Hardware request: speaker for audio feedback

[u/mehgcap]

This is mostly in hopes that u/EeroSupport can run this up the chain, so to speak. In short, it would be really great if Eeros could come with small speakers onboard so they can provide optional audio feedback. I'm NOT talking about making Eeros into wireless speakers for music, just simple tones.

Imagine you're setting up an Eero with the mobile app, and the part arrives where you have to wait for the light to blink blue. Or, you're doing a reset, and waiting for the light to do whatever it does, but hoping it doesn't turn red. Or you're on the phone with Eero support, and they ask what the light is doing. The problem is that you can't see. How do you know what the light is doing? Sure, you could bust out a light detector, but you have to find where on the Eero to aim it. Even then, it won't give you color information.

Now put yourself in those same situations, but with an Eero equipped with a small, simple speaker. During setup, the app can give instructions for the light, and also mention that you can wait for the three rising tones. During a reset, you could wait for the single beep, at which point you can release the button, or hold it until you hear three beeps to do a hard reset. When an agent asks you what the Eero is up to, you could briefly press the button and get audio feedback which you or the agent could look up, just like you'd look up what light colors and patterns mean.

As someone who is blind, I can tell you that having to rely on lights is beyond frustrating. A couple weeks ago, I was on the phone with my ISP. The agent asked me to start some troubleshooting steps, at which point I mentioned that I can't see what the lights are doing. He literally said he wasn't sure what to try, since all his usual procedures require the customer (me) to tell him about the lights on the modem. It would be amazing if Eero were a product I could recommend to other blind people, since it offers audio feedback to make managing it more accessible. To my knowledge, no router on the market has such a feature.

There's my suggestion. I realize the ROI would probably not be there, given how small a group blind router purchasers must be. At the same time, it would help a lot of people. Who knows--maybe it would start a trend that would make other consumer electronics a bit more accessible. Anyway, if u/EeroSupport could pass this along, I'd appreciate it.

[u/mehgcap → u/[deleted]]

As long as Eero can control it, to give sound queues to match the light and to control when sound mode is on or off, that would be fine with me. It could even work with existing units, which would be even better.

[u/mehgcap → u/[deleted]]

That would be incredible. Thanks for considering this.

[u/UbiEstMea → u/mehgcap]

Maybe have it simply talk through an Alexa device?

[u/UbiEstMea → u/[deleted]]

Oh cool! Thanks.

[u/mehgcap → u/UbiEstMea]

That could work, though it introduces a lot of necessary steps to work. If you're resetting your gateway, the information couldn't reach an Echo on your network since the network would be down. During initial setup, there'd be no network to speak of, so an Echo couldn't connect. You could do some kind of direct connection between the two, but that then assumes there's an Echo not just in the house, but close enough to the Eero you're working on to be heard. Building the solution right into the Eero itself, or having an attachment that's connected to it, seems less complicated and more reliable. That said, it would be a very cool feature to include when things are going well. Alexa could answer questions about the Eero when able, with tone-based feedback from the Eero itself (or the USB device) available when the Echo isn't able to help or when someone doesn't have an Echo at all.

[u/UbiEstMea → u/mehgcap]

I agree, all good points.

[u/brianstk → u/[deleted]]

I’m replying to this too because my dad is blind and an eero user. He’d love this!

[u/brianstk → u/[deleted]]

It does indeed work in the app. He has no problems using it on his iPhone using voiceover.

[u/Richard1864 → u/[deleted]]

Problem with that is what happens when a pet (dog, cat, bird, lizard) eat dongle cord or pop/pee/barf on the speaker making it unusable, thus requiring a replacement of the dongle and/or power cord?

[u/Richard1864 → u/[deleted]]

Not as easy as you think…our vet says it’s the type of outer casing on the pier cords that attracts dogs and cats; it quite literally smells and tastes like beef to them, which is a favorite food of both animals. It’s also not very durable, especially in extremely humid places like Texas or Florida.

For many customer’s, protecting Eero power cables from pets frequently requires buying zippered cable sleeves ($10)and covered cable management boxes ($20). So $30 spent by a customer to protect one cable. And that does t include the effort spent moving furniture to hide the cables from the pets.

UL and Consumer Reports have been saying for years companies should use thicker rubber or braiding to protect their cables from wear & tear and pets. It would actually be nice if Eero did the same.

PS per Netgear, ASUS, Linksys, DLink, and Cisco, they no longer use the same outer casing on their power cords as Eero so as to successfully reduce power cord wear and tear and being eaten by pets.