Just ordered my HE to replace ST

Don't we all... Only advantage I see to WiFi devices with thier own apps. But the alternative is not better...

Ahh! Just showed my wife the cable organization here, in the hope she would understand i am not alone in my cable hoarding habit. Unfortunately backfired - now I am not just a sad obsessive hoarder but a disorganized observe hoarder with a new product to start ......

Not only that - she will offer a new one for you that will arrive before you find the carefully. archived cable that no longer functions with the new device you just bought that has the latest HDMI spec

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Very good point - and even if I do find a working cable, I'll rationalize that the one Alexa just bought for me should go back into the box rather than being returned, "in case I need it someday".

There are custom skill blueprints available now that will allow you to have Alexa "properly" answer questions like that. :wink:

I know! I'm looking forward to playing with that stuff someday. The inventory stuff isn't really practical for me (I have enough trouble remembering to say "alexa, add ___ " to put it stuff I just used on my shopping list. :slight_smile:
But what I'd REALLY like is a system that lets me host my music collection locally and stream it on command and under the control of Alexa and all the FireTV remotes. Amazon Music's tools for creating playlists and managing a large collection (about 20,000 songs from about 2500 CDs in my case) really, really stink.

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Plex allows you to do that very thing. There's a Plex skill for Alexa. I use it for my FLAC collection.

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And that leads me to Roon ~ awesome local library management zero integration with voice contro! Or hubitat. Sounds like an opportunity if only I had the skills!

Good to know! Plex was on my list to check out at some point, but not near the top and it's a long list :frowning: Good to know there's probably an easy solution.

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It's really the only media management software they I can consider.

Kodi is like the flea market brother.
You can get anything from the flea market, except that dirty feeling off your clothes. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

A lot of people really like Kodi so I hope I don't get annimosity, but the lack of remote access kind of crossed it off my list right away.

Plex's premium feature pay wall and cranky staff are definitely some negatives. I coughed up for a lifetime subscription when it was on sale. I've used it almost every night for many years...

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Well I have it. It showed up on Saturday as expected. I plugged it in and ran the setup. Super easy.

I knew what the hard part was going to be. All my orphaned switches that used to be on the ST hub. So I go looking online on how to manually exclude the switches - GE regular and dimmers. Seems no one really knows. The manufacturer says, "Follow the hub manufacturer's instructions." Hubitat says "Put the hub in exclusion mode then follow the switch's manufacturer's instructions". Some Guy on YouTube says "Press the ON side 10 times." Another guy says "Press ON 3 times then OFF 3 times." Pull the air-gap. Don't pull the air gap.

You get the idea. Amazingly the first two switches exclude just fine. Though I had no idea why. It's magic! The next several I try did not exclude. After an hour of messing with it I gave up. Better to walk away than stress over it.

This morning the dog woke me up early (rotten dog). So I had some time. Let's try this again. Kids are away so let's get their switches set up. Walk into the girl's room. Open the HE web UI. Two windows "Z-Wave Info" and "Log". I want to see when the switch excludes. I tried all the tricks again. No luck. I was getting frustrated and standing there in the dark. I think to myself, "Screw it turn the light on." One single tap on the ON switch. And I saw activity in the log. "Unknown ZWave devices excluded."

Yep. That was it. One tap while in exclude mode. 10 minutes later all my switches are joined. If I wasn't so happy to have all my switches joined I'd probably throw something. :slight_smile:

Anyway. Thanks for the chuckles in this thread over the weekend. I'm going to go play with the apps now. Wish me luck.

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Very cool! As we go along devices seem to be getting better with the whole exclude/include thing.

One of the drawbacks of having such a flexible system is the more and varied devices you have the harder it becomes to figure out each devices exclude/include procedures.. especially for older devices. Because I am lazy I usually just try to wing it but that only works some of the time. Usually have to dig up the manual online somewhere, hope it's actually the correct version and go through the not well written micro print.

Ahh well the joys of tinkering. Hope you have fun with all the stuff.

My advice is to stay away from the lounge threads as much as possible or it may end up costing you a lot of money.. there is always something new or cool being discussed and you will have an almost irresistible urge to incorporate whatever it is into your own setup. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!!

:rofl:

I don't need help spending money. I received an Aeotec Wallmote Quad on Saturady as well. I plan to take that out to my wood shop to control things that are plugged into a few TP-Link smart plugs (fan, air filter, dust collector, etc).

Fun fact: Google Home can hear you ask to turn those things on but once they're running you really have to yell to get it to turn them off.

@Eric.C.Miller: Your Google-fu is much better than mine.

I just put the links up for anyone who may be searching the forum for this in the future . . .

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