Alexa, bring me a Festool...

[Gregor]

That this kind of devices (alexa & co) gets ubiquitous (together with privacy nightmares like ring, where the devices already aim outside the sphere of the owner). While this sounds benign and the argument that a global firmware update that would turn them evil would certainly be noticed sounds reasonsable at first glance... the problem is that we (as civilization) are installing a turnkey surveilance system that will make every kind of dictatorship invincible - and the next dictatorship will neither care about people noticing that update nor hesitate about pushing it. Take WWII where the US interned anyone remotely looking asian and we germans even fucking gassed and burned people wholesale and industrial style, state backed, nothing to see here, all is well and as it should be, please move on, have a good day.

We should keep that in mind, else we failed to learn from history and are doomed to repeat it.
'Hey $device' IMHO has way too much potential to be abused.

[whataboutism: cellphonesl, laptops and state actors]

Dosn't help. On the other hand one could argue that google, apple, amazon already have surpassed states... given that states have massive problems collecting fair taxes on the profits made in them by these companies.

I disagree on the misdirection trick though, simply as warren buffet admitted way back what's going on. So it's not misdirection but plain and simple in the open.

Anyway, quite likely YMMV.

 

[Mario Turcot]

[member=60461]Bob D.[/member] How far apart are your Echo and Echo Dot? Is your shop in a separate building? I looking for a way to turn off the lights in the shop. I often go to bed and notice the lights are still on and have to return back to the shop. My shop is not that far but being able to do it from the home would be nice.

 

[Bob D.]

[member=60461]Bob D.[/member] How far apart are your Echo and Echo Dot? Is your shop in a separate building? I looking for a way to turn off the lights in the shop. I often go to bed and notice the lights are still on and have to return back to the shop. My shop is not that far but being able to do it from the home would be nice.

My garage shop is a separate building, but not far from the house. I have a Echo Dot in the shop. The Echo devices connect to your Wi-Fi. For me Wi-Fi out to the shop is OK working off a Wi-Fi extender in the house. I wouldn't try and stream 4K video on it, but it's plenty good enough for Echo, streaming music and controlling stuff in my Home Automation (HA) system with verbal commands thru Alexa. I can use it to chat with someone in the house just like an intercom. I can also use it to chat with my brother in Florida 1200 miles away on his Echo Dot.

You can get wall switches (yes even two-way) that will connect to SmartThings or other HA hubs, then tie the HA system into Alexa (which means installing an Alexa skill in most cases and granting Alexa access to the account) and you're good to go.

I don't trust HA devices to control any power tool or other machinery except for fans. Anything else starting and stopping when you're not in line of sight of the equipment is too risky I think. And there is no one here but my wife, the cat, and myself so no little ones to worry about. You can create scenes that will turn lights on or off all over the house. As an example you could have a scene called "Welcome Home" that turns on your ceiling fan, turns on some lights, reads you todays news highlights, reads you a 'This Day In History' blurb, and turns off the light in the garage. This could all be triggered off your location (GPS tracks your location as home and runs the scene) or by a verbal command from you.

I have mine monitoring the 240V charger for the car. When the car is done charging I get a message on my phone. I could set it up to make an announcement but it's not necessary. I do have a motion sensor that is part of the alarm system that Alexa will announce when there is activity at the back door. I have the motion sensor positioned so it only covers the back porch. If a bird lands on the porch nothing happens but a dog or person would set it off. During the day it just makes an announcement which I created. At a time I specified (15 minutes after sunset) motion will turn on the back porch light for 10 minutes. So when you come home at night the light comes on as you begin to walk up the stairs, and it stays on for 10 minutes.

At 11PM the alarm will turn on automatically and any lights still on in the house will turn off. We are usually asleep long before that but if we forget a light then it gets shut off at 2300 so it doesn't burn all night.

They do make a 240V switch can be used for loads up to 40A. It's intended for equipment like pumps and water heaters, but you could put one inline with a feed to your shop and shut the whole thing down remotely if you wanted to.

 

[Mario Turcot]

Thanks Bob for all the details, much appreciated.