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My journey with Alexa and smart home pinball room

Nice Tony :thumbs: Have you had to install new skills to the Echo or just use what it came with out of the box. I had mine connected to a smart plug in the kitchen for a bit but because I only had 1 plug it powered on all 3 System 11 games at once which blew the breaker so I stopped using it :D I'm guessing you've got smart plugs for each machine but then how do you get it to turn them all on and off at once?
 
Haha this is great! Hopefully moving soon and I think I may need to do something similar with the pinball room. Thanks for the inspiration!
 
ronsplooter said:
Nice Tony :thumbs: Have you had to install new skills to the Echo or just use what it came with out of the box. I had mine connected to a smart plug in the kitchen for a bit but because I only had 1 plug it powered on all 3 System 11 games at once which blew the breaker so I stopped using it :D I'm guessing you've got smart plugs for each machine but then how do you get it to turn them all on and off at once?
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Alexa can now group things together. So you can have pinball machines in a group. I’ve had my Pinball’s on this for a while. But I added some code so they come on a few seconds apart.

Lights, home theatre and AV, AC/heating and sonos I’ve had setup on home automation for ages but Alexa makes it usable for the wife etc.

Neil.


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as Neil said Alexa can handle it all now, i have both sonoff switches and tp link smart plugs, the tp link are much better but pricier.
the lights are all Phillips hue which i love
 
Hi Allan, yes they are hue , I bought a 2 m starter and 5 1m extensions.
All just click together
 
Thanks @mission65 - on the back of this, I'm inspired, so I've just bought my first echo dot and some of the sonoff S20 plug sockets (PCworld out of stock on the TP-Link HS100's) . The real challenge for me will be to get alexa to control all my existing X10 Home Automation stuff - but I've just found a site where someone has written some bridging software to make that a reality - this should keep me occupied for a while, once all the kit arrives !!!! :)
 
Beware of the Wi-fi plugs and bulbs - tried many and TP-LINK are the only ones that work 100% of the time - hue occasionally misses commands and quite a few of the other Wi-fi sockets are a nightmare to get working and then either don’t respond or have fallen off the Wi-fi network. Sadly I’ve ordered so many TPlink plugs amazon won’t let me or the Wife order any more! They had s great two plug deal over Xmas.


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thanks @Neil McRae - I will go for the tp-links in the end, but just to prove it all works the sonoff are dirt cheap - just hope china post is quick :) I would have bought from PCWorld but they are out of stock - not surprising as they have then at £25, even the HS110's ( the ones that monitor usage)

My other issue will be the crappy Sky Q wifi mesh network I currently have. I really need to bypass the Sky Q wifi network (leave it to handle the tv's only) and put something much better in for everything else.........hmmm..
 
They were £42 for two through Xmas - I ordered loads of them through my amazon account and the wifes and Now £60 for two or £25 for one. I can’t order any more double ones had to get my daughter to order more! Mental!


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They didn’t work for me unfortunately Neil, I bought six of those dishes from amazon, but no good in my home.
Think it may be that my walls are too thick as never been able to go wireless.
Looks a great product for most situations though I was so hoping it was the answer for me having read great reviews
 
Oh and Alan, forgot to say, I had a terrible time with sonnof, all working and then 2 or 3 would not work, then all stopped, then all working again, Tp link never missed a beat
 
AlanJ said:
Ive just bought 3 - (yes I have a 3rd pin arriving soon.......)
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mission65 said:
They didn’t work for me unfortunately Neil, I bought six of those dishes from amazon, but no good in my home.
Think it may be that my walls are too thick as never been able to go wireless.
Looks a great product for most situations though I was so hoping it was the answer for me having read great reviews
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is your house a new build?

Neil.
 
From a signal strength POV there isn’t likely anything more stronger - not legally anyway! - maybe different antennas and potentially MIMO but price will be seriously high.

The real problem is going to be 5GHz not passing through your walls and 2.4 being congested. Give it a go - worst case we offer 30 day money back guarantee.

Neil
 
If you upgrade the Sonoff firmware it seems to be a lot more reliable, you can also upgrade them so not reliant on their servers for off-campus control (eg switching heating on when leaving work etc)
 
BigIan said:
If you upgrade the Sonoff firmware it seems to be a lot more reliable, you can also upgrade them so not reliant on their servers for off-campus control (eg switching heating on when leaving work etc)
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Thanks for this - I have some sonoff's on their way and also just got my hands on the tp-link ones - I'll give them a try as soon as my Echo dot arrives - for a change amazon are being slow to deliver this..........

The real fun bit for me is going to be getting Alexa to control my old X10 Home automation stuff around the house !!!!
 
Might have to get an echo dot, been using domoticz for home automation.
 
BigIan said:
If you upgrade the Sonoff firmware it seems to be a lot more reliable, you can also upgrade them so not reliant on their servers for off-campus control (eg switching heating on when leaving work etc)
Click to expand...


Which firmware are you using, I have the latest fan one, but very flakey
 
Monkeyboypaul said:
Cat6A all the way!
WiFi isn’t reliable enough, but these Ubiquiti Access Points are proving to be pretty solid.
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I always like hearing about those that use cat6 when 5e is fine ;) It’s cheaper, doesn’t have the thickness of 6 and most importantly it’s **** loads easier to terminate and get working right! Only time I go for cat6 is in my server cabinet - pre made cables - or if I’m burying it or putting it somewhere that changing it out will be hard - around the house 5e is perfect! I’ve got 40Gb/sec to my house and cat 5e works fine for around the house connectivity :)YMMV :)

Neil
 
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