Echo & Alexa Forums

General Category => Alexa Tips & Tricks => Topic started by: namartlu on November 10, 2016, 12:45:56 pm

Title: Light control Multi-room Setup?
Post by: namartlu on November 10, 2016, 12:45:56 pm
Right now I have one Echo dot and 3 lights in the master bedroom. I can say "Alexa, lights on", and all 3 lights turn on. I would like to extend the setup to other rooms, but is there a way to set it up, so that when I am in a room, and I say "Alexa, lights on", that it only turns on the lights in that room?
Title: Re: Light control Multi-room Setup?
Post by: DParker on November 10, 2016, 12:59:10 pm
At this time there is no support for location-sensitive interpretation of smart device control commands.
Title: Re: Light control Multi-room Setup?
Post by: stusviews on November 12, 2016, 04:47:38 pm
I'm using an ISY (Universal-Devices.com) with a portal which allows up to five accounts. Each group of Echos (3)/Dots (7) is registered to a different account.

So I can ask Alexa to, "turn the light on," and only the light in the room I'm in turns on. If I want to control a device in a room other than the one I'm in, then I do need to name the location, for example, "turn on the kitchen light," if I'm not in the kitchen.
Title: Re: Light control Multi-room Setup?
Post by: jwlv on November 12, 2016, 06:18:13 pm
I'm using an ISY (Universal-Devices.com) with a portal which allows up to five accounts. Each group of Echos (3)/Dots (7) is registered to a different account.

So I can ask Alexa to, "turn the light on," and only the light in the room I'm in turns on. If I want to control a device in a room other than the one I'm in, then I do need to name the location, for example, "turn on the kitchen light," if I'm not in the kitchen.

What happens if you are in between two rooms, does the Echo Spacial Perception (ESP) still work? As I understand it, ESP only works between Echos under the same account. So let's say you are between the kitchen and the living room. You say "Alexa, turn the light on" and the Echos in both rooms hear you. Will it turn on the lights in both rooms?
Title: Re: Light control Multi-room Setup?
Post by: coyote on December 23, 2016, 08:53:30 am
This can be 'solved' using Alexa groups... IF you are willing to label the room you are in. So if you are in the east bedroom, you group all lights in that room into the East Bedroom group - and when you leave the room, you say "Alexa, east bedroom lights off".

To have location sensitivity as desired by the OP will require a new level of programming and cognition - voice recognition adaptability on their side. I would say that kind of contextual sensitivity is years out.
Title: Re: Light control Multi-room Setup?
Post by: StevenR on December 23, 2016, 02:38:00 pm
Another way of doing this would be to use a something like Fauxmo on a Raspberry Pi to emulate the WeMo protocol and create virtual switches:

https://github.com/makermusings/fauxmo

You can then customise the code to do different things depending on the IP address of the Echo which made the request and then control the correct lights. To do this You will also need code to control the real bulbs or switches from the Raspberry Pi, such as:

WeMo - https://github.com/iancmcc/ouimeaux
Philips Hue - http://jheyman.github.io/blog/pages/HueRaspberryControl/