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Newbie in the UK

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Speo67

Newbie in the UK
« on: February 10, 2018, 02:18:37 am »
Hi , I gave up on the broadlink and RM plugin route to getting Alexa to control my TV , virgin TiVo etc ....just to complicated and never worked properly .
I bought a harmony hub , worked ok with a few problems along the way .  What I don't understand fully is I can control parts of my TV , and TiVo but not others . If I say channel up,  Alexa will oblige , but if I say channel down she won't ? Also I have a led strip light , I configured it to come on and go to a certain colour , it will turn on and off but won't do anything else .
My quiestion is, when you get to the point of putting friendly names into the harmony hub, do you have to specify each command you want to use  ?  Like " turn on strip light"   etc .....I thought the presets like discovering my Samsung TV would do this automatically , but like I said, it only seems to revert back to turning something on and off ?  I always disable the skill and sync everything before enabling the skill and searching for devises .
Thanks and any help would be great
Stu

Alienmoon

Re: Newbie in the UK
« Reply #1 on: February 12, 2018, 05:04:46 pm »
Hi , I gave up on the broadlink and RM plugin route to getting Alexa to control my TV , virgin TiVo etc ....just to complicated and never worked properly .
I bought a harmony hub , worked ok with a few problems along the way .  What I don't understand fully is I can control parts of my TV , and TiVo but not others . If I say channel up,  Alexa will oblige , but if I say channel down she won't ? Also I have a led strip light , I configured it to come on and go to a certain colour , it will turn on and off but won't do anything else.
My question is when you get to the point of putting friendly names into the harmony hub, do you have to specify each command you want to use?  Like " turn on strip light"   etc .....I thought the presets like discovering my Samsung TV would do this automatically, but like I said, it only seems to revert back to turning something on and off?  I always disable the skill and sync everything before enabling the skill and searching for devices.
Thanks and any help would be great
Stu

I'm also living in the Uk and would like to know more on the subjects you've touched upon, my Sony Android TV with the Alexa Echo 2nd Gen worked right out of the box without having to ask her to discover my devices or enable the Sony Android TV skill.

I'm also intending on buying some of the Phillips Hue devices and I mention this because you mentioned you use a LED strip. I'm not sure if this will help, but maybe enabling the Philips Hue skill may help, I've read on some of the Amazon comments while looking for a Phillips Hue that some people have other types of LEDs connected and they seem to be working.

I admit again, I'm totally new, not even a week old when it comes to Alexa, so I'm not sure if these people who left the comments had some type of a hub connected that made the strips work, though, I do know there are some LED strips on Amazon that does work with Alexa very well without having to spend a fortune on the Philips Hue system.

I'm sorry I can't be of any more help, though I will be watching this thread in case someone gives an answer I'm looking for.

Good Luck

Bazzer55

Re: Newbie in the UK
« Reply #2 on: March 04, 2018, 04:12:32 pm »
Hi to all in the UK  (me too)
We have 4 lights that Alexa controls these are all Phillips and these were enabled on a laptop using Alexa app. So far they have been faultless, we have the Echo plus with the built in hub but have 2 dots upstairs and these are linkedto the main Echo plus so they also control the lights. Only recently does the Echo turn on the fire tv here in the UK, but I believe more things will work soon.