Dot First Impressions

[Mattroid]

I have an arcade in my basement and like to turn it on with one phrase!  ...or off.

Hey, saturnkk! Nifty seeing you over here. I take it you got all the WeMos setup in your arcade then? Love mine But that's a talk for another thread I guess.

I must have been late ordering my Dot, as it's expected to ship on the 18th. I did get the Tap, though, and posted in the other thread. I got the Dot for my office but it may end up in the bedroom or somewhere else depending on where I feel I'll use it more. Any recommendations on decent speakers to hook up to this thing? Nothing too fancy or huge, but not all tinny either...

[Ultramanv]

I received 2 of them .. Just an idea , what i did was put a duel out in the 3.5mm outlet and put a decent speaker by the dot and then the other went to my stereo system. Works great, loud enough when stereo is off.

[saturnkk]

I have an arcade in my basement and like to turn it on with one phrase!  ...or off.

Hey, saturnkk! Nifty seeing you over here. I take it you got all the WeMos setup in your arcade then? Love mine But that's a talk for another thread I guess.

I must have been late ordering my Dot, as it's expected to ship on the 18th. I did get the Tap, though, and posted in the other thread. I got the Dot for my office but it may end up in the bedroom or somewhere else depending on where I feel I'll use it more. Any recommendations on decent speakers to hook up to this thing? Nothing too fancy or huge, but not all tinny either...

Hey there!

WeMos all set and woking like a champ.  I have 10 of them, mostly in my arcade but also in the library, livingroom and dining room too.

I put one in my arcade (basement) and connected via bluetooth to my ridiculously loud system down there.  Now I can turn things off/on when doen there which is very nice!  I put the other in my bedroom and will likely wireless connect to the stereo in my master bath.  I may want one in my hobby room and garage too eventually, but Amazon limited us to 2 units.  I also picked-up the remote (wont get it until May though as it is backordered).  Nice to have that outside on the deck or patio. 

Most bluetooth speakers are fine for eaasy listening and small groups but I tend to have a lot of people over and need more power!  I think either Bose or Sonos might be good and they and coordinate the sound to play throughout the house...

[renegade600]

I set mine up, and they work great.  I'll be using mine with external speakers/amps, but the internal volume is sufficient for basic interaction.  Of course the fidelity is pretty poor with the internal speaker, but that's to be expected.

I noticed that during setup it asked if the device would be used standalone or with external audio.  Anyone know why the question?  It works with either no matter how you answer.  I don't know if it might change how it processes mic input, or if it was just a survey type question.  I don't see anything in the interface to change that "setting" though, if it is a setting.

In any case, these will be a nice compliment to my main Echo.  I've been lamenting the lack of an Echo in my basement office .

It did not ask me the question about output but I did go to a screen that had the three options.  I just closed it because I believe that screen would only be used as needed. 

[mike27oct]

I received 2 of them .. Just an idea , what i did was put a duel out in the 3.5mm outlet and put a decent speaker by the dot and then the other went to my stereo system. Works great, loud enough when stereo is off.

Excellent idea.  Now where is that other speaker I can use.  .  and where is that Y stereo connector . . .

[mike27oct]

OK, I found the speaker I mentioned above; a $12 Kinivo ZX100 Mini Portable Speaker from Amazon.
 http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_0_18?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=kinivo+zx100+mini+portable+speaker&sprefix=Kinivo+ZX100+Mini+%2Caps%2C396&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Akinivo+zx100+mini+portable+speaker
Pick your color.  Works great, but needs recharging once in a while. 

I have it turned on and attached to Echo Dot and will see how long battery will last when on 24/7; mostly idle.

I think Amazon purposely installed the worst speaker they could find to really dummy down the audio from Dot.  It could have been a little better -- and that's an understatement.

First hacker who figures out how to get into Dot and replace speaker with a quality one, wins the prize!

[renegade600]

I think Amazon purposely installed the worst speaker they could find to really dummy down the audio from Dot.  It could have been a little better -- and that's an understatement.

First hacker who figures out how to get into Dot and replace speaker with a quality one, wins the prize!

I agree, the speaker could have been better but I think it would have defeated the purpose of keeping the price low.  Amazon gotta make their profit :-) I had a Ravon Gembox that wasn't being used so I paired the dot with and it works perfectly.   

[mike27oct]

My first impressions of Dot:

Since I mentioned the speaker issues already, I'll just say the audio out into stereo works fine; levels are appropriate.

Other issues:
Both Dot setups did not go smoothly, a few hours later the second one got setup right away.  Maybe there was a glitch with the Amazon server earlier.

Dot runs hot; too hot to place directly on fine wood furniture. Mine are now sitting atop two, cork-bottom coasters. One coaster was not enough.

Audio jacks not consistent; one was very tight, and other toward the looser side.  Too loose to securely hold plug of Kinivo speaker firmly in place.  Audio out is also a headphone jack that works well for that as well.

Since power supply serves up 5v DC, a high capacity battery bank could likely power it for portable use.  Has anyone tried this yet?

All for now.

[jwlv]

Yes, I have been using a battery bank to run the Echo Dot. That was the main reason I got the Dot. The small size and simple power connection makes it easy to take it in the garage (when I'm working on the car) or backyard (when BBQing). I didn't want the Echo Tap because I want voice activation. I don't want to have to push a button.
I use an Aibocn 10000mAH battery bank that I bought on Amazon a while back. I think I paid $20, and it's $10 now.
http://www.amazon.com/Aibocn-10000mAh-External-Flashlight-Smartphone/dp/B00VWV8LD4

There are 2 USB ports on the battery; 1A and 2.1A. I used the 2.1A to power the Echo.

[renegade600]

Dot runs hot; too hot to place directly on fine wood furniture. Mine are now sitting atop two, cork-bottom coasters. One coaster was not enough.

All for now.

I just checked my dot and it is warm, not hot.  just wondering, are you using the oem usb cable and power adapter that came with it or other?

[RadYOacTiVe]

Dot runs hot; too hot to place directly on fine wood furniture. Mine are now sitting atop two, cork-bottom coasters. One coaster was not enough.

All for now.

I just checked my dot and it is warm, not hot.  just wondering, are you using the oem usb cable and power adapter that came with it or other?

I am using the charger that came with the Dot and mine is warm,  I wouldn't consider it hot.   Noticed it earlier when I was trying out my Bose companion computer speakers with the aux output.   

Sent from my SM-G928V using Tapatalk

[mike27oct]

Two the two guys who asked me about my comment of the Dot running hot:

Yes, I am using the cables that came with the device as well as the 5v 1.8 A power supply that came with it.  I have figured out why Dot runs hot now that I have two Dots set up to compare.  One Dot was running TuneIn music through the stereo all day, the other was idle in bedroom all day except for an occasional question to it.

The one playing music all day is the hot one, the other is just warm.  Of course, the hot one is basically an unvented stereo pre-amp, and they get hotter than warm. So, not a problem, but a Dot working hard all day is going to get hot, so proper insulation on wood furniture is required.  Interestingly, this morning I swapped the Dots between the rooms to have the snugger audio jack available for the small Kinivo speaker.  So yesterday, the "other" Dot was hot, the other one wasn't so both Dots act the same, and heat is where the action is, i.e. the one connected to the stereo gets hot. 

The takeaway here is, if a Dot is pumping music for hours, it will get hot, but if it is mostly idling, it won't.

@jwlv
Thanks for the feedback on the battery power use of Dot.  Yep, the Dot power supply indicates which output port of battery to use, and since the P/S for Dot is rated at 1.8 amps, use the 2.1A output of battery.  Same goes for tablets, wireless hard drives and such with a native P/S that rates at around 2A; also use higher amp output to charge them; even while playing from them.  It is mostly phones and such that the 1A output is used for.

BTW, did you run it long enough to drain the battery, and if you played music, bet the Dot got hot, too; the longer it played during the day.
Nice to know the Dot can be portable like the Tap, too.

Oh, and the Tap was with me much of the day in the garage still with its initial full charge, maybe less 10%, and I just checked its charge now which is at 30%.  (Just ask it "battery level" and it reports the charge; no need to check the app.)  It was playing TuneIn music much of the day as well.  I have it in the handy green Sling case, and it never felt extra warm whenever I picked it up today.

BTW, is should have been named the Press, and not the Tap, as front button needs a press-in to activate the voice control (no wake word required; but if you say one it ignores, of course.)  Named both Dots, Echo, I really don't need too many different wake words in my life; two is enough, already!

[leehop71]

After talking with the wife about the most efficient setup, we decided to put Alexa in the bedroom to use as a BT speaker and useful for shopping list etc, putting a Dot in the Family Room with the Bose, and put a second Dot in the living room where the Alexa is now.

We were all excited and I had Alexa order me another Dot, and found out that won't be available until late July!! 

I guess they are selling better than Amazon anticipated!!