Portable Battery Base for Echo (Use Echo anywhere) [OLD VERSION]

*Update* 6/14/2016So I received a replacement battery base from Mission Cables. No more blinking light, the blue LED turns off when it is fully charged. Green LED is on when the Echo is receiving power. Having a lot of success with the base functionality, and I can listen to the Echo on the go by just connecting it to my Amazon Music App with Bluetooth. I seem to notice the battery lasting longer when I pair it via Bluetooth instead of having it connect via WiFi.This one allows for the Echo to fit in better to the Battery Base, it just took me a few tries. Overall, very happy with the product and would recommend it for any Echo owner.*Update* 5/25/2016I have since been contacted by Mission Cables, apparently the blue LED is not supposed to blink unless there is a power issue. I was just unlucky I guess. Going to be getting a replacement from them next week and I will update when I receive it.*Original Review*Just received this base yesterday and I am having a few issues with it. I had very high hopes since this was the one function that I felt the echo was missing.First of all it is difficult to get the echo to fit securely into the base. The cord that comes out of the battery base that plugs into the echo is loose and doesn't stay in the small hallow space in the bottom of the echo, the result of this is that the echo is not completely seated and tilted a bit. I spent an hour to try and get it right and it still is a little askew.Also, I wanted to mainly have this plugged into the echo and the wall outlet at all times except when I want to take it somewhere. I can't really do that because I usually keep it in my living room, and the blue charging light blinks if it is plugged into the wall, even if it is fully charged. It is fine for a while, but it has been blinking since yesterday and I have a feeling it will always blink if it is plugged into the wall. It is a little distracting to have in the living room when we are trying to watch TV or something else. I might have to take a black sharpie to it to get it to stop, but then I can't tell if it's charging when I plug it into an outlet. An always on blue light when it is fully charged would have been much better.

This battery base is an excellent accessory for you echo that not only allows mobility of your Echo so that you can take it to anywhere in and outside of your house that has access to a WIFI connection, but it will all supply you with all of the Echo functions during a power outage. When I initially set up this base on my Echo, I had a couple of the problems expressed by another review, but with the help of Carolyn at Mission Cables, I was able to figure out what caused the problems. I was going to do a video review, but I decided that I could better explain how to set up this base with pictures. With the pictures, I will also describe the problems I encountered, and how I corrected them.Picture #3This picture simply shows what the Echo looks like on the battery base. This base adds approximately 1 3/4" to the height of the Echo. The base is a little over 2" tall, but part of the bottom of the Echo is inside of it.Picture #2This picture shows the bottom of the Echo on the right, and the battery base on the left. The power plug from the base is inserted into the Echo where the original power cable had been plugged. Please take note of the notch opening on the Echo just below the battery plug. This is where the original power cord went so that the Echo would sit flat. In order for the Echo to sit flat in the base, the batter power cable needs to be fit partially into the semi circle opening on the bottom of the Echo, and then must be fit in the notch opening. If the battery base power cable is not in this notch, the Echo will not sit straight as the cable will hold one side up. It is also important to make sure that the base power cable is fully inserted into the Echo.Picture #2Once you have the Echo properly inserted into the battery base, plug it in and make sure that you can see the Echo's power indicator through the small hole on the back of the battery base. If you don't, turn the Echo in the base until you can see the power indicator through the hole on the base.Picture #4This picture shows the green light on the left that indicates the battery base is on. If you don't see the green light, press the button that is between the two light to turn on the base. The solid blue light on the right indicates that the battery base is charging. If this light is blinking, it means that one of the power connectors has not been pushed in enough. When I first installed the battery base, the blue LED light blinked continuously. The Echo still worked, but it was running off a partial charge that the base comes with. I finally check the power connectors and realized that one of them was a little harder to push in and wasn't all of the way in. Once I got it pushed in all the way, the LED changed to a solid blue. Once the battery base is fully charged, the blue LED light will go out.Now for the beauty of this base. Once you install the battery base, you can leave it on. If you leave it plugged in most of the time, you don't have to worry about the battery overcharging. It has an advanced battery management IC fro Texas Instruments that prevents it from overcharging and is designed to be left plugged in. If you want to use it in another area of your house or even outside, just remove the plug from the back of the unit, and it will continue to do everything that Echo does for about 6 hours as long as it has an active WIFI internet connection. If the battery gets low, the green LED light will start flashing to let you know it's time to plug it into an outlet for recharge.I received this battery base for the Echo at a discount or for free in exchange for my honest, unbiased review. Even if I paid full price for this battery base, my review would be the same, and knowing what I do about it, I would gladly have paid full retail. We use the Echo daily for music, weather, timing food cooking and so many other things. It's amazing how one unit can be useful in daily life, and with this battery base, we can use it anywhere in our house. I really do love this battery base, and hope that my pictures for installation help you to avoid any possible problems with it.

Being able to pick up Alexa and move her around the house with you cordlessly is a good feature and the rechargeable base makes this possible. It is very easy to install, and complements the unit's design. However to preserve battery life you need to turn Alexa off completely which means Alexa takes about a minute to boot back up. A small inconvenience. Battery life is about 6 hours and a good feature is you can use Alexa when charging. But it also means in order to use Alexa as a morning alarm, the battery would need to be fully charged at bedtime and then I could sleep no more than 6 hours. I have not tried this for fear of oversleeping There needs to be a sleep mode of less battery drain when Alexa is on, but in standby or an automatic switch to AC power when battery is depleted. But that means you'd need to be plugged in anyway so what's the point of a battery.For simple portability, this battery set up works great. I would imagine Amazon will upgrade Alexa to have an onboard rechargeable in the future. Hopefully for a minimum of 8 hours