These buttons are BT devices that require an Echo device to control them. So far I have only looked at the sample Alexa Skills to control them. While they can be used in an Alexa routine as a trigger, they don't appear as a "device" for turning on the LEDs in an Alexa routine
I recently started using Xiaomi buttons for various things. I attached one in the cabinet where we store the dog's seizure medicine. I store the date in an MQTT message and if someone hasn't set out his treats/pills for the day and given him his morning dose, then Alexa will notify me at 8:30am and again at 9:30am. I also got a Xiaomi double wall switch that I stuck to my wife's nightstand. A single push of either button toggles the state of either my or her bedside lamp. A single push of both buttons toggles the state of both light. Double taps of the buttons toggle either the bedroom fan or the white noise machine. The bedside switches may upped my WAF significantly! She alternates between being too hot and too cold at night and she would avoid asking Alexa to turn the fan on for fear of waking me up. She would also get really annoyed when pushing the wall switch wouldn't turn off my lamp if her lamp wasn't on. This is probably her favorite Home Automation thing I have done for her. :)
That’s awesome! Haven’t you enabled whisper mode for Alexa yet? The button is way easier though. I might do something like that with these echo buttons. Plus with the colors, that could be interesting on the nightstand. Hmm. Great ideas to think about. Lol.
vCloudInfo Part of the problem is that my wife isn't confident that she will use the right phrases. I have set up many "Routines" to capture some of her most common mistakes, but I can't make "Turn off the fan" work contextually... at least not yet. I have Echo devices in every room, so someday I am hoping for an reliable "Last Alexa" sensor so I can setup one routine to turn off the fan in the room of the Echo that recieved the command. Unfortunately, Alexa's built in device grouping seems to turn off the plugs along with the lights. So I have only been able to assign lights to each room/Echo.
Yeah .. I really wish the context stuff worked better. It would be nice for Amazon to remember the last device it triggered for ambiguous requests. that might go a long way to avoiding 'Sorry, I don't know what you are asking' responses.
Why not just use an app for that. I understand the haptic fun of having a physical button in the real world to communicate with a digital application. But i can improove my routines without a company listening. It´s called discipline. I comment now 3 years later and i am glad to see amazon discontinued these. Smart home is cool but this was just a direct link to the consumers privacy.
You are right. Partly did it because we could and it was fun. I think I still have some buttons in the boxes that I never even took out and now they are discontinued. :)
So these buttons must use Alexa Routines? That would make them 'cloud-dependent' and an even greater risk than using the Dash buttons, which are 100% local once activated.
Yeah .. that's a good point except they have more practical reasons (alexa based games and routines) that are more in line with the mission. The Dash buttons were killed off BECAUSE of alexa. Voice became a much easier way to order. I have to play a bit more with the buttons though to figure out if they can be 100% local..
@@vCloudInfo don't get me wrong, still another great video for those just starting out. I'm a recovering Iris by Lowes user tho, and do not want to see others fall into the cloud-dependent trap that I found myself in recently. Lowe's made good on their exit but others will very likely not be so lucky. Lesson learned? It is always best to stick with what we can control locally.
Is there a way to get these t o work if you never connected them to wifi? I have an old button I never setup and I'd love to try this project, every tutorial assumes you already have given it your wifi credentials and its setup.
Lol... I feel like people have absolutely lost their minds. It's the stupidest idea I have ever heard. They're paying for the privilege of Amazon to spy on them.
@@vCloudInfo Yeah I avoid all "smart devices" including "smart TVs". I don't consider myself a piracy nut by any means, but setting up a bunch of devices in your house that are always communicating with their host companies (who often have with little care for privacy) seem unprudent to me. I would be willing to trust a Smart Apple device for instance given the company's proven stance on privacy. Amazon, Google, Facebook (especially Facebook) I would not... There are Amazon tracker on almost every large websites we visit, given that I often see Facebook ads for things I look up on Amazon... I can't imagine the amount of information they share with them.
kabascoolr sounds. Wet thought out and I agree in principal but I’m sooo dependent on the voice control in the house. Def a trade of privacy for convenience for me.
I saw the notification and I rushed to the video!!! I wanted to get these to integrate into hass but I live in Canada
You should be happy with the end of the video then. I'm hoping to do another video on *those* once I figure out exactly how I am going to use them. :)
Lol 😂 I have a good replacement,me listening intensely, echo buttons, me .....
These buttons are BT devices that require an Echo device to control them. So far I have only looked at the sample Alexa Skills to control them. While they can be used in an Alexa routine as a trigger, they don't appear as a "device" for turning on the LEDs in an Alexa routine
I'm still experimenting quite a bit with these buttons. for the price, it was easy for me to pick up and start playing with.
I recently started using Xiaomi buttons for various things. I attached one in the cabinet where we store the dog's seizure medicine. I store the date in an MQTT message and if someone hasn't set out his treats/pills for the day and given him his morning dose, then Alexa will notify me at 8:30am and again at 9:30am.
I also got a Xiaomi double wall switch that I stuck to my wife's nightstand. A single push of either button toggles the state of either my or her bedside lamp. A single push of both buttons toggles the state of both light. Double taps of the buttons toggle either the bedroom fan or the white noise machine.
The bedside switches may upped my WAF significantly! She alternates between being too hot and too cold at night and she would avoid asking Alexa to turn the fan on for fear of waking me up. She would also get really annoyed when pushing the wall switch wouldn't turn off my lamp if her lamp wasn't on. This is probably her favorite Home Automation thing I have done for her. :)
That’s awesome! Haven’t you enabled whisper mode for Alexa yet? The button is way easier though. I might do something like that with these echo buttons. Plus with the colors, that could be interesting on the nightstand. Hmm. Great ideas to think about. Lol.
vCloudInfo Part of the problem is that my wife isn't confident that she will use the right phrases. I have set up many "Routines" to capture some of her most common mistakes, but I can't make "Turn off the fan" work contextually... at least not yet.
I have Echo devices in every room, so someday I am hoping for an reliable "Last Alexa" sensor so I can setup one routine to turn off the fan in the room of the Echo that recieved the command. Unfortunately, Alexa's built in device grouping seems to turn off the plugs along with the lights. So I have only been able to assign lights to each room/Echo.
Yeah .. I really wish the context stuff worked better. It would be nice for Amazon to remember the last device it triggered for ambiguous requests. that might go a long way to avoiding 'Sorry, I don't know what you are asking' responses.
Why not just use an app for that. I understand the haptic fun of having a physical button in the real world to communicate with a digital application. But i can improove my routines without a company listening. It´s called discipline. I comment now 3 years later and i am glad to see amazon discontinued these. Smart home is cool but this was just a direct link to the consumers privacy.
You are right. Partly did it because we could and it was fun. I think I still have some buttons in the boxes that I never even took out and now they are discontinued. :)
Great video. Do you by chance have a video setting up parental controls to prevent kids from purchasing stuff on Amazon using Alexa?
I don’t but you should be able to enable pin codes to purchase to prevent that. There is a setting in the app under purchase I believe.
Based on that, you would have to ditch all your smart phones as well. Siri and Google have big ears as well.
So these buttons must use Alexa Routines? That would make them 'cloud-dependent' and an even greater risk than using the Dash buttons, which are 100% local once activated.
Yeah .. that's a good point except they have more practical reasons (alexa based games and routines) that are more in line with the mission. The Dash buttons were killed off BECAUSE of alexa. Voice became a much easier way to order. I have to play a bit more with the buttons though to figure out if they can be 100% local..
@@vCloudInfo don't get me wrong, still another great video for those just starting out. I'm a recovering Iris by Lowes user tho, and do not want to see others fall into the cloud-dependent trap that I found myself in recently. Lowe's made good on their exit but others will very likely not be so lucky. Lesson learned? It is always best to stick with what we can control locally.
Thanks Carlo. Good info.
Thanks Ron!
Is there a way to get these t o work if you never connected them to wifi? I have an old button I never setup and I'd love to try this project, every tutorial assumes you already have given it your wifi credentials and its setup.
It needs your WiFi cress since these work in ARPs. So has to be on the network somehow.
i hated the dash buttons. i thought they were so stupid. im glad they're gone !!
But they were so cheap and easy to use. :). I would buy a handful every prime day for 99 cents.
Lol... I feel like people have absolutely lost their minds. It's the stupidest idea I have ever heard. They're paying for the privilege of Amazon to spy on them.
I’m guessing you don’t t have any Alexa devices. I have about a dozen of them in the house right now.
@@vCloudInfo Yeah I avoid all "smart devices" including "smart TVs". I don't consider myself a piracy nut by any means, but setting up a bunch of devices in your house that are always communicating with their host companies (who often have with little care for privacy) seem unprudent to me. I would be willing to trust a Smart Apple device for instance given the company's proven stance on privacy. Amazon, Google, Facebook (especially Facebook) I would not... There are Amazon tracker on almost every large websites we visit, given that I often see Facebook ads for things I look up on Amazon... I can't imagine the amount of information they share with them.
kabascoolr sounds. Wet thought out and I agree in principal but I’m sooo dependent on the voice control in the house. Def a trade of privacy for convenience for me.