3 different Alexa modules, which one is the best?

lucallmon · Apr 10, 2017, 8:58 AM

@rchase check out my MM build here and you can see how mine works. If you want to try and learn what you can about the MirrorMirrorOnTheWall module, try here but good luck.

romain · Apr 10, 2017, 12:46 PM

Well, good luck. I try to make Alexa work from quite sometime now and I still getting any result. I tryed both MMM-Alexa and MMM-MirrorMirrorOnTheWall . Both module have incomplete instruction to me. They explain how to setup some stuff but not how to test it. So… even after following all the instruction I could find, I just end up stupidly talking in my mic with no answer or whatever. And no instruction on what should happen. How to know if AlexaPi is correctly installed ? no clue. How do I know that the module is well config within the mirror ? I guess you’ll know when you figure it out by yourself.
I would like a step by step video from someone doing it to see if my “issues” are hardware related or software related (I mean, if the issue is my mic not being picked up or if my config is wrong.) If I could “see” someone doing it, I could see what I am doing wrong.

Anyway. Best of luck

lucallmon · Apr 10, 2017, 2:00 PM

I have installed AlexaPi separate from MM 3 times with success each time. I feel like the AlexaPi I’m not sure where you guys are getting hung up. I’d be willing to walk you through it when I have time. I can do that on gitter.

johnnyboy · Apr 28, 2017, 5:35 PM

This post is deleted!

romain · Apr 11, 2017, 7:20 AM

@lucallmon Great, what is your timezone ? when am I the most likely to find you ? Even though you not available to gitter us your magic right now, I’ll like to be ready when you are

lucallmon · Apr 11, 2017, 8:08 AM

@romain I’m US eastern.

mahabub99 · Apr 13, 2017, 8:27 AM

@rchase said in 3 different Alexa modules, which one is the best?:
I think MMM-Alexa by sakirtemel is the best.
Because it’s pretty good from other.
Thanks :)

borrigan · Apr 24, 2017, 7:36 AM

@romain said in 3 different Alexa modules, which one is the best?:

ncomplete instruction to me. They explain how to setup some stuff but not how to test it. So

Hi @romain , did you get to test all modules and conclude which one is the best? I am totally lost with MMM-Alexa. I installed it and can see the yellow square in the MM interface but I don’t know how to get it working. Documentation says:

" You can easily develop your own module and control this module or get notified about events happening"

But it does not say how to develop this module :(

Any clues will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

romain · Apr 24, 2017, 7:55 AM

@borrigan Hello. I end up successfully setting MMM-AlexaPi and MMM-alexa.
they both have adventages and inconvinient
-MMM-AlexaPi

This module isn’t a stand alone module. You need to install AlexaPi on you pi ( https://github.com/alexa-pi/AlexaPi )
This module is ONLY to show the status of AlexaPi. And this is AlexaPi that allow you to talk to Alexa. Meaning you don’t need the mirror at all to use it. But it’s neat because you can “see” what’s happening. Also Alexa saying “yes” when you say her name.
It might or might not be easy to setting up. Some people won’t have any issue using it by following the setup instruction and other would have to tweaks some things.
slower than MMM-alexa

-MMM-alexa

It is a stand alone module. Meaning you just need this module to talk to Alexa.
The square indicate you the status . yellow is bad configuration if I recall correctly. Red is ready to listen. green is listening.
It is not activated by voice. You need either a button or to send the right notification to the module to make Alexa listen to you.
It seem to not answer as much as MMM-AlexaPi
You need to add https://sakirtemel.github.io/MMM-alexa/ to the allow return URL in your avs security settings of your device . And need to generate the first token by going in that first url and enter the requested information
faster than MMM-AlexaPi

in both case I had to tweak some of my sound configurations files so my microphone is picked up and the output is my speaker.
Because MMM-Alexa needed to be activated manually or by another module (and the fact it seem to provide less answer) I think MMM-AlexaPi is better. Even though AlexaPi seem a bit slower to answer. To trigger MMM-Alexa I used the voicecontrol module (it’s a module that convert voice into notification. I set up the word “Alexa” to send the right notification to mmm-alexa) but the voicecontrol module seem to have a loooooooooot of false positive. It was activated way to much even if I didn’t talk sometime.

I didn’t successfully made mirrormirroronthewall worked though (I might try again later. I didn’t tryed since I made the other two works)
I think mirrormirroronthewall is probably the best module of all three since is suppositivly allow you to do more than the other two that only allow you to ask question to alexa and get answers from it.

as for the

But it does not say how to develop this module :(

You can either use an already existing moduel like “voicecontrol” to do that.

or developping something yourself. to do that:
You can for example take as a template the helloworld module in the ~/MagicMirror/modules/default as a template . copy/past it in the ~/MagicMirror/modules , rename the folder to something else. let’s say “toto” as an example, then rename the file inside it to match that name. helloworld.js should now be toto.js . now open the toto.js and replace all the hello words by toto.
Then delete the text: "Hello World!" and the wrapper.innerHTML = this.config.text; since you don’t need to display anything.
Now you can write this.sendNotification('ALEXA_START_RECORDING', {}); where was the wrapper.innerHTML = this.config.text;
And that send the notification to start recording what you are saying to mmm-alexa. However that example will only work once.

If you never code something before, I don’t recomand you to do the developping of a module like this yourself. It’s better to use an already existing module.

/!\ if your sound configuration isn’t good, you might not be able to use voicecontrol and mmm-alexa in the same time.
Explaining the sound configuration here would be pointless since you might not have those issue.

borrigan · Apr 24, 2017, 4:42 PM

Thank you very very much @romain ! I will go for AlexaPi with MMM-AlexaPi. I spent all yesterday trying to set it up, and I will continue today, your input is very valuable. Just a few newbie, extra questions:

AlexaPi service, when running, is “Always On”? It is always listening? How to test it directly without having integrated with MMM-AlexaPi Yet?
Where can the activation word be configured? If I just say “Alexa”, should it work?
Finally, I spent hours troubleshooting the microphone. It is a very standard Logitech Microphone. I just could not get it working.

Here are:

Result from >lsusb command:

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 006: ID 17ef:6019 Lenovo
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 04b3:3025 IBM Corp. NetVista Full Width Keyboard
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 046d:0a03 Logitech, Inc. Logitech USB Microphone
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0424:ec00 Standard Microsystems Corp. SMSC9512/9514 Fast Ethernet Adapter
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0424:9514 Standard Microsystems Corp.
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

result from the > arecord -L command:

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ arecord -L
null
Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
pulse
PulseAudio Sound Server
sysdefault:CARD=Microphone
Logitech USB Microphone, USB Audio
Default Audio Device
front:CARD=Microphone,DEV=0
Logitech USB Microphone, USB Audio
Front speakers
surround21:CARD=Microphone,DEV=0
Logitech USB Microphone, USB Audio
2.1 Surround output to Front and Subwoofer speakers
surround40:CARD=Microphone,DEV=0
Logitech USB Microphone, USB Audio
4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=Microphone,DEV=0
Logitech USB Microphone, USB Audio
4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=Microphone,DEV=0
Logitech USB Microphone, USB Audio
5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=Microphone,DEV=0
Logitech USB Microphone, USB Audio
5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=Microphone,DEV=0
Logitech USB Microphone, USB Audio
7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
iec958:CARD=Microphone,DEV=0
Logitech USB Microphone, USB Audio
IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output
dmix:CARD=Microphone,DEV=0
Logitech USB Microphone, USB Audio
Direct sample mixing device
dsnoop:CARD=Microphone,DEV=0
Logitech USB Microphone, USB Audio
Direct sample snooping device
hw:CARD=Microphone,DEV=0
Logitech USB Microphone, USB Audio
Direct hardware device without any conversions
plughw:CARD=Microphone,DEV=0
Logitech USB Microphone, USB Audio
Hardware device with all software conversions

Log from AlexaPi

● AlexaPi.service - Alexa client for all your devices
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/AlexaPi.service; enabled)
Active: active (running) since Mon 2017-04-24 10:59:14 CDT; 7s ago
Docs: https://github.com/alexa-pi/AlexaPi/wiki
Main PID: 1626 (python)
CGroup: /system.slice/AlexaPi.service
├─1626 /usr/bin/python /opt/AlexaPi/src/main.py --daemon
├─1638 /usr/bin/pulseaudio --start --log-target=syslog
└─1657 sox -q /opt/AlexaPi/src/resources/hello.mp3 -t alsa default vol -6 dB pad 0 0

Apr 24 10:59:20 raspberrypi pulseaudio[1638]: [pulseaudio] module-udev-detect.c: Tried to configure /devices… 10s
Apr 24 10:59:21 raspberrypi python[1626]: Exception in thread Thread-1:
Apr 24 10:59:21 raspberrypi python[1626]: Traceback (most recent call last):
Apr 24 10:59:21 raspberrypi python[1626]: File “/usr/lib/python2.7/threading.py”, line 810, in __bootstrap_inner
Apr 24 10:59:21 raspberrypi python[1626]: self.run()
Apr 24 10:59:21 raspberrypi python[1626]: File “/usr/lib/python2.7/threading.py”, line 763, in run
Apr 24 10:59:21 raspberrypi python[1626]: self.__target(*self.__args, **self.__kwargs)
Apr 24 10:59:21 raspberrypi python[1626]: File “/opt/AlexaPi/src/alexapi/triggers/pocketsphinxtrigger.py”, …hread
Apr 24 10:59:21 raspberrypi python[1626]: inp = alsaaudio.PCM(alsaaudio.PCM_CAPTURE, alsaaudio.PCM_NORMAL, …ce’])
Apr 24 10:59:21 raspberrypi python[1626]: ALSAAudioError: Input/output error [front:CARD=Microphone,DEV=0]
Hint: Some lines were ellipsized, use -l to show in full.

Thank you so much for your help, I don’t mean to take too much from your time but I am really frustrated :(

Gerardo
Mexico City