Amazon Echo

So far, I have put in a switch on the NDX side of the wallwart.  Some improvement, I think, though that is hard to be sure of because the problem is so intermittent.  Later, I put a Cinammon etherneet between the switch and the NDX, just out of curiousity.  I have now moved the PC acting as a media server (using Asset) onto the same switch, so this is now not needing the EoM.  It will take time to find out whether this has cured the problem...

Hungryhalibut posted:

OMG, it's worse than I realised. The idea of Amazon Dash to reorder loo roll is just wonderful though. 

I've tried that. They didn't deliver it for a day and then left it on the doorstep (because I was obviously still on the loo). I'm still stuck there with no paper to hand. Even Alexa is now pointedly ignoring me. Somebody please help me.

Beachcomber posted:

Too many stone floors for that to work here, I'm afraid.  The only sensible way would be to run the cable out of the building and along the outside wall.  Might be able to hide it, if I do it while SWMBO isn't home.  However, I suspect that EoM isn't too bad here - ours is the only house on this bit of transmission wire (we have our own transformer on a pole just outside the house).

I have similar issues with tiled and wood floors so I had the cable run along an outside wall where it is reasonably well hidden.

PeterJ, I tried sending you the Andrex puppies but it seems that they want to move into Paint.

Beachcomber posted:

PeterJ, I tried sending you the Andrex puppies but it seems that they want to move into Paint.

Thanks, the puppies did arrive but, unfortunately, destroyed the loo rolls on the doorstep. Looks like I'm stuck here until Amazon start drone delivery.

"Alexa, I'm having a poo and the paper's run out. What do I do?"  Surely you have some handy Smiths posters Nigel?  

dayjay posted:

"Alexa, I'm having a poo and the paper's run out. What do I do?"  

 

Always a handy Smiths lyric when the occasion calls.

G

Ah - yes, unfortunately the puppies can be a little bit of a nuisance when it comes to loo rolls.  

GraemeH posted:

dayjay posted:

"Alexa, I'm having a poo and the paper's run out. What do I do?"  

 

Always a handy Smiths lyric when the occasion calls.

G

Oh mother, I can feel the soil falling...

Hand in Glove would work well if you're out of paper....

last night's listening was interrupted again twice by the NDX initialising input, despite it and the media PC being on the same side of the switch.  So that wasn't a successful cure.  Not sure what else to try.  I don't see what the problem is, really.  The Echo is on its own wallwart (effectively - that's where the WiFi extender is).  The NDX and PC are not using EoM to communicate.  The PC is feeding a Logitech Squeezebox Touch elsewhere in the house over EoM but that should be trivial.  I shall turn the Echo off for a couple of days again to see whether it still happens.

Beachcomber posted:

last night's listening was interrupted again twice by the NDX initialising input, despite it and the media PC being on the same side of the switch.  So that wasn't a successful cure.  Not sure what else to try.  I don't see what the problem is, really.  The Echo is on its own wallwart (effectively - that's where the WiFi extender is).  The NDX and PC are not using EoM to communicate.  The PC is feeding a Logitech Squeezebox Touch elsewhere in the house over EoM but that should be trivial.  I shall turn the Echo off for a couple of days again to see whether it still happens.

I might be wrong, but I would imagine that running EoM could pollute your entire mains, not just devices directly attached to it. 

I'm not sure how it would do that - certainly the Naim power supplies would remove the (small) voltages injected onto the mains, given that, AIUI, that voltage is about 1 volt at between 2 and 50 MHz.  It doesn't make it through the mains transformers.  I don't think that the transformers would work efficiently at that frequency - and even if they did then the 1 volt would come out at about 0.17 volt, if that.  In any case I expect that any effects it might have on other equipment is rather less than the effects of the freezer or fridge motors, or fans or other noisy equipment.  

But I'm not sure what is causing the problem.  It could be that for some reason the NDX is losing contact with the main router, and dropping its IP address - the main router is quite a distance away, and that goes through the EoM.  It shouldn't really matter if it can't find the router, though - it's been given an IP address, and the switch should be routing the data just between the NDX and the PC, without going to the router at all. 

Steve

Interesting variation tonight - the NDX suddenly stopped playing and said that it was restoring history.  What's going on?

Beachcomber posted:

Interesting variation tonight - the NDX suddenly stopped playing and said that it was restoring history.  What's going on?

"Restoring history" is what you usually get if you have been listening to FM say and go back to upnp. It only takes a few seconds and puts the unit back in the folder structure where it was when you left off.

The question is, why does it think you left off...?

best

David

Hmm - curious.  Maybe there is a fault with the NDX?

Surely you can just ask Alexa?

She's not talking to me today - a bit miffed because everyone's talking about her behind her back.

Beachcomber posted:

Interesting variation tonight - the NDX suddenly stopped playing and said that it was restoring history.  What's going on?

If history is being restored, does that mean the Brexit vote hasn't happened yet and Britain won't be leaving the EU?

Or does it mean Britain hasn't joined the EU yet? 

Sadly neither seems to pertain.  Fortunately it looks like Naim still exist in this restored present...

It looks like an interesting product but unless it can integrate with my hifi and to etc etc I'm not sure how I would use it.  Be interesting to see who develops their software to allow it to integrate, I'd love Audirvana to link to it even if it is just for fun

I believe that if you get the smaller version - the Echo Dot - then there is a line out connection which would achieve that.  Also it may be possible to get the Echo to control a Harmony hub, but I don't have one of those.

After thinking i couldn't see the point of one of these.... i'm starting to come round to the idea that this could be really useful. We already have a Harmony Hub and a Sonos system which the Echo looks like it will easily interface to without much messing about.

Looking at the two options, I take it the Dot is virtually the same as the full size device but minus the more capable internal speakers - for voice control functionality it performs the same ?

James

I bought a Dot out of curiosity, but so far all I can find it to do is turn the Hue lights on and off, and tell me what the weather's doing. The voice control is a bit variable - it struggles to understand SWMBO's Glaswegian accent. But then, so do I...

Cheers Tony - For £50 it looks worth a punt. Hue lights are next on the list...