Help Controlling Ceiling Fan, Lights, TV and Older Stereo

[ayemac]

I’m considering the purchase of the Dot for Christmas, and I started pondering what it would take to accomplish some of the goals I’d like to see while using it. I’ve posed my goals with concerns and questions below. Any assistance would be appreciated.


1)   Connect to 7-year old stereo receiver: I have a receiver that’s in my bedroom (horrible location) but that’s also currently connected to whole-home audio speakers – about ten in total. Ideally I’d like to say, “Alexa, turn on receiver and play music,” or whatever the command is to do this rather than walk back to the bedroom to complete this. Additionally, about every two or three speakers have a wall-mounted turn dial “old school” volume control that can be set for individual zones. I’ve done research to find devices like the HomeSpot NFC Enabled Bluetooth Receiver that appear to be able to accomplish this, and I’m aware that I could leverage the existing cables (I think 3.5mm-to-composite or 3.5mm-to-3.5mm). Ultimately, here are my questions:
a.   Can I turn on the receiver and adjust the volume with the Dot, or can I just do one or the other?
b.   How can I control the receiver via the Dot if they’re in the bedroom but I’m on the other side of the wall (open hallway) and about 50’ away? This just doesn’t seem possible.


2)   Control two or more lights in room(s): This seems straight forward, but I have a few questions. I have recently replaced five or six ceiling flush-mounted canned lights with LED replacement kits. Additionally I have two “eyeball” recessed lights that are rotated towards the fire place. The switch has three switches on it – two that are horizontal (one controls one zone of lights; the other controls the other zone), and one that is vertical. This controls the ceiling fan (see question 3).
a.   Is there a solution to integrate with existing LED lights? I believe there are switches that are compatible, but my switch is a bit odd.
b.   Are there LED options for the two eyeball fixtures, or are they just standard “looking” bulbs? These are canned lights, if that makes a difference.
c.   When purchasing lights, do you need an additional module to get them to work? Or are some lights Alexa-enabled by themselves?


3)   Control ceiling fan: This would just be turning it on or off – something we do often. I know they have Alexa-enabled fans, but I have a perfectly good fan and don’t like the looks of the others anyway.
a.   Can this be done with the switch?
b.   If so, can this switch be tailored to fit the odd shape of mine? It seems like these switches are just single switches, whereas mine is a three switch setup.


4)   Control TV & Bose speaker: I have a Sony TV that’s relatively new (less than a year) and a center Bluetooth Bose speaker (Solo 5). I know I can connect the speaker via Bluetooth.
a.   Can I also turn on the TV and the speaker with the Dot?
b.   How does it connect to the TV – Bluetooth (doubtful)? Or a Wemo outlet?


Thanks in advance for any assistance!

[inconnu_homme]

You might have a misunderstanding of what exactly Dot can do.  A Dot can control smart devices.  For the most part, this involves turning on & off devices.  These smart devices are connected to your network.  That's why you can control devices in other rooms.  So in order to turn on/off a device, it has to be connected through either a smart switch or outlet.  If you want to connect to your receiver through a Bluetooth receiver, it has to be within Bluetooth range.  That's why Amazon priced the Dot the way they have.  They are hoping people buy several units to place throughout their homes.  As far as controlling your TV/Bose speaker, most people use a Harmony Hub which has direct Alexa integration.

[ayemac]

Thanks for the response. You're correct - I'm a little fuzzy on how to leverage this, but your comments makes sense. So on/off functionality as long as it's connected - got it. So for the receiver, I'm thinking a Belkin Wemo outlet would suffice. Correct? Or are you saying that, by pricing them so low, that I should consider TWO Dots - one connected to the receiver; the other on the other side of the house? If that's the case, do the Dots handshake with each other - meaning, can I ask to turn on the receiver from one side of the house and it'll recognize on the one connected to the receiver?

Regarding the Harmony Hub, would you mind putting in a link? I searched for it and found a slew of options, so I'd like to ensure that I'm looking at the right device.

Any ideas on the light switches? All the switches I see are the standard one gang.

[inconnu_homme]

For control (i.e. on/off) the dot can be anywhere.  So, you would typically place the dot where you would most likely be spending the most time in, like your living room.  From there you can control your smart devices - turn on/off, dim lights (if you have those type bulbs or smart dimmers), etc.  If you wanted to connect to your receiver through bluetooth, then dot would have to be within range.  It's not necessary, but that's where multiple dots come in handy.  Otherwise if you just had one dot, then it would have to be located near the receiver.  If you have multiple dots and the receiver was connected to a smart outlet, then you can turn it on/off from any dot.  Not sure it if connects to bluetooth if you give the command to another dot.

I'm having trouble picturing what kind of switches you have.  All of the smart switches I know of are typical one gang switches.  Another option is to use smart bulbs instead.  The only issue is that the switch will always have to be ON.

[DParker]

Here's how all this works with regard to "smart" home devices:

Your Dot doesn't (or in your case, won't...since you don't have it yet) actually control anything.  It merely acts as a voice input/speech output interface device to the Alexa service running on Amazon's servers, to which your Dot is connected via the internet (actually, to your WiFi router, and from there to the internet), which handles things from there.  As an example, let's assume you have opted to go with the Philips Hue Bridge and bulbs as the "smart lighting" solution for your home.  Let's further assume that you've named one of the Hue bulbs "Hallway Light" and made it available for control by Alexa (we'll ignore the details of how that is accomplished for now, as it's not important here.)  When you say to your Dot, "Alexa, turn on the hallway light" the following sequence of events (simplified and abstracted to some degree, but accurate enough for our purpose here) happens:

• Your speech is converted into digital data by hardware and software inside of the Dot.
• The resulting data is sent across the internet to an Amazon server implementing the Alexa service.
• That service interprets the digitized speech data and recognizes it as an instruction to turn on the device that you've named "Hallway Light".  It also recognizes that "Hallway Light" is a Philips Hue Bridge-controlled device.
• The service converts your command into a request that is recognized by the Philips Hue cloud-based service interface and forwards that request across the internet to a Philips server on which the aforementioned Hue service runs.
• The Hue server software interprets the request from the Amazon server and converts it into a form that is recognized by the Hue Bridge in your home, and forwards that version of the request across the internet to the Bridge.
• The Hue Bridge in your home receives the request and converts it into a Zigbee protocol (Google that if you're interested in what Zigbee is all about) command, which it then sends (via a wireless RF signal) to the Hue light bulb that you've named "Hallway Light".
• The Zigbee module in the Hue light bulb interprets the command from the Hue Bridge and turns on the bulb's LED.
• The Zigbee module then sends an acknowledgement back to the Bridge that it has received and successfully implemented the "On" command it received.
• The Hue Bridge sends a successful acknowledgement back to the Hue server.
• The Hue server sends a successful acknowledgement back to the Amazon server.
• The Amazon server sends a successful acknowledgement back to your Dot.
• Your Dot says, "OK".

I won't bore you with the details of why things are done this way, but there are very good reasons for it.  And, believe it or not, it generally works quite well.

As you can see, this all means that the placement of your Dot(s) relative to the device(s) you wish to control with it/them is irrelevant, as no direct communication occurs between the Dots and the target devices.

[ayemac]

I'm having trouble picturing what kind of switches you have.  All of the smart switches I know of are typical one gang switches.  Another option is to use smart bulbs instead.  The only issue is that the switch will always have to be ON.

This is what I'm talking about. The vertical switch on the left controls the ceiling fan; the other two horizontal switches on the right control the lights.

[ayemac]

DParker ~ Great info and pretty clear. Now I can definitely say I misunderstood the way this worked.

[DParker]

This is what I'm talking about. The vertical switch on the left controls the ceiling fan; the other two horizontal switches on the right control the lights.

The ceiling fan switch is easy enough to replace with something like the GE 12730 Z-Wave switch (I have one and it works flawlessly), but that duplex light switch might be a challenge. I'm not aware of anyone who makes a "smart" version of those.

[DParker]

By the way, the Echo initially used UPnP for discovery of Belkin's line of WeMo switches (and only the switches) and the Philips Hue bridge, and then an HTTP interface for control commands, both directly across the local network.  I recall reading about a year ago that there were some problems with that local control mechanism, and that they were switching both integrations over to the cloud-based architecture.

I haven't been able to find confirmation that the change ever took place, so my description sbove might in fact not be accurate for Hue and/or WeMo switches...but it is for everything else.

[kevb]

I've seen these discussed on "smart home" forums: 
https://www.amazon.com/Leviton-VRCS2-MRZ-2-Button-Controller-Multi-Location/dp/B0032ZB9HI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1478795777&sr=8-1&keywords=zwave+two+button+scene+controller 

I have several rooms with switches like ayemac's. I'll probably replace with a three gang box or rewire fixtures.

Edit: added pic

[Technospeak]

This is what I'm talking about. The vertical switch on the left controls the ceiling fan; the other two horizontal switches on the right control the lights.

The ceiling fan switch is easy enough to replace with something like the GE 12730 Z-Wave switch (I have one and it works flawlessly), but that duplex light switch might be a challenge. I'm not aware of anyone who makes a "smart" version of those.

So that is what is referred to as a "stacked" switch meaning there are 2 load wires in a single gang.  No one currently makes a stacked smart switch-- believe us we get this question all the time.  A couple of different options would be: (1) tie the two light together so they go on and off at the same time, then you would have the room in the box for a smart switch (2) If one of those lights is part of a 3-way circuit, disconnect one side and use a Lutron Pico or other similar programmed keypad to act as a "programmed" 3-way circuit.  (3) Wire these two lights as always on in the box and then get some Hue or other Z-wave controlled bulbs and turn them on or off independently using your smart phone.

[DParker]

I've seen these discussed on "smart home" forums: 
https://www.amazon.com/Leviton-VRCS2-MRZ-2-Button-Controller-Multi-Location/dp/B0032ZB9HI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1478795777&sr=8-1&keywords=zwave+two+button+scene+controller 

I have several rooms with switches like ayemac's. I'll probably replace with a three gang box or rewire fixtures.

Edit: added pic

$139.99?  Yikes!  Also, the reviews are less than stellar (pun intended).

[kevb]

Yes, for that price it's cheaper to get 3 switches and a larger gangbox. I have a veraplus, and people have gotten it to work with that. But it does exist!