SmartMote Amazon Alexa Universal Controller

After a long wait, this Kickstarter project has now started shipping and will be available to the commercial market very soon. Priced at less than $40 this is a Universal Remote that should be brought Amazon Alexa and later Google and Apple remote control to a range infrared controlled household devices.

In the rather basic box was the SmartMote itself, a far too short USB to micro-USB cable, some Kickstarter stickers and a card with a link to the SmartMote website. With this initial model, no User Guide is included - promised for later versions - but the link card takes you to the download location for the SmartMote app. On the website are a number of instructional videos which I found hard to follow and in fact made the configuration process harder than it really is. After installing the app and registering a SmartMote account you need to add two Alexa skills to your Amazon Echo and you are all done.

Loading the app takes you to the setup page and a walkthrough guide to getting the device online and working. Following the instructions, you have to register a SmartMote account, connect your phone to a wifi hotspot created by the SmartMote and input your home network password. That done reconnect the phone to your home network and the Smartmote will do likewise and allow the app to then discover and connect to the device. I then had to update the SmartMote firmware and reboot the SmartMote and all was then done. This is easier to do than explain and took only a minute or so. A series of LED lights on the device confirm the status and should complete with a blue LED showing you are online and connected to the SmartMote cloud.

You can now add home devices, which at present is fairly limited in number but is due to expand soon. My Humax Sat Box, Roku, and Android TV Box were not recognised but my LG TV was and I found that all the basic commands worked at once with more specific commands learned quickly by pointing the TV remote at the SmartMote and selecting the..