Not So Smart Home
Mar. 4th, 2018 08:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
walkitoutSome time before last holiday season, one of A.'s friends informed her of the existence of colored lighting that interacts with smart home hubs such as Google Home. Right away, A. wanted to get a Google Home device and the light bulbs and Make Her Room Even More Pink. Because, Pink World. I was like, okay, we do not actually need to get the Google Home device because Alexa will work with that. We will put it on your holiday wish list and if no one gets it for you we will get it for you and set up your Super Pink Lighting. Which we did.
I then followed that up with a wemo switch, actually, a set of three wemo switches. I thought, wouldn't it be cool to say something to Alexa, and have the lights set up for morning (or night, as the case may be) and have the noise machine also adjust off (or on, as the case may be). I was able to set up the switches, and they appeared on the alexa app in the smart home device selector menu. But NOT on the routine programming smart home device selector. Because ... ?
Actually, I oversimplify. There were a few stages to get the switches to show up at all, and some of those involved just waiting overnight, so I let some time go by hoping that they would Magically appear on the Routine page. Then, more recently, I bought more wemo switches, set one up and it did the same thing. Bummer. I put it on a living room pole lamp, because that seemed useful. I saved the last one for R. to set up, because he set the one up in my office and it always worked correctly. He put that on the downstairs hall lamp. Because that seemed useful.
I discovered that while R. could not see the routines I had set up, he _could_ see the switches (and by "switch" I mean a switched outlet) on his Routine programming smart home device selector menu. Mystery!
In a fit of pique, I said, Self, maybe the problem is You. So I deleted the alexa app from my phone, redownloaded it and re-logged in. And lo! Problem solved! Noise machines added to routines! Yay!
There is clearly a table not being refreshed somewhere. Here's hoping this never happens again, and I never do learn what just went wrong there. R. is convinced that we are about to run out of subnet space on the router. This seems unlikely to me. But you know, IoT has been growing at a furious rate, so, maybe.
ETA: I now have two routines set up for the downstairs. "I'm going downstairs" turns on the kitchen lights (first wemo switch, not an outlet), the hall lamp and the living room lamp (both mentioned above) and "Make It Dark", which turns all of those off. Yes, I know I could have set up room awareness; I'm unconvinced that is appropriate in this case.
One of the rationales for getting Alexa was to solve the I Am Afraid I'm Going to Break My Neck Going Downstairs and Searching for a Light Switch problem. I may have overshot slightly.
I then followed that up with a wemo switch, actually, a set of three wemo switches. I thought, wouldn't it be cool to say something to Alexa, and have the lights set up for morning (or night, as the case may be) and have the noise machine also adjust off (or on, as the case may be). I was able to set up the switches, and they appeared on the alexa app in the smart home device selector menu. But NOT on the routine programming smart home device selector. Because ... ?
Actually, I oversimplify. There were a few stages to get the switches to show up at all, and some of those involved just waiting overnight, so I let some time go by hoping that they would Magically appear on the Routine page. Then, more recently, I bought more wemo switches, set one up and it did the same thing. Bummer. I put it on a living room pole lamp, because that seemed useful. I saved the last one for R. to set up, because he set the one up in my office and it always worked correctly. He put that on the downstairs hall lamp. Because that seemed useful.
I discovered that while R. could not see the routines I had set up, he _could_ see the switches (and by "switch" I mean a switched outlet) on his Routine programming smart home device selector menu. Mystery!
In a fit of pique, I said, Self, maybe the problem is You. So I deleted the alexa app from my phone, redownloaded it and re-logged in. And lo! Problem solved! Noise machines added to routines! Yay!
There is clearly a table not being refreshed somewhere. Here's hoping this never happens again, and I never do learn what just went wrong there. R. is convinced that we are about to run out of subnet space on the router. This seems unlikely to me. But you know, IoT has been growing at a furious rate, so, maybe.
ETA: I now have two routines set up for the downstairs. "I'm going downstairs" turns on the kitchen lights (first wemo switch, not an outlet), the hall lamp and the living room lamp (both mentioned above) and "Make It Dark", which turns all of those off. Yes, I know I could have set up room awareness; I'm unconvinced that is appropriate in this case.
One of the rationales for getting Alexa was to solve the I Am Afraid I'm Going to Break My Neck Going Downstairs and Searching for a Light Switch problem. I may have overshot slightly.