SOLVED MM + Alexa + Logitech C170?

mrprincehd

I am not sure what happened to my first post, I apologize if I broke any rules the first time but here it goes again.

I am relatively new in RPi3B and Magic Mirror (about 3-4 days), and so far I have managed to complete steps up to the installation of Alexa module on my RPi. For my video and audio input, I have decided to go with a Logitech C170 as I’ve seen from a wiki that it can work with RPi.

I tested the camera with Cheese and it seems to be working fine. As for its mic, I got it to work with this command (from the sunfounder wiki)

arecord -D plughw:1,0 -d 3 test.wav && aplay test.wav

However, when it comes to calling up Alexa, it seems to be not responding to my wakeword and I think it’s not “listening” in the first place. I really appreciate your help.

EDIT: Is a better solution to just buy a separate USB Mic and disable the mic on the camera so I could get the alexa working? However, I do think I am missing something (maybe in the codes but I think I followed the instructions clearly).

richland007

I used this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aN5NgqCw_i4&t=0s&index=55&list=PLiXGtogi1Y6cqXadodxYSQFGgVGCI79ym and than installed Alexa

However i am definitely moving away from the webcam and using a usb mic or audio card for it because the webcams and especially Logitech’s sucks for mic and video input as they compete for resources and voltage. i will be using the Rpi’s own cam module for camera and usb audio card attached to a mic for audio.

I have heard also the Sony PS2 webcams with a mic array inside re pretty good and only for 5-0 bucks on ebay but i am reluctant to spent the money for something that i may or may not use

D

@mrprincehd
I think most of the cases, Your ALSA setup (or If you use, PulseAudio) might be wrong. Make that mic to be the default input of your system, or configure your Alexa module to point the proper device id.

ps. Also me once used Logitech Webcam as mic and camera. PS3Eye also worked in my experience.

mrprincehd

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: ALSA [bcm2835 ALSA], device 0: bcm2835 ALSA [bcm2835 ALSA]
  Subdevices: 7/7
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
  Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
  Subdevice #2: subdevice #2
  Subdevice #3: subdevice #3
  Subdevice #4: subdevice #4
  Subdevice #5: subdevice #5
  Subdevice #6: subdevice #6
card 0: ALSA [bcm2835 ALSA], device 1: bcm2835 ALSA [bcm2835 IEC958/HDMI]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ arecord -l
**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 1: C170 [Webcam C170], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
  Subdevices: 1/1

Here is my current setup; as for my asoundrc,

pcm.!default {
    type hw
    card 0
}

ctl.!default {
    type hw
    card 1
}

From my understanding, c from ctl is for capture so I tried selecting my webcam. However, whenever I ran this code – this shows up

arecord --format cd --duration 15 --channels 1 test.wav 
-> arecord: main:788: audio open error: No such file or directory

Of course I can resolve this by changing my asoundrc, pcm and ctl to 1 and this error would not show up however, whenever I try playing the recording, I am not hearing anything.

My end goal is to have my camera as my audio input and the audio output just the default which in my case is my monitor speakers.

@mrprincehd
See this.
https://gist.github.com/AfzalivE/54214bf437ca1775b5b8e7934cc137db
It’s for PS3Eye but you can get the idea.

Added

pcm.!default {
    type asym
    playback.pcm {
        type hw
        card 0
    }
    capture.pcm {
        type hw
        card 1
    }
}

ctl.!default {
    type hw
    card 0
}

I think this might be a point.

richland007

yeap i told you @mrprincehd look at that youtube from Sid

mrprincehd

all good guys, solved it. Thanks all

Mykle1

@mrprincehd said in MM + Alexa + Logitech C170?:

all good guys, solved it. Thanks all

Please post a detailed explanation of how you solved this for the next person that may encounter this issue.

mrprincehd

Following the instructions from MMM Awesome Alexa by dolanmiu regarding the audio setup, on my asoundrc if I remember correctly, I used the following commands and this somehow solved my problem.

pcm.!default {
    type asym
    playback.pcm "plughw:0"
    capture.pcm  "plughw:1"
}