I'm looking at getting either Amazon Echo Dots or Google Homes to run with my existing Sonoffs and Yeelights and whatever I decide to add in the future. Any recommendations on which one of the two to go for. Major differences? Looking at installing two units.
-
Join the MyBroadband community
South Africa’s biggest forum. Discuss, discover, and connect with thousands of members.
-
Question of the Day: How do you normally pay for purchases in stores?
Home Automation - Smartkit
- Thread starter Dolby
- Start date
I avoided opening the box and needing an FTDI cable by using this project https://github.com/mirko/SonOTA following this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONFhXM5R-t4
Nice find! I'll pass this around.
Of course, my stock of FTDI has now been made redundant
Will have to wait for fellow forumites to comment - I've only used the Echo Dot.
ToxicBunny
Oi! Leave me out of this...
I will hopefully have my Sonoffs setup this weekend and integrated into my Google Home and let you know.
I went with Google Home since I already had chromecasts and at that point, the only music service that worked in SA and was compatible with one or the other was Google Play Music.
Started with one full home, then later purchased two minis.
Not regretting my decision at this point, except that I would have liked if the minis had an 3.5mm audio out. But their sound is really not bad either -- perfect for bedrooms and playing sleepy music to my kids.
Started with one full home, then later purchased two minis.
Not regretting my decision at this point, except that I would have liked if the minis had an 3.5mm audio out. But their sound is really not bad either -- perfect for bedrooms and playing sleepy music to my kids.
I have the same setup - what you can do (at an additional expense) - is buy a Chromecast - and set that as the default for Music for a specific Home device. (e.g. my lounge has a home mini - but the output is set as the Chromecast connected to my sound system)
Nice find! I'll pass this around.
Of course, my stock of FTDI has now been made redundant
Haha sorry didn't even know you had FTDI cables... That youtuber has a few good videos to watch, otherwise I spent a few hours already following the SuperHouse channel.
The actual flashing went "ok", not 100% smooth (mostly because my laptop would reconnect to my real wifi every time the sonoff dropped its wifi network) and the "FinalStage" took some time to come up but other than that no hassles besides the initial installation etc and getting the script running, but that's mostly just downloading stuffs and 100mb fibre makes than muuuuch better.
Tinuva
The Magician
Brilliant! Thank you very much for this.
Any negatives with using the Eco Dot? Or are you happy with it. Was also considering them but looks like most guys are using Google Home.
Thanks Toxic that'll be great.
Good to know thanks. Also looking at streaming music through them. Guess I will have to do a bit more researching between the two. Using Apple Music at the moment.
Where did you buy the headlights from?
Assuming “headlights” means yeelights?
Gearbest. Be sure to bring them in in batches below R500 though. That way they pass under the customs minimum amount and no import duties or vat is charged. I used Aramex ("middle east priority") shipping and it is a bigger saving to pay shipping multiple times than import duties (20% on LED) in one big order.
There's a bunch of other threads on Gearbest.
Unfortunately Xiaomi seemed to have discontinued the white yeelight bulbs which is a shame - was about R130 - R180 a bulb depending on the Gearbest special at the time. Rumor on their forums is that a new one will be launched soon, hopefully with the ability to control color temperature like their ceiling lights, desk lamp and bedside lamps can. I have the MI Desk lamp too and the thing is amazing quality and good light.
Blugh I should have done this from the start. Mine had since been upgraded to newer Sonoff firmware and from the SonOTA github page it looks like the latest firmwares doesn't support this OTA method since they actually do Wifi certificate verification...
Still have one basic left that I haven't set up yet but if I'm going to be flashing the rest with an FTDI I might as well start practicing on this one...
Do you think these will sell if we start bringing them in? We've been considering them for a while now - it's just the ballache that is ICASA that keeps our range limited.
It's an excellent product, and works very well and reliably. I'm sure they will sell if the price is right.
FYI everyone (again):
https://www.itead.cc/blog/explanation-on-service-disruption-on-eu-region/
The cloud server was deployed on Amazon AWS Germany since mid-2015. With the rapid growth of users and devices, the servers load are under high load. Upgrading the server and server shortly after the New Year holiday was planned.
Unfortunately, the server went down on 1st Jan 2018. When the servers came online again 4 hours later, millions of devices request https connection at the same time. The servers were working under considerably high load. What makes it worse was the servers were under DDOS attack during these few days.
We found some bugs that cannot be found under low load. Coordinate mechanism between the server and the devices should be upgraded as well.
After being fully tested, the EU server will be upgraded in Mid Jan. Come along with More powerful AWS servers, upgraded server architecture, improved attack protection, and better coordinate mechanism.
Finally, we want to apologize for the inconvenience caused for our customers. We will do everything we can to learn from this event and use it to improve our availability even further.
https://www.itead.cc/blog/explanation-on-service-disruption-on-eu-region/
The cloud server was deployed on Amazon AWS Germany since mid-2015. With the rapid growth of users and devices, the servers load are under high load. Upgrading the server and server shortly after the New Year holiday was planned.
Unfortunately, the server went down on 1st Jan 2018. When the servers came online again 4 hours later, millions of devices request https connection at the same time. The servers were working under considerably high load. What makes it worse was the servers were under DDOS attack during these few days.
We found some bugs that cannot be found under low load. Coordinate mechanism between the server and the devices should be upgraded as well.
After being fully tested, the EU server will be upgraded in Mid Jan. Come along with More powerful AWS servers, upgraded server architecture, improved attack protection, and better coordinate mechanism.
Finally, we want to apologize for the inconvenience caused for our customers. We will do everything we can to learn from this event and use it to improve our availability even further.
Very happy with mine. Was the first product I ordered.
App isn't the greatest - but they work great as my perimeter lights. The sonoff slamper wouldn't work as it takes up too much space.
I'm actually surprised on how far their wifi can stretch. Obviously you can lose a lot of packets and still turn on a light, but they work in places where my phone has absolutely no throughput.
It does feel as if the response in the app got a bit slower recently. It always loads but it feels as if I have to wait a couple of secs before the lights' status appears.
Google Home is rock solid with them. I'd say 1 out of 30 times I get a problem when I try to switch on/off lights and then usually it is a local network problem. Turning the light on and off fixes it.
I also think if you can keep the price right you can import and sell them locally. But yeah, import on these will have a 20% duty which makes it a lot more.