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[Tuicemen]

If you mean the second to provide power, well that's true.  I doubt there's a way to have the same cable provide power as well as connect to the UPS as a Host.

Yep, that's what I meant.

[Tuicemen]

Probably the thing I miss with my new HA setup now over running it from a PC is the sound notifications.
Sure I could do notifications with my phone but I refuse to have it glued to my hip.
I also am not one who checks my phone at every SMS sound notification.
The Pi Zero W does have Bluetooth so I'm wondering if anyone has utilized this for playing anything from their Pi

I have Alexa set for reminders and such and I could record her voice for HA notifications simply enough the issue is playing these from the PI.
I will say I've not looked into this much so a simple google search may reveal some info to get me started.
This part of my HA setup was and still is low on my HA wish list but if it is easy enough to implement, why not get it done?

[Tuicemen]

I have my pi zeroW auto conecting to a BT speaker (amazon dot) on every boot so my issue now is being able to play sound to it  since this is setup as headless it adds extra difficulties

[Tuicemen]

  I now can send sound (wav files) to my amazon dot via the PIs BT 
This requires pi-btaudio to be installed so the BT is speaker auto connects on a PI boot up.
https://github.com/bablokb/pi-btaudio
You then need to install MOC

Code: [Select]

sudo apt install moc moc-ffmpeg-pluginfor more info see this write up https://www.sigmdel.ca/michel/ha/rpi/sound_output_03_en.html

Next step is sending from HG or HA-bridge 
Which should be the easy part!

[HA Dave]

I now can send sound (wav files) to my amazon dot via the PIs BT   

All Right I can certainly see how that could be useful.     

[Tuicemen]

All Right I can certainly see how that could be useful.     

Yes, currently you can only send sound to one BT speaker but there is hope for multi connections.

I just tested sending a sound to the dot using HA-Bridge and that was a simple task. Since I can trigger HA-Bridge events from HG all is well now!
Sending directly from HG may require me to build an addon program (a Project for another day).
 I just need to record some Alexa voice wavs and I'm set
I may record some Jerri notification wav files for nostalgia.

I've currently set things up for my bedroom Dot, but may change that to the living room Dot.
I have both setup in the PI for when multi connections are available.
  Humm may be I should add the Google Home mini that's in the kitchen:

[racerfern]

Humm may be I should add the Google Home mini that's in the kitchen:

I find my Google Home vastly superior to Alexa. I even switched my streaming from Amazon to google although it's $2 more a month. Imagine! Of course I have Android phones which blend almost seamlessly with Google  products.

Alexa is relegated to the laundry room for now although she has come a long way from when I first used it in the late 90s before Amazon got involved.

[HA Dave]

I find my Google Home vastly superior to Alexa...... Of course I have Android phones which blend almost seamlessly with Google  products.

Google is smarter, and is more conversational in it's use and responses as well (I have a friend who converted to Google). Same with some of the android phones... they can be the proving grounds for what Apple will introduce in next years model of phone.

Yet... Alexa-echo devices have 55,000 skills of all types to select from... and Apple is the base-line easy-to-use phone. What's the old saying... six of one, and half a dozen of the other. I saw a holiday priced Google device for $29 bucks... and wanted to get it.... but don't know where I'd put it. Most of this new stuff integrates and plays well with each other. But there are still some devices where we have to just pick a brand/protocol/flavor.... and go with it. 

[HA Dave]

... Yes, currently you can only send sound to one BT speaker but there is hope for multi connections.

I think.... eventually we'll be able to create a device triggered routine (instead of only voice trigger routines) within the Alexa app... or at least I hope so. That might resolve some issues.

My wink Hub just added "lookout" which is a nice step forward.... although I haven't setup and/or used it yet.

[Tuicemen]

You can do some event triggered Alexa responces with IFTTT. However this is not what I was looking for. My ultimate goal is whole house voice notifications for some events at least. Currently you must specify what BT speaker to send the sound to and that device must be currently connected. Alexe notifies you when it connects and beeps when it disconnects. Luckily my pi is on a UPS or this could be a problem with a late night power blip, humm it still might! I better get the volume turned down on the bedroom Dot til I know for sure.

[HA Dave]

…….. My ultimate goal is whole house voice notifications for some events at least. Currently you must specify what BT speaker to send the sound to and that device must be currently connected.…...

Yeah. Some amplifiers have BT reception and can be paired to.... then it's [back] to a hardwired speaker system. So you might as well do that from the Pi mini-stereo jack.

I'd had the "wired" whole-house (and outside too for one event/alert). But as my garage door would open and my voice announcement would say: "the garage door is opening.... the garage door is open" I would also hear my and my wife's iPhones (and my wife ipad) chime the alert chime when we were home. We also would hear the chime(s) alerting us of each other comings and goings when we were apart. I came to believe that phone notifications and alerts might be a better way to get notice of Home Automation events.

My new Home security alarm alerts me via my phone (a push notification). It uses a siren alert sound! I like that. But I haven't yet figured out haw to get and use more special sounds and banners for phone alerts. Maybe... there might already be an app that does that.

[Tuicemen]

Yeah. Some amplifiers have BT reception and can be paired to.... then it's [back] to a hardwired speaker system. So you might as well do that from the Pi mini-stereo jack.

Only a Pi Zero has no mini stereo out put jack. My 3B+ does but using it heats up the pi considerably.
One Amazon Dot can be heard through out my Log off grid place, maybe due to the open concept layout of the place, or the Dots placement. However the same can't be said for my city place.

My cell phone is almost all ways set to vibrate (no sound) and I refuse to have it glued to me, but I never liked the land line phones either.
I preferer voice anouncements over sirens or other sounds as they are less startling and easier on my ears.

[HA Dave]

…… My cell phone is almost all ways set to vibrate (no sound) and I refuse to have it glued to me, but I never liked the land line phones either.    

I think that's normal. I spoke with a friend the other day.... said he had one of those Google devices... but never uses it.

I had a similar experience with my Amazon/Alexa device. It wasn't used much at first either. I had to make a list of ways to use it... and regularly review the list during the day. I would also occasionally search the Internet for different skills and try them out.

I did something similar with my original iPhone. I took a tip from my/the old "day planner days". I set aside times to invest in friendships and family ties. I would make calls, and send text messages. I took pictures and shared them.... and occasionally post a pic on social media. Since my Mom doesn't do "pics"... I would use the on-line printing and have them printed at "her" local drug store. I keep my life on the calendar (which is also on my laptop). I not only know what will happen when.... but when I did what. I also downloaded books from Amazon.... which I would read when I had a spare few minutes here and there. AND.... it was at Amazon that I found the Alexa and ihome devices. 

New (even good) habits can take a little effort once we're all grown up. But it didn't take long at all till my phone became indispensable. These great modern technologies are worthless if we don't take the time and make the effort to learn to exploit them. If the PC wasn't invented until today.... how many people that we know would reject them.... because they never needed them before.

I preferer voice anouncements over sirens or other sounds as they are less startling and easier on my ears.

So do I. I wish more cloud services were out there. There is still TONS of digital services that aren't even offered yet.

[Tuicemen]

So I got a smart Samsung TV given to me just recently and HomeGenie sees it.
However I'm at a loss as to what HG can do with it I would suspect control some aspect of it but what. I never recieved a manual At least nothing that explains connecting to UPNP.
Anyone played with this part of HG? The module in HG sees volume up down calls from my remote but if I try to adjust volume from HG it revert back to the previous setting.

[Tuicemen]

Time to revisit this.
 I've surpassed my initial expectations probably 3 fold by now. Virtually everything I originally realy wanted has been done plus way more. I constantly am thinking of new things to add to or do with the Pi and Home Genie.

My latest project is utilizing one of my Kinects 360 cameras in HomeGenie, initially I'd like to set it up like a web cam.
I may attempt gesture control or body sensing if it isn't to taxing on the CPU.
I currently have it connected to a Pi ZeroW and am able to take snap shots and the ZeroW performance isn't suffering.
However I still haven't figured out how to view the images in HG. Once I do that I can have the Kinects take regular snapshots updating a file which will act like a stream.
I've played with some Pi streaming code and it does show my Kinects is working and streaming yet I can't view the stream