KEN-JENNINGS wrote:
SuperJail Warden wrote:
I got an Amazon Echo Plus and a bunch of smart light bulbs. So I can turn off my lights with my voice now. Amazing. I am going to get more smart devices.
Did you already set them up? I've heard a lot of horror stories from people doing DIY Smart Home installs. I'm interested to hear your experience.
You could even say i'm hoping that you'll keep us updated.
Well first off my parents bought me the wrong one from Best Buy. They bought me the second generation Echo which was $89.99, they should have bought me the second generation echo plus. Same exact box and look but one says plus and cost $149.99 alone but $149.99 with a free bulb on Amazon.com. Anyway the Echo plus has a built in hub that works with almost everything. The regular echo doesn't have a built in hub and you instead have to buy and set up a hub device. I think each different manufacturer has their own hubs if they even decide to make a hub and not just use the Amazon on board hub. Once you have the echo plus linked to your Amazon account, Amazon will let you know if you need a hub or not to run whatever you want to buy. After I got the Echo Plus, I haven't seen a product that needs a hub since. If you go to Best Buy, they have an entire section of Echo devices and shit that works with it too.
tl;dr Get the Echo Plus
Setting everything up was super easy. You just need to connect the free phone app to your Echo. If you don't ever feel like talking to your echo, you can use the app to do things too and the app is pretty snappy. I didn't have to fuck with the bulbs to put them into pairing mode or anything as soon as they were screwed in and power went to it, the Echo picked them up and let my phone know. When you set up the bulbs, you can tell the Echo which room you are putting it in so you can control your "bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, living room" etc. independently. You can dime the lights or turn off each light individually. So I can say "dim light 1 5%" or "dim bedroom lights 50%".
tl;dr very easy to set up and use.
Also be careful when you go to buy some smart home device. Google has their competing Google Home device. Google also owns Nest which makes a ton of smart devices. Nest says their shit works with the Echo but probably not as well as it should be since it is a competing platform so just stick with Amazon Echo only devices for best support.
