Amazon Echo/Alexa

[carteblanche]

I’m not a programmer so I have yet to figure out how to make a module, but I was able to follow the instructions from Amazon to get AVS/Alexa running on my rpi3 while MM2 is also running. It’s kinda cool cause Alexa just runs in the background and takes commands with the wake word “Alexa”.

The only feature I wish it had is visual feedback on the mirror. I also wish the Alexa sample app could autorun anytime I have the mirror loaded.

[darrene]

I’ve started looking at this too. I tried the AVS link as above - functionally great and easy to setup but I’m unsure how practical it is to implement.

I’m just starting to look at @whyjustin 's module here which looks to address the MM integration aspect but I think as has been mentioned, you only get 120 days of usage before you need to revisit it.

[d3r]

I think there is a confusion about the time limit. Alexa pi comes with 2 wake word engines, Sensory and kitt.ai. Sensory will expire in at least 120 days and will need to be re setup but but the kitt.ai engine doesn’t seem to have a time limit. Kitt.ai is free for personal use but needs to be licensed when used commercial.

[carteblanche]

@d3r Yes you are correct.

I have tried out both wake word engines with the Alexa pi sample app and for me the sensory engine performed much better in picking up the wake word. For some reason with snowboy (kitt.ai) I always seem to have to be very close to the mic for it to be picked up.

[carteblanche]

@darrene I saw the module from whyjustin but didn’t want to try it because it required downgrading electron.

[darrene]

Useful information. Thanks @d3r and @carteblanche.