?

Tell me you have a roomba for your cats

No Roomba yet. Those things are rather pricey so I haven't gotten one yet. I do have an idea which the cats would hate though, it involves making catsuits out of Swiffer pads and making the cats wear them to clean up all of their errant cat fur. Occasionally I see a large ball of fur roll by like a miniature tumble weed! So far negotiations with the cats has not been successful. They have too strong of a cat union. Plus they tend to nap through the negotiations. On a positive note though, turning on my old Hoover vacuum cleaner tends to clear a room of cats in milli-seconds! Unfortunately, clearing the room of their fur takes a lot longer...

[ApK]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Other than using multiple Amazon accounts (or switching profiles), has anyone come up with a workaround to limit the devices that are accessible to any one echo device in a multi-echo home? Without such a feature, I'm finding it increasingly difficult to come up with unique names for devices that are simple to recall and handy enough to use effectively. Having to say, "Alexa, turn on the ceiling fan in the upstairs guest room," or "Turn on the basement TV (as opposed to the two different bedroom TVs), or turn on the endtable-lamp-on-the-left-side-of-the-living-room-sofa is just bit tedious.

Ideally, I'd love to be able to say, "Alexa turn on the lights" and have it work only for "the lights" that have been assigned to that unit. Having to refer to yourself in the third person ("Alexa, turn off Doug's bedroom light") when you have multiple bedrooms with multiple people using multiple echos registered to the same Amazon account) is a bit weird.

The "lights" thing does work the way you want. If you create a group (say 'kitchen') and add the lights that are in the the kitchen and the Echo device that's in the kitchen to that group, then when THAT echo hears "turn on the lights" then it turns on the lights in that group. We have our kitchen, living room and bedroom configured that way now.

I don't know if that mechanism integrates with non-light devices though, or, indeed, if it works for anything other the built in "lights" identifier.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I'm not sure how it might affect "conversations" with Alexa, but have you tried turning on "brief mode"? It's under Settings->Alexa Account->Alexa Voice Responses in the Alexa app.

Thanks. I took a look and I already had brief mode turned on (I have no memory of doing this). God only knows how chatty she'd be in verbose mode.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by OtinG

No Roomba yet. Those things are rather pricey so I haven't gotten one yet. I do have an idea which the cats would hate though, it involves making catsuits out of Swiffer pads and making the cats wear them to clean up all of their errant cat fur. Occasionally I see a large ball of fur roll by like a miniature tumble weed! So far negotiations with the cats has not been successful. They have too strong of a cat union. Plus they tend to nap through the negotiations. On a positive note though, turning on my old Hoover vacuum cleaner tends to clear a room of cats in milli-seconds! Unfortunately, clearing the room of their fur takes a lot longer...

[OtinG]

Originally Posted by ApK

The "lights" thing does work the way you want. If you create a group (say 'kitchen') and add the lights that are in the the kitchen and the Echo device that's in the kitchen to that group, then when THAT echo hears "turn on the lights" then it turns on the lights in that group. We have our kitchen, living room and bedroom configured that way now.

I don't know if that mechanism integrates with non-light devices though, or, indeed, if it works for anything other the built in "lights" identifier.

That doesn't seem to prevent other Echo devices from also controlling that Group. I added my "Bathroom Dot2" to my Group "Bathroom" which also includes "Bedroom Lamp" and "Bath Light" but the Group "Bathroom" can still be controlled by all of my Echo devices, not just the one named "Bathroom Dot2."

I also noticed that I could only add one Echo to the Group "Bathroom." That might be because I only had that one Echo device not already assigned to another Group, or perhaps only one Echo device can be assigned to any Group. I'm not sure which is the case. At any rate, Groups don't limit which Echo devices control them at least in my case, unless there is another setting somewhere that I'm not setting properly.

[John F]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I tells me it's "unable to find any supported devices" when I try to setup a routine based on a device. And if I start a new routine based on a voice command, it offers no option to limit the routine to one echo device. I'll have to check it out when I get home from work and see if that makes a difference (though I've had no trouble configuring any of my devices via an internet connection before). Thanks for the idea. At least it's something I haven't tried, yet.

Interesting... I tried it earlier, and I could specify a device when I say the phrase, now I can't.

And I do have voice activated routines that are tied to a device; I can edit them, but I can't create a new routine tied to a device.

I'm gong to call Amazon Support...

[OtinG]

Originally Posted by John F

Interesting... I tried it earlier, and I could specify a device when I say the phrase, now I can't.

And I do have voice activated routines that are tied to a device; I can edit them, but I can't create a new routine tied to a device.

I'm gong to call Amazon Support...

I tried setting up Routines a year or more ago, but they failed more often than not, and every time I would try to edit or create new ones there would be differences in the way that had to be done. Routines were a moving target, so to speak, and constantly in flux, so I finally got frustrated and quit trying to use them.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by OtinG

That doesn't seem to prevent other Echo devices from also controlling that Group. I added my "Bathroom Dot2" to my Group "Bathroom" which also includes "Bedroom Lamp" and "Bath Light" but the Group "Bathroom" can still be controlled by all of my Echo devices, not just the one named "Bathroom Dot2."

I also noticed that I could only add one Echo to the Group "Bathroom." That might be because I only had that one Echo device not already assigned to another Group, or perhaps only one Echo device can be assigned to any Group. I'm not sure which is the case. At any rate, Groups don't limit which Echo devices control them at least in my case, unless there is another setting somewhere that I'm not setting properly.

I believe only one Echo can be in a group, and I'm sure that an Echo can only be in one group.

With "lights," yes, other echo's can control them, by using the group name or by the device names, but not by saying "lights." Saying "turn on the lights" will make that echo turn on the light-type devices in the group it's assigned to.

So if I say "turn on the lights" while I'm in the kitchen, then the kitchen lights turn on. If I say "turn on the lights" while I'm in the bedroom, the bedroom lights come on. If I want to turn on the kitchen lights from the bedroom, I can say "turn on the kitchen."

I just don't know if there's anyway to use this local awareness with anything other than the "lights" keyword.

ApK

[ApK]

Originally Posted by OtinG

I tried setting up Routines a year or more ago, but they failed more often than not, and every time I would try to edit or create new ones there would be differences in the way that had to be done. Routines were a moving target, so to speak, and constantly in flux, so I finally got frustrated and quit trying to use them.

Same with Scenes. We have six alexa-controlled recessed ceiling lights int he kitchen, and I've created Wink shortcuts (which get seen as Scenes by Alexa) for "normal" which turns them all on full brightness, and "night" which turns all but one off and sets it to dim.

When we try to use them, we have good chance of getting a brief disco light show, with various lights blinking on and off, and at the end it's like some sort of Keno board, where we could bet on which of the six will randomly wind up off or on.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by ApK

I believe only one Echo can be in a group, and I'm sure that an Echo can only be in one group.

With "lights," yes, other echo's can control them, by using the group name or by the device names, but not by saying "lights." Saying "turn on the lights" will make that echo turn on the light-type devices in the group it's assigned to.

So if I say "turn on the lights" while I'm in the kitchen, then the kitchen lights turn on. If I say "turn on the lights" while I'm in the bedroom, the bedroom lights come on. If I want to turn on the kitchen lights from the bedroom, I can say "turn on the kitchen."

I just don't know if there's anyway to use this local awareness with anything other than the "lights" keyword.

ApK

"Lights" only would be a great start. I'll check it out. Being able to say "Turn on/off the lights" in any room where there's an Echo would be brilliant. I wasn't catching on that people were saying to add the Echo itself to the group. I wasn't even aware that the Echo could be added to a device group, to be perfectly honest. Are there other benefits aside from this "lights" aspect to be gained by adding the Echo to a group?

[wodin]

I generally don't care which Alexa turns the lights on or off, just as long as they get turned to the specified condition.

With Echos all over the house she might answer "OK" for just about anywhere. Sometimes from more than one room; I haven't figured out how that works.

I do care which one does a drop in though, nothing more disconcerting than saying "Drop in to the bedroom" from the living room, and having to yell at the Echo in the kitchen. Then yelling at her to hang up, and having the living room Echo saying "There are no active conversations".

ARRGH!!!