MMM-AlexaPi

[howi42]

I works quite well, but :
When I request a long answer, like a weather report, it happens more than often,
that it stops working, i.e., there are no error messages, but the voice trigger will not work anymore.
Stopping and starting the service helps, but that is not a good workaround.
Thanks

[j.e.f.f]

@howi42 Yeah I’ve also noticed similar problems. For example, if there is a question where Alexa needs me to wait while checking something, I never get the final answer. For example:

Me: “Alexa, is my back door locked?”
Alexa: “Checking… hold on.”

At this point the module just goes back to idle instead of telling me if the door is locked.

Similarly multiple part conversations don’t work either. Say I needed a showtime for a movie but I didn’t specify what theatre or what movie. The conversation might go like this:

Me: “Alexa, what time is the movie playing?”
Alexa: “Which movie would you like to see?”

Normally, a real Echo would go back to the prompt state expecting a response from me. But the module goes back to idle at this point.

To be fair, I don’t think this is an issue with with MMM-AlexaPi, I think it is the underlying AlexaPi library that is causing this. I haven’t tried this specifically without Magic Mirror running, but I’d be willing to bet that the same issues would happen if I did.

I’ve also noticed that Alexa will only respond reliably to my voice. It works only sometimes when my wife says “Alexa”, and practically never when either of my kids say it. They are aged 6 and 9, so I’m guessing that AlexaPi has a hard time recognizing higher pitched voices (or maybe it’s the $6 microphone I’m using :).