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Echo away control of nightstand lights?

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ByronJ

Echo away control of nightstand lights?
« on: November 04, 2017, 11:04:37 am »
I would appreciate comments and suggestions for setting up my first Echo lighting control experiment.

I just purchased an echo plus and an Echo Dot along with the Philips Hue starter kit.

My goal is as follows:

I want to be able to turn on and off nightstand lights on either side of the bed using Alexa. I want individual control and the ability to control both at the same time. Equally important, I want to be able to travel and tell the lights to go on for random periods during evening hours. I also want to be able to use a wall switch at the entryway to the bedroom to turn the lights on and off (it's not easy to get my wife to use new technology).

So far, I installed the Hue lights in the nightstands and the Hue wall switch at the entryway. I also have the Hue app on my android phone. It works great as far as it goes. I can do all the things I specified above. But I would also like to tie this capability into the new Echo Plus  and DOT I just purchased. And I think The Hue starter kit was way overkill for this initial project. Plus, I'm not sure if the Alexis android app can set up the "away" Hue function.

Here's my thought. I could use regular bulbs in the nightstands and plug them into a smart plug like the D-Link. I would also need to install a smart wall switch that could also talk to my Echo Plus – perhaps using IFTTT. It would be a lot less expensive. And, I could use the Hue bulbs for something that would take better advantage of all their capabilities. This set up would allow me to either use the switch on the wall or voice commands to turn on and off the nightstand lights, and also give me the ability to set up "away" scenes when traveling.

So here's my question: Does this make sense?