eagleeyedtiger

I’ve heard of him… mainly because he’s our local labour MP and we get a Christmas card dropped off every year from him and his team

Oh no… where did I put my tiny violin

Actually you’re right, it’s mainly public holidays or when I don’t have to do the school run in the morning

Oh man I know that feeling! or forgetting to turn off the alarm on a weekend or holiday.

Watched Beau Miles’ latest video and it kind of resonated seeing as our second child is getting close to 1. It reminded me how selfishly frustrating it can feel when young children take up your time that you want to spend on other pursuits. It’s a reminder to me that it’s not permanent. Also a reminder that we haven’t taken a holiday for years…

I can recommend his vids, he’s a introspective and inspirational person who makes quite well done short videos.

Interesting, now I’m wondering if I should sell my CC audio for $200 and get one of these 🤔

Understandable. I feel like there must be something out there that works as a replacement, I just haven’t looked very deeply into it.

I got it shortly after I heard they were discontinued, so there was still some stock floating around. I think it might have been through Dick Smith/Kogan at the time?

If you’re willing to go down the Amazon route, I think Echo Dot’s have an aux out? They had a device called the Echo Input as well which was like and Echo Dot without the speaker, doesn’t seem available anywhere though. I would probably only try this if I could be sure I could disable the microphone and smart speaker functions.

Hope you enjoy it!

I found this guys channel great for giving me ideas on what could be done: Smart Home Solver

The Home Assistant forums have loads of info too.

I would love some smart speakers but I find them pricey as well.

I’m using a Chromecast audio with an old pair of speakers on a smart plug. The speakers are old enough that it only has an IR remote.

I have it setup so:

• Chromecast is detected as Playing, speakers turn on.
• IR blaster sends commands to set the volume and bass level I like.
• Dashboard displays additional buttons for controlling volume via IR blaster.
• If Chromecast stops casting, the speakers turn off and buttons on dashboard disappear.

Main reason it’s setup this way is I already had the old speakers and getting a Chromecast audio and IR blaster was much cheaper than getting good smart speakers. Although you’re right it would be much simpler if I just get some decent smart speakers.