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Amazon Echos are now officially available in Canada. Rather a popular choice for pairing with Home Automation systems.
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Nov 18, 2017 23:30
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Is there any way to group individual devices into a larger "device" in HomeKit? My issue is that I have a three-bulb light fixture in my kitchen and living room. Using siri to "turn on lights in my living room" is fine but if I want to use my apple watch to do the same I have to either use siri or to tap on three separate light bulbs. This is also not the worst thing ever but I can see myself adding more smart bulbs in the future so having to hunt down the three that belong to my ceiling fixture is annoying. I'd like to group all three of those bulbs into "Ceiling fixture" and I'd love to just tap one thing to enable all three at the same time. Edit: ehh, scenes work well enough but it’s clunky having no fine grain control without creating a separate scene for every setting I can think of for my Lights to have. some kinda jackal fucked around with this message at 05:12 on Nov 19, 2017 |
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Nov 19, 2017 03:57
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No, Home has no concept of “groups”. Which seems really stupid to me, but my thinking may be influenced by the fact that I used Echo Dots first before Home.
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Nov 19, 2017 06:24
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The gently caress? Home does absolutely support that. Choose any individual light and go to details. There’s a “group with other accessories” there. You can give it a group name and from then on you control the group and not each individual bulb. Speaking of bulbs I’m happy to see Hue have both white ambiance and color E12 candle bulbs but but come the gently caress on the color ones should not be $50. Having to wait for sales before I buy anymore is killing me, I just want to finish my condo (mostly E12’s now). Happy Noodle Boy fucked around with this message at 07:47 on Nov 19, 2017 |
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Nov 19, 2017 07:40
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wow, somehow I missed that group option the entire hour and change I spent playing with Home. Thanks!
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Nov 19, 2017 14:27
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Heners_UK posted:Amazon Echos are now officially available in Canada. Rather a popular choice for pairing with Home Automation systems. Not until December 5th. Configuring an existing Echo for Canada can result in a bit of a mess, but support says it’ll be resolved on the 5th.
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Nov 19, 2017 16:58
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Is the Arlo Q a reasonable choice for a no-nonsense WiFi camera for making sure that my cat isn’t dead and that the pet sitter is checking in on him while I travel? My priorities are really just reliability and ease of access (iOS app and maybe a web login for my laptop?). I don’t need it to trigger home automation stuff or even send me alerts.
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Nov 19, 2017 17:44
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Happy Noodle Boy posted:The gently caress? Home does absolutely support that. Choose any individual light and go to details. There’s a “group with other accessories” there. You can give it a group name and from then on you control the group and not each individual bulb.
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Nov 19, 2017 19:00
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Random question: Are there any wired Z-Wave devices (like switches/outlets) that also do powerline networking? I have no specific need, but it seems to me like an obvious lay-up to piggyback on a powerline signal as a backhaul and use all the wired Z-wave devices as 1-hop nodes on a mesh backbone. Is it just that the functionality would be too bulky/the mesh protocol is robust enough that there wouldn't be a significant benefit? e: Homeseer is having a sale this week. Switches and dimmers are 10-12% off, among other things. ee: Does anyone have any experience with hinge pin door sensors? They seem like a great alternative to moulding-mounted sensors. Hubis fucked around with this message at 00:53 on Nov 20, 2017 |
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Nov 20, 2017 00:38
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Hubis posted:
I looked into them and the reviews are hit and miss. I went with in door sensors and they’ve been great. They’re also substantially cheaper. If drilling is an option, I’d suggest them.
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Nov 20, 2017 02:26
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Hubis posted:Random question: Are there any wired Z-Wave devices (like switches/outlets) that also do powerline networking? I have no specific need, but it seems to me like an obvious lay-up to piggyback on a powerline signal as a backhaul and use all the wired Z-wave devices as 1-hop nodes on a mesh backbone. Is it just that the functionality would be too bulky/the mesh protocol is robust enough that there wouldn't be a significant benefit? I know insteon uses wireless and powerline networking. I don't have any experience with it though.
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Nov 20, 2017 03:15
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Star War Sex Parrot posted:Is the Arlo Q a reasonable choice for a no-nonsense WiFi camera for making sure that my cat isn’t dead and that the pet sitter is checking in on him while I travel? My priorities are really just reliability and ease of access (iOS app and maybe a web login for my laptop?). I don’t need it to trigger home automation stuff or even send me alerts. I use a Nest Cam for this purpose and I've been told the Arlo Q pretty much gives an identical experience.
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Nov 20, 2017 15:39
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Neon Belly posted:I use a Nest Cam for this purpose and I've been told the Arlo Q pretty much gives an identical experience. I use the original Arlo wireless camera for this reason, works great. Need to replace batteries in the camera about every 6 months or so, but allows much greater flexibility and ease of camera placement without the wires. Only gripe with it, is that the motion detection is a little slow to start recording, so you often miss the first few seconds of whatever triggered it.
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Nov 20, 2017 15:51
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Best buy is selling Google homes/home minis for really cheap in Canada for black Friday next week. $100 for a home, $50 for a mini
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Nov 20, 2017 17:14
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w00tmonger posted:Best buy is selling Google homes/home minis for really cheap in Canada for black Friday next week. Meanwhile here in trumpland you'll be able to get the Mini for basically $4 from Walmart. You have to link Walmart to your Google account and purchase something through Google Express to get $25 gift card and it's going to be on sale for $29. Also,the Mini is really good.
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Nov 20, 2017 18:51
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To clarify you get the $25 gift card for use on Walmart through Google Express after you have linked your Google Express account to Walmart and you buy a Google Home from Walmart. So if you buy a Google Home from Walmart for $29 for Black Friday then once you get it and activate it, and link your Google Express account to your Walmart account, then you will get the $25 coupon offer for Walmart through Google Express in the Home app.
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Nov 20, 2017 18:59
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w00tmonger posted:Best buy is selling Google homes/home minis for really cheap in Canada for black Friday next week. Basically matching Amazon Echo introductory pricing there. I'm tempted to get both in some regards.
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Nov 20, 2017 20:47
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Red Warrior posted:To clarify you get the $25 gift card for use on Walmart through Google Express after you have linked your Google Express account to Walmart and you buy a Google Home from Walmart. OK can someone explain this deal better to me because I keep hearing about it. I already used a Google Express promo, is it a first time deal only or Walmart promo that works with existing express accounts? And is the promo if you buy a new Google Home from Walmart or can I used my existing ones to place an order? And on top of that since I have two Google Homes can I link one to my account and one to my partners and get $50?
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Nov 20, 2017 20:50
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So between the Echo and Google Home, would either of them be better than the other if all I’m looking for is something to have in the living room (maybe a 2nd one for the bedroom) to control my Hue lights?
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Nov 20, 2017 20:52
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Happy Noodle Boy posted:So between the Echo and Google Home, would either of them be better than the other if all I’m looking for is something to have in the living room (maybe a 2nd one for the bedroom) to control my Hue lights? I think they're basically identical for that task.
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Nov 20, 2017 21:10
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Based on all the reviews I've read so far the Echo devices can currently interact with a larger ecosystem of devices in the home automation world, but most of the big name stuff works with both and Google is catching up quickly. Hue should be supported equally well on both. If you have a lot of Chromecasts or Fire TVs then which one works with those should be pretty obvious. For other "assistant" roles the Google stuff seems to be regarded as better.
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Nov 20, 2017 21:27
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I run into a lot of issues with false trigger detection with my Echo. Very frequently triggers on speech that sounds (to me) nothing like the trigger keyword. I've spent a lot of time "voice training" it too. Initially this wasn't a big deal, but it's kind of grated on me over the months. I don't have a google home so I'm not sure how much of an issue it has, but I do have an android phone I've not really had that happen on.
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Nov 20, 2017 21:49
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Three Olives posted:OK can someone explain this deal better to me because I keep hearing about it. I already used a Google Express promo, is it a first time deal only or Walmart promo that works with existing express accounts? And is the promo if you buy a new Google Home from Walmart or can I used my existing ones to place an order? And on top of that since I have two Google Homes can I link one to my account and one to my partners and get $50? You need to buy a Google Home from Walmart. When you activate it on your Google account, then you get the 'coupon'.
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Nov 20, 2017 22:09
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PBS posted:I run into a lot of issues with false trigger detection with my Echo. Very frequently triggers on speech that sounds (to me) nothing like the trigger keyword. I've spent a lot of time "voice training" it too. Initially this wasn't a big deal, but it's kind of grated on me over the months. I don't have an Echo to compare, but in the month-ish I've had my Home Mini, I've never had a false trigger. I can't say whether that would be your experience, but there's some dubiously-useful information for you.
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Nov 20, 2017 22:41
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I have a bunch of Homes and every once in a while I'll see a false trigger but very rarely, maybe once every three or so months. Even when you'd think TV would definitely trigger it, like where they explicitly say "Okay Google" it doesn't do anything (though it does light up to indicate that it heard it). I can tell you definitively that it's a complete non-issue in use.
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Nov 20, 2017 22:46
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Last question can either of them have their trigger changed or are you stuck with Alexa / Ok Google?
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Nov 20, 2017 22:47
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Happy Noodle Boy posted:Last question can either of them have their trigger changed or are you stuck with Alexa / Ok Google? Google Homes cannot. It's either "Hey Google" or "Okay Google" and that is it.
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Nov 20, 2017 22:52
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Happy Noodle Boy posted:Last question can either of them have their trigger changed or are you stuck with Alexa / Ok Google? Echo lets you use Alexa, Amazon, Echo, or Computer.
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Nov 20, 2017 22:56
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Google Assistant/Home audio processing engineers will tell you that a 2-syllable wake word like “Echo” is hard to make resistant to false positives.
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Nov 21, 2017 00:22
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Neon Belly posted:I use a Nest Cam for this purpose and I've been told the Arlo Q pretty much gives an identical experience. Slash posted:I use the original Arlo wireless camera for this reason, works great.
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Nov 21, 2017 00:27
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Subjunctive posted:Google Assistant/Home audio processing engineers will tell you that a 2-syllable wake word like “Echo” is hard to make resistant to false positives. Apparently Google has managed it.
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Nov 21, 2017 00:47
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Thermopyle posted:Apparently Google has managed it. How so? All their wake phrases are 3/4 syllables. I mean, this is what an engineer on that team at Google told me was the reason they didn’t allow “Hey, Home” even. Maybe they’ve advanced since then, in which case I’d love to know more. Subjunctive fucked around with this message at 00:55 on Nov 21, 2017 |
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Nov 21, 2017 00:53
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Not if you're counting the Hey or Okay.
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Nov 21, 2017 00:53
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Subjunctive posted:How so? All their wake phrases are 3/4 syllables. Sorry, you said word and not phrase so I thought you were saying there was something special about word vs phrase.
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Nov 21, 2017 00:59
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Thermopyle posted:Sorry, you said word and not phrase so I thought you were saying there was something special about word vs phrase. Oh, sorry, it’s just a word on Echo, which is what I have, so I was a bit loose with my terminology.
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Nov 21, 2017 01:50
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Happy Noodle Boy posted:Last question can either of them have their trigger changed or are you stuck with Alexa / Ok Google?
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Nov 21, 2017 05:50
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My AliExpress order showed up! IPC-HDW5231R-Z on the left and IPC-HFW5231E-Z12 on the right.  My first two thoughts were "oh... That bullet cam is kinda big" and "hey, they are metal construction, not plastic toys like I was expecting/feared" I figured the cameras would produce essentially the same image with the exception that the bullet could zoom in further, but there definitely is something else going here. The following images were taken with similar exposure settings with the lighting a bit too dim to comfortably read. Bullet on left, turret on right:   Night mode without IR illumination:   Night mode with IR illumination:   I might have mixed up which turret image had the IR on, but I can tell for sure the bullet cam has an IR filter that slides into place. That is why you can't make out the image on that poster in the background. It also seems to have much less noise than the turret. I can't think of an explanation for that. My settings were: Shutter:0-16ms Gain:0-50 Aperture: full open on bullet / auto selected on turret (the turret did not have a manual aperture control. I suspect it might just be a pinhole that slides in place instead of an Iris) All noise reduction bullshit settings turned off. It creates artifacts when there is motion.
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Nov 21, 2017 15:45
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I've got both an Alexa ( bed room ) and Google Home ( living room). I live in a small place w/ my gf, about 750sqft. She had the alexa before we moved in together. The Alexa gives me a ton of issues. It barely understands me. I tend to have a soft mumbled voice tho. Its ok on her, but a lot of times it just cannot complete what ever she asks it. We use the google home much more often, even from the bedroom. I'll be getting a mini on the black friday deal to replace the alexa. I also have a chromecast in the living room, and I use google play music / youtube between the 2 devices a lot. Alexa is mostly just for weather at this point. The one issue she has with the Google Home is if it is playing music already, it does not trigger on her 'ok google / hey google' very well. It picks me up much better, but that is probably from the android phone that is almost always on me.. I've not tried making sure the phone isnt on me enough to be sure.
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Nov 21, 2017 17:25
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If I'm interested in music playback (in addition to all the other things they can do), would the Home be an appreciably better experience over the Home Mini?
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Nov 21, 2017 19:29
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IAmKale posted:If I'm interested in music playback (in addition to all the other things they can do), would the Home be an appreciably better experience over the Home Mini? Yes. That being said, using a Chromecast Audio will be an even bigger difference and if you do that then there's no difference between the Home Mini and the Home. Either plays music on the Chromecast Audio seamlessly.
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Nov 21, 2017 20:15
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