I just bought a Sonos Play-1. I thought I would also be able to add it to my home theater as a rear speaker (eventually as a pair of rear speakers) and play with ST integration as well. But now I realize not it can not work that way with my receiver. So it’s just a voice for my ST hub now. Not sure I will find enough uses for it to justify the price. I am curious what folks are doing with Sonos, perhaps it could be worth keeping.
Also, Are there other voices you can use? I don’t see anything about the synthesized voice on the sonos site.
I have the current weather in the morning when I reach for my coffee cup = Door/open sensor + Sonos, I have a “welcome home Dawn” (for me) and “welcome home handsome” (for the boyfriend)=presence sensor + Sonos. I have “motion in the garage” = motion detection + Sonos and I have “Mail has Arrived” for our mailbox = door/open sensor+Sonos.
The rest of the time it is playing something from Pandora or my music library… PS I LOVE my Sonos
I was disappointed as well to learn it couldn’t be used for surround sound outside a full Sonos system, but I made the purchase anyway and now want another. At first I used it for playing alerts in the man cave, but now it’s used upstairs for morning weather reports and music. For the basement I repurposed a squeezebox boom using Obythings to accomplish the alerts.
Eventually I will setup other alerts with the Sonos, but I need additional sensors. If they ever release a weatherproof model I will be all over that for the patio.
The fact they can’t play high bit audio was also a bummer, so the squeezebox units I have will remain.
I tried the weather and all it said was “It’s 71 degrees” Which it wasn’t because I live high on the ridge of a mountain side so it’s about 10 degrees cooler.
I realize the weather in Hawaii isn’t very variable but I expected more than just the temperature from the unit.
I have a high quality sound system and which is controlled by Harmony Home Hubs so I am expecting to be able to activate that once they fix the issues between ST and Harmony Hub.
So I am left with a device for $200 that tells me things I already know Perhaps I need to reconsider this purchase. LOL
I tried Big Talker. Configured it to my thermostat and turned on my AC.
Nothing happened.
Turned on live logging.
Big Talker log only has
10:09:41 PM: trace Deleting all scheduled jobs for InstalledSmartApp: …
Sonos Log produces this error whenever I turn on the AC
8d88d8e2-9952-46ff-a092-dae66aaf8c7c 9:59:14 PM: error java.lang.StringIndexOutOfBoundsException: String index out of range: 184 @ line 261
Looks like Big Talker has some issues. @rayzurbock Have you seen this issue ? Have you tested the Thermostat feature ?
I have a Sonos Play 1, which triggers a dog barking when a door is opened and the mode is away. I also have an alarm sound when my smoke/CO detectors are triggered . I uses the Sonos Notify with Sound app for these automation.
This app also lets you type in what you want it to say, but it sounds like the old automated hal speaking to you over the sonos. My kids get a kick out of it, but not very practical.
I also have a Sonos Connect with my HT system, which doesn’t work since ST can’t turn on my receiver and change the input to Sonos. I had a Logitech Home hub that did this, but became very dissatisfied with the overall Harmony product, so I returned it. I am waiting to see if the NEEO remote I got off of KS will fill the gap and trigger all devices I want.
If you use any of the stand alone speakers, then you wont have this problem.
@Ron I do not have a Sonos to test with. @greg has done a lot of the Sonos testing for BigTalker.
I use VLCThing since I do not have a Sonos. I have not seen this issue. I tested with the latest Beta version of BigTalker this morning after seeing this and once ST’s polled my thermostat(Nest) after it shut off, BigTalker announce that my thermostat was now off.
What version of BigTalker and Sonos firmware are you running?
Are you using the default phrase under group 1? If not is your phrase very long? (Not sure if it matters or not, but if using your own long phrase, try to see if it works if shorter or use the default phrase under Group 1)
Hey Ron. Glad you called in Brian. I don’t have a smart thermostat. Big Talker works pretty reliably for me. Does it work for you using events other than thermostat?
Not sure about Sonos Firmware but I bought it yesterday and it updated when I installed it so should be current version.
I did not alter any messages. I simply configured for my ZXT-120 (which acts like a thermostat) and tested. AC ON then OFF a few times. Each time Big Talker had no logging but sonos had the error message.
I didn’t try anything else. I don’t have much, two thermostats, one garage door opener and a motion sensor which isn’t really in use just messing with it now.
@Ron I have 2 Nest Thermostats. I’m not sure exactly how often ST polls them for data. I know it’s not immediate, so my heat,cool,fan,idle announcements are delayed. When testing, I open the ST app, go to Things, press my Thermostat and hit refresh after I know a change has occurred (ie: Heat changed to off, off to hear, etc).
Also, you can enable debug logs by scrolling down to the bottom of the BT app and removing the // in front of log.debug , save and Publish for me. Then you can open Live Logging, turn your thermostat on or off and watch for more detailed BT debug logs to happen.
I decided the Sonos Play 1 isn’t feature rich enough to justify the price so it’s going back. I expected it to work better on it’s own. Even the Android app seemed limited. Maybe the iPhone version is better?
After an event and sound file plays from Sonos, does it go back to the music it was previously playing now? Or does it still kill any previous streaming music?
That bug pretty much killed me setting anything up.
@Shepstyle, are you asking about BigTalker? Early versions of BigTalker (BT) interrupted your music to speak the event phrase but did not return to your music. This was addressed 12/17/14 in the version 1.0.1 release. If music is playing and an event occurs, BT should adjust your volume as desired, speak your custom phrase for the event, return your volume level and then resume your music. BT is currently at version 1.0.2 in the master release branch and 1.0.3-Beta5 in the development branch.
Just installed BIG TALKER- this is awesome in conjunction with my Sonos system. Have Sonos connected to my whole home audio in ceiling speaker system so I can broadcast general messages to entire home such as weather warning or mail arrived, etc. Then have Play 1 in Master Bedroom, Soundbar in Family Room, and Play 5 in kitchen so I can broadcast area specific messages to the specific locations to Sonos speakers. Thanks to everyone who contributes here!
Perhaps I need to reconsider this purchase. LOL