Turning on lights in different rooms with different Echos

[LantanaAl]

What am I missing? Why is this so hard?

I have multiple echos (in different rooms) and multiple lights (in different rooms).

If I say to the Echo in room #1 "turn on the lights" then I want it to turn on the lights in room #1.
If I say to the Echo in room #2 "turn on the lights" then I want it to turn on the lights in room #2.
If I say to the Echo in room #3 "turn on the lights" then I want it to turn on the lights in room #3.

Is this not possible? How can this be setup?

Maybe I don't understand what it means to set specific Echo devices for specific groups in the Alexa app?

Thanks.

[renegade600]

you will have to have separate amazon accounts if you want to use the very same names for different rooms otherwise, use different names for each room.

[LantanaAl]

you will have to have separate amazon accounts if you want to use the very same names for different rooms otherwise, use different names for each room.

That's a bummer... and kind of surprising at this point that this hasn't been added. Doesn't it make sense to be able to make "turn on the lights" mean different lights based on what echo heard the command? Oh well...

[Drwoodr]

It depends on what you want to do.  Just name each light for the room it’s in - eg “Turn on the living room lights.” I find it’s better this way, I can turn on my outside spotlights from anywhere in the house.  Your way, you’d have to run to a specific echo to do that, which defeats the purpose of having the smart switch in the first place.

[scottrods]

If you run an Echo System using multiple dots on separate accounts, you run into issues where the echo in a room will work quite well... but one in another room, that is not completely sound isolated, will hear the command and turn on the lights in that room as well. This is why you must name them differently and use the same system for all in a typical Smart home. I have heard of people having the same account in different locations (home and work for instance), and that will work as long as the lights are set up with the different names as well. But none work in a single home with separate accounts.

I suggest setting up each BULB with a different name, and allow for room Group names as well. as an example, 4 bulbs in the living room would be east lamp, west lamp, north lap and south lamp, to control each separately, then the four of them would be in the Living room group where you can tell each or all to turn on/off. I've tried things in several ways and this seems to keep things from getting backed up and temperamental.

All of this is moot if you can guarantee the dot in one room cannot hear you from another room commanding a different dot.

You CAN also change the wake word for each dot, if you use 4 separate accounts (as an example), that way one does not interfere with the other. But then you have Echo, Amazon, Alexa, and Computer to talk to for each room... Again, doing this requires the separate accounts. As of now, there are only 4 available wake words, so your limitations are from that perspective now... I guess if you can keep the 5th or subsequent ones form being near enough to hear a command from another with the same wake word... you could get more single system set-ups per home. It would need to be a rather large home but the possibilities do exist.

[LantanaAl]

It depends on what you want to do.  Just name each light for the room it’s in - eg “Turn on the living room lights.” I find it’s better this way, I can turn on my outside spotlights from anywhere in the house.  Your way, you’d have to run to a specific echo to do that, which defeats the purpose of having the smart switch in the first place.

Well, no... what I would do if I were designing it would be still label a light(s) like "living room lights" but also be able to set up a group that is only active for certain physical Echos and call that group "lights", which you could then have that group turn on "living room lights" or anything else you want. Because that particular group would only work on the designated (selected) echos then you could have multiple groups with the same name but attached to different Echos. You could also still say "turn on the living room lights" from ANY Echo, but if you said "turn on the lights" and had different "light" groups set up tied to different echos, then it could select the desired group and turn on the appropriate lights... hope I was clear.

[LantanaAl]

If you run an Echo System using multiple dots on separate accounts, you run into issues where the echo in a room will work quite well... but one in another room, that is not completely sound isolated, will hear the command and turn on the lights in that room as well. This is why you must name them differently and use the same system for all in a typical Smart home. I have heard of people having the same account in different locations (home and work for instance), and that will work as long as the lights are set up with the different names as well. But none work in a single home with separate accounts.

I suggest setting up each BULB with a different name, and allow for room Group names as well. as an example, 4 bulbs in the living room would be east lamp, west lamp, north lap and south lamp, to control each separately, then the four of them would be in the Living room group where you can tell each or all to turn on/off. I've tried things in several ways and this seems to keep things from getting backed up and temperamental.

All of this is moot if you can guarantee the dot in one room cannot hear you from another room commanding a different dot.

You CAN also change the wake word for each dot, if you use 4 separate accounts (as an example), that way one does not interfere with the other. But then you have Echo, Amazon, Alexa, and Computer to talk to for each room... Again, doing this requires the separate accounts. As of now, there are only 4 available wake words, so your limitations are from that perspective now... I guess if you can keep the 5th or subsequent ones form being near enough to hear a command from another with the same wake word... you could get more single system set-ups per home. It would need to be a rather large home but the possibilities do exist.

But all this adds unnecessary complexity. In a truly smart home you could say "turn on the lights" and it would turn on the lights for the room you are in based on the echo that heard you. I really don't understand why this hasn't been implemented yet. There shouldn't be any need for multiple accounts.

[Drwoodr]

Well, no... what I would do if I were designing it would be still label a light(s) like "living room lights" but also be able to set up a group that is only active for certain physical Echos and call that group "lights", which you could then have that group turn on "living room lights" or anything else you want. Because that particular group would only work on the designated (selected) echos then you could have multiple groups with the same name but attached to different Echos. You could also still say "turn on the living room lights" from ANY Echo, but if you said "turn on the lights" and had different "light" groups set up tied to different echos, then it could select the desired group and turn on the appropriate lights... hope I was clear.

Now I follow, I missed the part about the groups. I do agree with you, I did run into the same issue with my 2 harmony hubs, and did set up 2 accounts so that the commands for both TVs would be identical. I think I've read that what you are looking for may be something implemented in the future, but it's just not available now. For now, if you do set up multiple accounts, you really do have to worry about activating 2 echos. When I was testing my setup, I did control both TVs if I had the door to my basement open and spoke too loudly.

[renegade600]

If you run an Echo System using multiple dots on separate accounts, you run into issues where the echo in a room will work quite well... but one in another room, that is not completely sound isolated, will hear the command and turn on the lights in that room as well. This is why you must name them differently and use the same system for all in a typical Smart home. I have heard of people having the same account in different locations (home and work for instance), and that will work as long as the lights are set up with the different names as well. But none work in a single home with separate accounts.

I suggest setting up each BULB with a different name, and allow for room Group names as well. as an example, 4 bulbs in the living room would be east lamp, west lamp, north lap and south lamp, to control each separately, then the four of them would be in the Living room group where you can tell each or all to turn on/off. I've tried things in several ways and this seems to keep things from getting backed up and temperamental.

All of this is moot if you can guarantee the dot in one room cannot hear you from another room commanding a different dot.

You CAN also change the wake word for each dot, if you use 4 separate accounts (as an example), that way one does not interfere with the other. But then you have Echo, Amazon, Alexa, and Computer to talk to for each room... Again, doing this requires the separate accounts. As of now, there are only 4 available wake words, so your limitations are from that perspective now... I guess if you can keep the 5th or subsequent ones form being near enough to hear a command from another with the same wake word... you could get more single system set-ups per home. It would need to be a rather large home but the possibilities do exist.

But all this adds unnecessary complexity. In a truly smart home you could say "turn on the lights" and it would turn on the lights for the room you are in based on the echo that heard you. I really don't understand why this hasn't been implemented yet. There shouldn't be any need for multiple accounts.

the thing about the echo and most likely google home is the way sound travels.  someone already mentioned it in a previous post but sometimes you can be standing beside one echo and another one will reply.  it has happened to me several times.

what you are wanting to do would not make it a smart home.  you would not be able to turn off the bedroom light from the living room when you forgotten to turn it off.   you would have to get up from that comfortable recliner and go to that room - how is that smart for a smarthome.   In addition, you would not be able to turn everything off after a power outage at once - you would have to go to each room and turn them off.  in case you don't know, sometimes after a power outage, all the lights will come on.   you would not be able to walk into your home when something does not feel right and turn all the room lights on at once to make sure you are safe and the house is secured.

I do agree that having all the different names can get confusing at first but make the names easy to remember for you, your family and any guests.  uses names like end table, love seat, night stand, living room, sink, bathroom, master bedroom,  soso bedroom, front door  and more. 

[LantanaAl]

what you are wanting to do would not make it a smart home.  you would not be able to turn off the bedroom light from the living room when you forgotten to turn it off.   you would have to get up from that comfortable recliner and go to that room - how is that smart for a smarthome.

You would still be able to do that. You'd just have to say "turn off the bedroom lights" from the living room instead of just "turn off the lights".

In addition, you would not be able to turn everything off after a power outage at once - you would have to go to each room and turn them off.  in case you don't know, sometimes after a power outage, all the lights will come on.   you would not be able to walk into your home when something does not feel right and turn all the room lights on at once to make sure you are safe and the house is secured.

You would still be able to do that if my idea was implemented properly and smartly as I described earlier... and would not need multiple accounts.

[LantanaAl]

Now I follow, I missed the part about the groups. I do agree with you, I did run into the same issue with my 2 harmony hubs, and did set up 2 accounts so that the commands for both TVs would be identical. I think I've read that what you are looking for may be something implemented in the future, but it's just not available now. For now, if you do set up multiple accounts, you really do have to worry about activating 2 echos. When I was testing my setup, I did control both TVs if I had the door to my basement open and spoke too loudly.

Glad you understand and I hope you are right about it being implemented in the future. I'm surprised this hasn't been implemented already since it seems like a basic function of a truly smart home... and I'd think Amazon would want people to put an Echo in (almost) every room.

All they would have to do is to allow groups with the same name and allow groups to be limited to only one or more specific Echo units.... of course groups with the same name AND attached to the same Echo unit would be disallowed because then it wouldn't know which group you were referring to (or, if they wanted, it could treat both groups as what was wanted - actually that might be better).

[asianrocker]

How big is your house that you have multiple living rooms? Or are you just wanting to name all your lights in your house, light?

As for turning off ALL lights at the same time, I have a hue and hue actually automatically added a group named all hue lights and it does turn on/off all the lights at once. I also can't believe one hue bridge can control up to 50 lights.

But for non hue devices, if you want to turn on/off devices all at once make a group and select all your devices and name it ALL. Pretty sure that will  turn on/off your devices all at once.

[LantanaAl]

How big is your house that you have multiple living rooms? Or are you just wanting to name all your lights in your house, light?

As for turning off ALL lights at the same time, I have a hue and hue actually automatically added a group named all hue lights and it does turn on/off all the lights at once. I also can't believe one hue bridge can control up to 50 lights.

But for non hue devices, if you want to turn on/off devices all at once make a group and select all your devices and name it ALL. Pretty sure that will  turn on/off your devices all at once.

It's not just living rooms. There are several bedrooms which Echos in each, so I want to say "turn on the lights" in any of those rooms and it turns on the correct lights.

I do have a group called "everything" so I can say "turn everything off" when I leave the house. Maybe I will rename it "all" because it's easier to say so thanks for that suggestion... that brings up another feature... having multiple names for the same group. Yes I could make 2 groups that do that same thing but that is asking for trouble.....

[elaurence]

What am I missing? Why is this so hard?

I have multiple echos (in different rooms) and multiple lights (in different rooms).

If I say to the Echo in room #1 "turn on the lights" then I want it to turn on the lights in room #1.
If I say to the Echo in room #2 "turn on the lights" then I want it to turn on the lights in room #2.
If I say to the Echo in room #3 "turn on the lights" then I want it to turn on the lights in room #3.

Is this not possible? How can this be setup?

Maybe I don't understand what it means to set specific Echo devices for specific groups in the Alexa app?

Thanks.

Has anyone figured out how to do this since this thread first started 2 years ago?

I have this exact issue. I have 3 Echo-dots in 3 rooms, with a smart light switch in each room.  The devices are far enough away that they don't hear me in room A if I'm in room B. I want to walk into a room and say "turn on the lights" and it will know by default that I mean the room I'm in. If I mean another room, I'll go out of my way to say it. Exactly the way I would in real life if I was asking someone.  How hard can this be? The echo knows which room I'm in, and "default" behavior is not exactly a new programming concept.

If I could get this to work, I'd buy more echos and switches for the rest of the house!

[renegade600]

What am I missing? Why is this so hard?

I have multiple echos (in different rooms) and multiple lights (in different rooms).

If I say to the Echo in room #1 "turn on the lights" then I want it to turn on the lights in room #1.
If I say to the Echo in room #2 "turn on the lights" then I want it to turn on the lights in room #2.
If I say to the Echo in room #3 "turn on the lights" then I want it to turn on the lights in room #3.

Is this not possible? How can this be setup?

Maybe I don't understand what it means to set specific Echo devices for specific groups in the Alexa app?

Thanks.

Has anyone figured out how to do this since this thread first started 2 years ago?

I have this exact issue. I have 3 Echo-dots in 3 rooms, with a smart light switch in each room.  The devices are far enough away that they don't hear me in room A if I'm in room B. I want to walk into a room and say "turn on the lights" and it will know by default that I mean the room I'm in. If I mean another room, I'll go out of my way to say it. Exactly the way I would in real life if I was asking someone.  How hard can this be? The echo knows which room I'm in, and "default" behavior is not exactly a new programming concept.

If I could get this to work, I'd buy more echos and switches for the rest of the house!

since the original post, amazon made some changes so now you can use smart groups and do it.