Echo & Alexa Forums
General Category => Echo Technical Support => Topic started by: Cslcs25 on December 21, 2015, 12:31:50 pm
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I see that the remote control for Echo is no longer available on Amazon. I also noticed that the Voice remote for Fire TV will work with Echo (Alexa). But I don't quite understand...could I use the Fire TV voice control as a substitute for the Echo remote....e.g. Could I Use it from a bedroom to ask Alexa to turn on a light etc?
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if running fire 5.0.3 you should be able to. see the following from amazon
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201859020
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I have the Fire TV stick with Voice Remote. Just about everything I can ask Echo to do, I can ask the same on the Fire TV Voice Remote. The voice remote is paired to my Fire TV Stick. So when I say "Turn off the living room lights" thru the voice remote, it is the Fire TV that is turning off the lights and not the Echo. I have not tried to pair the remote with the Echo. I'm not certain if it will work or not. I will try that later.
I'm totally guessing here. I think Amazon stopped selling the Voice Remotes because of numerous reports of problems. I sent back a Fire TV w/ Voice Remote last week due to problems with the remote. In reading Amazon reviews as well as other forums and blogs, there have been a huge number of people having problems. I believe Amazon knew about the problem a long time ago and redesigned the remote. As far as I can tell, there are two versions of the voice remote. Version 1 has the batteries seated front to back. Version 2 has the batteries side to side. Version 1 is also physically bigger/longer than Version 2. I didn't have a chance to get a good look at Version 1, but Version 2 has a set of five gold contacts on both the left and right sides underneath the battery cover. I assume these gold contacts are used to program or update the firmware at the factory. I'm not 100% certain, but I don't think Version 1 has these gold contacts. The picture below shows the 5 gold contacts.
(http://i.imgur.com/Vfb39Re.jpg)
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The remote may just be out of stock, and not actually discontinued. Time will tell. We got our Echo on release with the free remote. We never use it, but I am sure some folks do. It's on our fridge door, and when I put it back into the magnetic holder it really grabs it out of my hand with a good slam into holder. I don't think that does it any good, so will be more careful putting it into its holder.