OT anyone else find out who Alexa is??
- Thread starter sluggo72
- Start date
She's a Downeaster and cruises through Block Island Sound.
In case anyone's wondering, I started the fire.
I found out over a year ago. Synched my lighting (Link Hub) and have trippers on two doors and other items. Has been great.
LdN
I suggest that, if you have it anywhere near your TV, you change her name to Echo or Amazon. Otherwise. she keeps trying to respond to the TV commercials.
If Sluggo is looking for a simple solution that could work
But Sluggo might want to control his existing stereo system not just control the music.
Bluetooth does allow you to pair your Echo speaker with your smartphone or tablet and control apps that are working on the phone. If you have a smart device already connected to your home stereo, say through a dock, then after turning your stereo and smart device on, you could use Bluetooth to pair Alexa with the smart device, run an app like Spotify, and control your music on your stereo through the app with voice commands given to the Echo - but that's controlling the music and not actually controlling the stereo system itself..
If you want full control over the entire stereo system, then you need to go another route. You might be able to jerry-rig a system using IFTTT commands, but the more elegant solution is to use a Harmony bridge or standalone Harmony Elite remote control via Alexa. Then you could use it to not only control your stereo but your entire entertainment system including your TV (unfortunately, this elegance isn't cheap).
Check out this link
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Thanks Lar !! So I am clear. I added a Bluetooth dongle to my stereo with that I can play a Bluetooth enabled iPod (don't tell Fish) I figured out how to use say pandora w the echo what I would like to do is tell the echo to play pandora but have the sound come through the stereo. I think though I'll have a problem because the echo is in one room and the stereo is in another
Thoughts?? TIA
Once you get the hub and get some of your lights working you will never turn back.
Really it's best for a few central lights that are the last to turn off or on.
LdN
That's going to be problematic.
There are several issues that you'll face and I'll give you my educated guess on them (I have both an Echo and a couple of Dots so I'm slightly knowledgeable on them but haven't specifically tried to implement your exact scenario)
Note:, I'm assuming that you have the full blown Echo and not the Echo Dot (the Echo Dot, in theory, actually might work better in your scenario).
First of all, I believe that both the Echo and your Bluetooth dongle probably are Class 2 transmitter/receivers which would mean that your best case scenario would be that they would likely only work within 30 feet of each other - and adding a wall between them won't help. That said, I have read where people have claimed to connect them from further distances. My suggestion is to give it a try and see what happens
Secondly, you can't pair multiple devices at a time, so you can't voice control your iPod using the Echo while the iPod Bluetooth transmits to your speakers.
Thirdly, assuming you have an Echo and not the Dot, you can't just eliminate the iPod and pair the Echo with your Bluetooth speakers (with the Dot, you could).
So what can you do?
You could get a dock that your iPod is hardwired to your speaker system and not Bluetooth connected. Then if you are close enough so that you can pair the Echo and the iPod, you could (semi) control the iPod with voice commands through the Echo. I say semi control because you would be limited in the function that you could do. You could do simple things like control the volume, skip to the next song on the playlist, etc. But once you tried to do something like search for a particular song or artist, the Echo is going to think you want to use it's own self contained function. It will disconnect from the iPod, perform the function, then play the result through it's own speakers.
That said, why would you be listening to music coming from another room anyway? What you probably should be doing is springing for a $45 Dot and just putting it in the room with the speakers. Then you'd be able to voice control your music while you are in that room.
Thanks for the info. I'll have to think about this. I have the full size echo what I am trying to accomplish is playing everything that comes out of the echo instead of through its little speakers through my whole house stereo
Ask her if she knows what the bad news is on the other thread.
I did ask her if she loves me, but she said she wasn't allowed to answer those kinds of questions
Lol Ro! If you only knew. That Nancy and I got divorced 30 yrs ago. But sluggo stayed w me!,,
You'd probably have been better off with an Echo Dot. Basically, you want to get a a Bluetooth audio receiver (you can get them for $15-$20) and use it as an input to your stereo system. You then pair the Echo Dot with the receiver - with a little luck the connection will work between rooms. Unfortunately, that won't work with a full blown Echo.
Thanks. I'll consider that the echo was a gift. I have a Bluetooth dongle on my stereo all ready I just want to be lazy and not have to walk into that room!,
