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    A New Chapter for MagicMirror: The Community Takes the Lead
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    MMM-AlexaPi

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Solved Troubleshooting
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    • lucallmonL Offline
      lucallmon @Davepre
      last edited by

      @Davepre ask for help here: https://gitter.im/alexa-pi/Lobby
      These guys helped me. I recommend installing v1.4, instead of the current 1.5. Then during installation, install it as magicmirror instead of raspberrypi. After installation, open the config.yaml file and change the output handler from vlc to sox.

      D johnnyboyJ 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 1
      • D Offline
        Davepre @lucallmon
        last edited by

        @lucallmon Thanks for the recommendation! I will give it a try and report back!

        Best regards / David

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • johnnyboyJ Offline
          johnnyboy @lucallmon
          last edited by johnnyboy

          This post is deleted!
          D 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • D Offline
            Davepre @johnnyboy
            last edited by

            @johnnyboy I will report back once I got the chance to test it out tonight. I am still stuck at work but hope to have positive news still later on.

            Best regards / David

            johnnyboyJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
            • johnnyboyJ Offline
              johnnyboy @Davepre
              last edited by johnnyboy

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              • D Offline
                Davepre
                last edited by

                Hi everyone, heres to report that I was successful.
                In a nutshell i did exactly what @lucallmon recommended but for others to follow my procedures in order to fix this issue i will go step by step.

                Initially I had installed AlexaPi on the raspberry pi 3 and during the installation process i was asked to name the platform. Since its a pi i selected “raspberrypi” which (looking back now) seemed to have caused the issue.

                However as a first step I changed the Output handler from “vlc” to “sox” to see whether that would do the trick:

                I opened the console and typed in

                Sudo nano /etc/opt/AlexaPi/config.yaml
                

                Under the 4th paragraph there is the line “playback_handler: “vlc””

                I changed “vlc” to read “sox”

                (At this stage i saved, restarted and noticed that i could run magic mirror and alexa would also respond but the mic icon was still crossed out so i went back to config.yaml again and continued as follows)

                Furthermore the device named in the config file was still “raspberrypi” and i wanted to change that too.

                So wherever I saw the words "device: “raspberrypi” i changed that simply to “device: “magicmirror””

                I changed 4 entries in total:

                • In the “sound” paragraph in the very beginning (line 3 of the paragraph),
                • in the paragraph following the playback_handler (line 4 of the paragraph ) “# output device:…”
                • 2 paragraphs below that (line 1 of the paragraph ) "# some device:…#
                • and finally towards the bottom theres a paragraph called “Platform” (line 2 of the paragraph )

                After changing those lines I hit ctrl, x confirmed to save the file with yes and confirmed the file name with enter.

                I rebooted the pi and started up magic mirror and now everything is working!!!

                One thing to note though is that the changing from “vlc” to “sox” in my case caused alexa not to greet me with “hello” upon startup anymore. But since everything else seems to be working now I can live with that.

                Hope this helps everyone who encounters a similar problem. Thanks again for all the tips!

                Best regards / Dave

                johnnyboyJ lucallmonL 3 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 3
                • johnnyboyJ Offline
                  johnnyboy @Davepre
                  last edited by johnnyboy

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                  C 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • C Offline
                    cyberphox @johnnyboy
                    last edited by

                    @johnnyboy i reinstalled the module and selected MagicMirror as the device and its been working since. I’ll be switching to my Kinobo USB mic this weekend…

                    Full time Dad, DJ and entertainer and lover of technology.

                    lucallmonL johnnyboyJ 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • lucallmonL Offline
                      lucallmon @cyberphox
                      last edited by

                      Solid! Good job guys!

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • D Offline
                        Davepre
                        last edited by Davepre

                        Good morning guys,
                        a quick question for everyone who managed to get this to work. How is the performance when leaving the mirror on for a couple of hours?

                        I havent had the time to properly test it yet, but yesterday night I was under the impression that the MMM-AlexaPi module is quite a heavy hitter performance wise. I use a raspberry pi 3 and don’t feel like I overloaded it (only default modules + mmm-alexapi, motion detection and mmm-uklivebusinfo as 3rd party ones). But the newsticker got stuck after ten minutes and I was unable to close or alt+tab out of magic mirror. Again, I havent tested it properly yet since I didnt have the time, just wondering whether you experienced similar slow-downs.

                        Best regards / Dave

                        johnnyboyJ lucallmonL 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • johnnyboyJ Offline
                          johnnyboy @cyberphox
                          last edited by johnnyboy

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                          • johnnyboyJ Offline
                            johnnyboy @Davepre
                            last edited by johnnyboy

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                            • lucallmonL Offline
                              lucallmon @Davepre
                              last edited by

                              @Davepre If you lost the “hello” at the beginning, you might be able to change back to ‘vlc’ as playback_handler and see if that works. I’ve had the best results with ‘sox’, however, I’m currently running on v1.4 with vlc as my handler and it’s working great. I get my flash briefing, I get music access from TuneIn and iHeartRadio. It’s almost as good as my Dot that I have in the kitchen.

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • lucallmonL Offline
                                lucallmon @Davepre
                                last edited by

                                @Davepre said in MMM-AlexaPi:

                                Good morning guys,
                                a quick question for everyone who managed to get this to work. How is the performance when leaving the mirror on for a couple of hours?

                                I havent had the time to properly test it yet, but yesterday night I was under the impression that the MMM-AlexaPi module is quite a heavy hitter performance wise. I use a raspberry pi 3 and don’t feel like I overloaded it (only default modules + mmm-alexapi, motion detection and mmm-uklivebusinfo as 3rd party ones). But the newsticker got stuck after ten minutes and I was unable to close or alt+tab out of magic mirror. Again, I havent tested it properly yet since I didnt have the time, just wondering whether you experienced similar slow-downs.

                                Best regards / Dave

                                Every once in a while the mirror sticks but not often. I’ve been running AlexaPi from the start. Usually I just CTRL+Q to restart the mirror or I reboot. I have a reboot button on the side of my mirror. see my setup here. I also have a monitor off button. I have an old LCD monitor that get very hot and overheats, turning off the HDMI, so I keep it off most of the time, however Alexa still runs in the background. I also have a temperature sensor on my MM and I have a 5V fan attached to my Pi to keep it cool. It stays belwo 45degC.

                                D 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • D Offline
                                  Davepre @lucallmon
                                  last edited by

                                  @lucallmon Thanks for the feedback. I hope to get the chance to test a bit more during the weekend and report back if the performce issues become really bad :)

                                  Best regards / Dave

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • C Offline
                                    cyberphox
                                    last edited by

                                    changing to sox helped me get the hello at start…and improved playback for me…it’s a little slow but a cool feature…

                                    Full time Dad, DJ and entertainer and lover of technology.

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • mymmbeginnerM Offline
                                      mymmbeginner
                                      last edited by

                                      Hello everybody,

                                      first off all i want to give all of you a BIG THANKS for helping me out ;-) :-)
                                      I had some trouble’s installing and setting up Alexa with MM.
                                      After reading the forums and the people having the same issue, this entry helped me a lot and i have Alexa integrated in MM and working now.

                                      Wow wat is everybody so motivated and helpfull. Keep up the good work everybody and looking forward making MM the best.

                                      Greets a happy MM beginner.

                                      D johnnyboyJ 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • D Offline
                                        Davepre @mymmbeginner
                                        last edited by

                                        @mymmbeginner I am happy this post helped. As a newbie here I am really impressed with the support from this community as well. Glad to be a part of it!

                                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • johnnyboyJ Offline
                                          johnnyboy @mymmbeginner
                                          last edited by johnnyboy

                                          This post is deleted!
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                                          • johnnyboyJ Offline
                                            johnnyboy @Davepre
                                            last edited by johnnyboy

                                            This post is deleted!
                                            D lucallmonL 3 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0

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