Awesome Alexa Control Lights and Music

[cartierusm]

So I’m new to all this, but I built my first mirror, pics coming soon, and I’ve got it up and running with all sorts of cool modules.

I installed Awesome alexa tonight and it seems to work. I ask her to say hi and she does, so I assume it’s working correctly.

The two things I want to do is use Alexa in the mirror to play music, especially next track and volume up and down. I also want to turn on lights and dim lights with Alexa enabled light switches.

Can I do that with the module in Magic Mirror and Awesome Alexa or do I need to use a stand alone Alexe Echo thing to do it? Anyway, if anyone can help me understand how it all works I’d appreciate it.

[sdetweil]

@cartierusm lights etc, yes, but I haven’t tried to discover any devices without a real echo device.

music. well, you can only play music from sources Alexa knows about. Amazon or Spotify, not random mp3 files on your pi.

the alexaControl module will respond to discovery from a real echo device

[cartierusm]

Hi, thanks for the response. How does the alexa on the mirror know to communicate with that echo?

I assume if the alexa on the mirror communicates with the echo and I have the echo setup correctly to control whatever I like then I don’t have to program the mirror alexa any differently (as long as it’s already communicating with the echo)? Meaning all the commands that are built into the mirror alexa would work to control the echo?

[sdetweil]

@cartierusm . alexaControl creates electric outlets that real Alexa can turn on/off.

the alexaControl module adds a webhook to the outlet, and is the server for those web calls. ‘alexa, turn on restart’, that invokes a routine inside the alexaControl module to ask pm2 to restart the mirror process.

the devices are all outside the mirror.

[sdetweil]

@sdetweil if u install a awesome Alexa, the mirror becomes a limited function echo.
it can turn on/off devices known to Alexa, but it cant do some things that a real echo can do.