Amazon Echo Club

[booklover6]

Does anyone know if you can plug earbuds into the Dot Aux port and listen that way?

Originally Posted by booklover6

Does anyone know if you can plug earbuds into the Dot Aux port and listen that way?

I just tried it and it works well with a wired headset/earbuds. Careful though, I had her volume turned up pretty loud, so it blasted through the headset. Be sure to turn down the volume first.

I think you can also connect an Echo, Tap, and Dot to a BT headset as well. They can be connected to BT speakers for sure.

[booklover6]

Originally Posted by jswinden

I just tried it and it works well with a wired headset/earbuds. .

Thanks! There may be times I am sitting at my desk top and want to listen via the Dot, w/o subjecting my MIL to my music.

[Catlady]

I've set up my Dot now; haven't done anything but tell it to play Christmas music for me. I'm listening to a 100-song album; I wanted to know what number track it was on (so I'd know how many tracks were left) but when I ask it just tells me the track name and the singer.

I suppose I should start saying "she," not "it"!

Originally Posted by Catlady

I've set up my Dot now; haven't done anything but tell it to play Christmas music for me. I'm listening to a 100-song album; I wanted to know what number track it was on (so I'd know how many tracks were left) but when I ask it just tells me the track name and the singer.

I suppose I should start saying "she," not "it"!

Open the Alexa app on your phone/tablet then select Now Playing --> Queue tab for a list of songs that are queued up and waiting to be played. Or select History to see what has already played.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by jswinden

Open the Alexa app on your phone/tablet then select Now Playing --> Queue tab for a list of songs that are queued up and waiting to be played. Or select History to see what has already played.

Thanks; I looked at the album on my PC, didn't think of looking at the tablet.

So ... I'm all happy playing music on from my Dot when suddenly I'm in front of my stereo and I notice that one speaker is silent. After a bit of fooling around with it and checking connections and switching which speaker is connected to which input, it looks like one of the inputs on the receiver isn't working. So now I apparently need a new stereo. First world problems abound!

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by copyrite

Great for the weather enthusiasts amongst us!

Out of curiosity I asked what the forecast was for Christmas and got the reply "I only have weather information for the next ten days"

Then I asked
"Ask Accuweather (skill, already enabled) what the forecast is for Christmas and got the reply

"I only have weather information for the next fifteen days".

I like Accuweather because it gives the 'real feel' temp.

It seems, though, by the time either gives me the full forecast I've forgotten what the current temperature is!

It's also fun when online friends say it's cold where they are to ask her "What's the weather in [insert city]" to see what their definition of cold is.

Thanks I'll give it a try! My main use for Alexa is weather.

Sent from my XT1528

[Yolina]

Has my Dot been drinking? Alexa just piped up saying something along the lines of "sorry, I didn't quite get that" but I hadn't said anything, there's no TV or music on either

[Catlady]

Anyone have any ideas on how to get Dot to play nice with a Bluetooth device? I have a BlueGate RXT transmitter/receiver that I have plugged into a non-Bluetooth speaker, but Dot can't see it. Dot tells me to use the Alexa app for a new device; in the app, the BlueGate shows up in the list of available speakers, but when I click on it, Dot and the app tell me it can't pair.

I was able to pair Dot with my little shower speaker with no trouble. And I've successfully paired the BlueGate with other devices before, and when I tried last night to newly pair it with the Fire tablet, it worked fine. It seems to have a compatibility issue with the Dot, although I looked up the specs, and it should work. Anyone have any ideas? (I did contact BlueGate support and am waiting for a reply.) Or is anyone using an external Bluetooth receiver that works with Dot? Thanks.

Originally Posted by Yolina

Has my Dot been drinking? Alexa just piped up saying something along the lines of "sorry, I didn't quite get that" but I hadn't said anything, there's no TV or music on either

LOL! Yep they do that every once in a while. Mostly my Echo and Dot do that when the TV is on or one of my ham radios is on. Occasionaly they pick up noise from the neighborhood. But I think electronic noise can also trigger them to do that. If you could see all the radio waves bouncing around your house you would probably be quite surprised, but nearly every gadget we own creates them. Occasionally those electromagnetic waves cause interference. I've heard static from interference coming over my radios at the same time that Alexa will suddenly wake up and say she didn't understand my request, which was never asked of course. I also see Alexa light up a lot for a brief moment but never make a sound. I guess in those cases she thought perhaps I was asking a question but then determined I wasn't.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Yolina

Has my Dot been drinking? Alexa just piped up saying something along the lines of "sorry, I didn't quite get that" but I hadn't said anything, there's no TV or music on either

It's Christmas time and you're being visited by the Ghost of Echos Yet to Come

[DreamWriter]

Originally Posted by Catlady

Anyone have any ideas on how to get Dot to play nice with a Bluetooth device? I have a BlueGate RXT transmitter/receiver that I have plugged into a non-Bluetooth speaker, but Dot can't see it. Dot tells me to use the Alexa app for a new device; in the app, the BlueGate shows up in the list of available speakers, but when I click on it, Dot and the app tell me it can't pair.

I was able to pair Dot with my little shower speaker with no trouble. And I've successfully paired the BlueGate with other devices before, and when I tried last night to newly pair it with the Fire tablet, it worked fine. It seems to have a compatibility issue with the Dot, although I looked up the specs, and it should work. Anyone have any ideas? (I did contact BlueGate support and am waiting for a reply.) Or is anyone using an external Bluetooth receiver that works with Dot? Thanks.

Are you sure that your BlueGate RXT is in receiver mode (not transmitter mode)?

I pair my Echo Dot to a Creative Sound Blaster Roar speaker and Avantree Audition Pro wireless Bluetooth headphones. I put the headphones in pairing mode before telling Dot to connect, but she connects to the Sound Blaster automatically as soon as I turn the speaker on. This is after initial setup in the Alexa app, of course.

Hope you're able to solve the problem!

So one of the main things I wanted from my purchase of a Dot was to be able control the thermostat in my home by voice from anywhere in the house. So as one example if I'm sitting on the couch reading and starting to feel chilled I could turn up the set temperature without getting up off the couch. Or I could be reading in bed and when I wished to turn the temperature down for the night I could do so without getting out of the bed.

So after a search of Alexa compatible thermostats I settled on this one considering cost, compatibility with my existing furnace, ease of installation, and wanting to be able to control the thermostat from my phone while away from home.

Sensi Smart Thermostat, Wi-Fi, UP500W, Works with Amazon Alexa



I expected to be able to complete the entire project on my own, but have encountered one problem. My current thermostat has only two control wires connected; the red wire and the white wire used to turn the furnace on and off. It turns out that the Sensi Smart thermostat requires connecting the C (common wire) from the furnace as well. My control wiring has three unused wires so if I knew what terminal at the furnace corresponds to the C-wire I could do that myself. Unfortunately I do not have a manual for my furnace and so may need to pay a plumbing and heater contractor.


Other than that I'm really finding the Dot useful. Already I can use voice control on several house lights. Listen to NPR, Pandora, and My Music. Still finding additional uses.

One complaint. I did not sleep well last night so after getting up at my usual 5:00 am and having a light breakfast I decided to try and get some additional sleep. I set Alexa to sound an alarm in an hour. That worked, but I forgot the specific command to stop the damn alarm. Design flaw in my opinion. I think just the command "stop" should tell Alexa to stop whatever it is currently doing.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by DreamWriter

Are you sure that your BlueGate RXT is in receiver mode (not transmitter mode)?

Yes; that was the first thing I checked. And, as I mentioned, I was able to pair my Fire tablet when I tried that, plus of course the other devices that had previously been set up.

I pair my Echo Dot to a Creative Sound Blaster Roar speaker and Avantree Audition Pro wireless Bluetooth headphones. I put the headphones in pairing mode before telling Dot to connect, but she connects to the Sound Blaster automatically as soon as I turn the speaker on. This is after initial setup in the Alexa app, of course.

Dot connected to another Bluetooth device without any trouble. In addition to telling me it can't find the BlueGate RXT (which I can see in the Alexa app), it tells me to go to settings and "forget" the Dot and try again. But the BlueGate doesn't have any settings to show. I can't find any info about a factory reset either. I'm just baffled.

[DreamWriter]

Originally Posted by Hamlet53

One complaint. I did not sleep well last night so after getting up at my usual 5:00 am and having a light breakfast I decided to try and get some additional sleep. I set Alexa to sound an alarm in an hour. That worked, but I forgot the specific command to stop the damn alarm. Design flaw in my opinion. I think just the command "stop" should tell Alexa to stop whatever it is currently doing.

I agree. It'd be nice if we didn't have to speak the wake word, but then Alexa wouldn't know we were addressing her.

You don't need to say the wake word when using the Alexa Voice Remote for Amazon Echo and Echo Dot. You can just press the button on the remote and say "Stop." It's also handy because you don't have to yell commands at the device across the room. At $29.99, it is pricey, though.