Amazon Echo Dot....

[pete_c]

Homeseer 3 for the RPi2 has the Amazon Echo plug-in working well and it is integrated fine with whatever devices / controllers you have connected to the RPi2 / Ubuntu set up for Homeseer 3. 
 
Here utilized TTS with my first combination alarm / automation panel from the 1980's called Excalibur.   It was very basic.  My children gave the chatty kathy a name; calling it Diamond.  No VR though back then and a real PITA to program.  Words were put together with bits and pieces.  In the 90's my two children had touchscreen CRT's on their computers; initially using light pens.   It was mostly just sight and sound (musical stuff) reacting to touch; very basic stuff.  I do recall connecting the two machines such that they could  chat with each other.  Very basic and the two machines were only 10 feet apart.  Really they were thrilled and it helped them learn how to type some. 
 
Just watched an interesting documentary relating to big data made in 2014.
 
The Human Face of Big Data (2014)
 
Interesting movie.  Here is a you tube preview.
 
[youtube]http://youtu.be/NpA3gP9xHMg[/youtube]

 

[linuxha]

Indeed, but it's one thing to trust a publicly traded company, one interested in keeping you as a customer, versus some-random-guy's-website.  

 
... one interested in keeping you as a customer product, versus ...
 
There fixed that for you ... ;-)
 
I no longer trust either but in different ways. I'll stop before I go off on a rant.

 

[cobra]

Anyone checked their shipping dates if you ordered one of the new Echo's?  Release date is tomorrow, but my Dot order says arriving in May...

 

[IVB]

Mine is consistent with what I was told when I first ordered it: One tomorrow by 8pm, one next Wed. (Although both say "shipping today", so either they're going in 2 packages at 2 speeds, or they'll surprise me)

 

[JonW]

Mine says "Preparing for shipment" and "Arriving Wed, April 6".
 
I posted in another thread that I'm going to integrate this with the HAI OPII via the Samsung SmartThings controller.  ST has built-in Echo support and has a pretty flexible interface for defining virtual devices and your own control methods.  I'll write the glue (code) to talk to the OPII and use ST/Echo as a front-end.

 

[IVB]

 
I posted in another thread that I'm going to integrate this with the HAI OPII via the Samsung SmartThings controller.  ST has built-in Echo support and has a pretty flexible interface for defining virtual devices and your own control methods.  I'll write the glue (code) to talk to the OPII and use ST/Echo as a front-end.

Whoa so you can add your own support to stuff the ST doesn't support and get native echo control? That's pretty cool. You'll have to tell us how hard it is, how stable you can make it.

 

[JonW]

Whoa so you can add your own support to stuff the ST doesn't support and get native echo control? That's pretty cool. You'll have to tell us how hard it is, how stable you can make it.

 
Yes.  SmartThings lets you create virtual devices that you can then code in your own handlers.   Any devices defined in ST can then be controlled by Echo.
 
I already have a server (service) application that I call "HAI Data Service".  I can use TCP/HTTP control of the OPII via this service, so it will be a middle-ware app to talk to the OPII.  Because of this, implementation should be fairly quick as I won't need to code the whole OPII protocol in SmartThings.
 
The interface stack will look like this:
[Echo] <--> [SmartThings] <--> [HAI Data Service] <--> [HAI OP II]

 

[wkearney99]

Mine says "Preparing for shipment" and "Arriving Wed, April 6"..

Mine are slated to be delivered tomorrow, while I'm still on vacation

 

[cobra]

Mine are slated to be delivered tomorrow, while I'm still on vacation

I'm sure one of us could pick them up for you and 'test' them!   h34r:

 

[IVB]

holy cow, both coming together, despite one with an April 6th delivery. Maybe y'all will be similarly surprised.
 

 

[JonW]

Just got my ship notice that it will be delivered tomorrow!  Friend of mine that works for BestBuy is picking up my SmartThings for me tonight, so I'll have some work to do this weekend.

 

[jkmonroe]

mine is out for delivery and i need to leave.  naturally, the one day they aren't here at the ass crack of dawn ...  :angry2:

 

[jkmonroe]

It's TINY!
 

 

[IVB]

Got mine, sound is seriously tinny. Whaddya expect for $90, although I'm going to buy 2 more Echos and will almost definitely stick with the full size Echo for that. I do like the form factor.

 

[IVB]

FYI I'm going to return my 2nd one, the full size one isn't much more i'll just use that. I'll keep the first one.
 
Its unopened new in box, if anyone here wants to buy it let me know, otherwise i'll just return to amazon.