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    MMM-AlexaPi

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Solved Troubleshooting
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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

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

                                    @johnnyboy Sorry, I am currently traveling with work and dont have access to my setup, but I am back end of this week and have a look. I will report back Friday night :)

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

                                      @johnnyboy if you need to rename a file mv config.template.yaml config.yaml. If that doesn’t work, put sudo in front of it.

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

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

                                          This post is deleted!
                                          strawberry 3.141S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • strawberry 3.141S Offline
                                            strawberry 3.141 Project Sponsor Module Developer @johnnyboy
                                            last edited by

                                            @johnnyboy the # is like // in javascript so it will comment out that line

                                            Please create a github issue if you need help, so I can keep track

                                            johnnyboyJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0

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