Alexa AI on Raspberry Pi
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- Опубліковано 18 бер 2017
- Alexa is the Amazon Echo voice service, and here I install it for free on a Raspberry Pi. This adds voice computing to the Pi, allowing it to speak the answers to spoken questions, and potentially to control IoT devices.
The setup follows Github instructions, and is inevitably somewhat involved. So if you just want to see me talking to a Raspberry Pi, skip ahead to about 15 minutes 10 seconds into the video.
The Alexa resources and instructions on Github are at: github.com/alexa
. . . and you create an Amazon Developer Account at: developer.amazon.com/login.html
. . . and a security profile here: github.com/alexa/alexa-avs-sa...
. . . and (when logged in to your Developer Account), you enable your security profile here: developer.amazon.com/lwa/sp/o...
You may also like my musings on the development of omnipresent, voice-centric computing in this video: • Omnipresent Computing
More videos on computing-related topics can be found at: / explainingcomputers
You may also like my ExplainingTheFuture channel at: / explainingthefuture - Наука та технологія
*Me :* Alexa **Who is Christopher Barnatt?**
*Alexa :* Greatest Technology You tuber.
Greetings from the U. S. (more specifically, Texas [:y]). I can't stop watching your videos, they are just as fun as they are educational! Thank you!
Thanks for this. I'm glad you like my videos over in Texas. :)
ExplainingComputers and I'm in Arizona, looks like you got some southwest American fans! You should be proud of that too, trust me, majority of people 'round these parts aren't anywhere near what I would call "tech savvy" keep up the SBC vids, I quite like them! :)
Texas FTW. Also a big EC fan.
Nevada here. Go Chris!
Thank you very much for this video, my son has a project at school - with Alexa, on Pi - And had some troubles with it, I'll go through your setup with him tomorrow - Then he'll be ready for his presentation wednesday.
Very succinct presentation as always Christopher, thank you.
I previously installed this on a Pi3 too and it works great.
How come that this guy doesn't have millions of subscribers, I always learn a ton!
This is a really useful and a simple explanation of how to do this. Definitely going to do this myself!!!
I really appreciate you taking valuable time to do those videos. I am learning alot and your english accent is cool to listen too. Thanks again! Cheers
Thanks for the video man, always informative and useful.
Many thanks.
Wonderful, fascinating!! I love the fiddly bits! Many thanks for showing all the steps! Most entertaining!
:)
Does It work with the alexa app normally? can you control your smarthome with it?
Yet another project i will be building thanks to you. Great tutorial, can't wait to put my Rpi3 to work!
It is a very rewarding project to try. :)
This is a fun project, and I have already built 4 different AlexaPi devices, plus had to rebuild some of them several times (if it doesn't work the first time, you are indeed fortunate, as in that way you will end up learning more about it than you could by any other method). You can use a Pi 2, 3, or Zero, but the 3 works best. The earliest AlexaPi projects used a push button (and some optional status LEDs attached to the GPIO to show you what was happening). Eventually the AVS version was developed, and it works great. I found that a UA-cam video by Caroline Dunn best explained the easiest way to make an AlexaPi.
It is tempting to use the Raspberry Pi Preferences -- Audio Settings, to configure the microphone and/or speakers, but if you do this, especially at the wrong time, your AlexaPi won't work. The correct settings are best done by editing the .asoundrc file. It is way too easy to corrupt your AlexaPi settings through using Preferences. Once these setting get out of whack, it seems almost impossible to get them back into whack.
There are a number of ways you can set up sound and voice, and you can go crazy trying to do it through Preferences. You can use a USB sound card, if you want to use the microphone on a web cam, or a USB handset (if you don't have speakers), or even for the mic & speakers. You can do audio in and out through the GPIO pins if you want. I have a webcam whose mic works better than the small mic dongle I also have. For my final working AlexaPi, I use a web cam mic through a USB sound card and amplified speakers through the Raspberry Pi jack. No matter what configuration you use, it really is best to tell the Raspberry Pi which device does what and where by editing the .asoundrc file (search UA-cam or the RaspberryPi.org forums for AlexaPi sound corruption, or something similar). Once you edit .asoundrc, do not go back into Preferences and do anything to the audio settings, or you will corrupt things again.
Officially, Alexa is only supported in the USA, UK and Germany, so unless you hack your AlexaPi, you can only get the correct time automatically for these locations. The good news is that hacking Alexa's time zone is relatively easy -- easiest using a Mac, but not that much more difficult using a Wndows PC. You just need to use CURL to trick the Alexa servers into using an unsupported time zone. You need to do this to get the correct local time, if you are outside the supported time zones. Again look on UA-cam or do a Google search (I wouldn't advise asking Alexa). You can go even further and actually set an unauthorized location, but this is more complex. Example: You can more or less easily set your AlexaPi to tell the correct local time in Tokyo, but for anything else it's just as easy to ask for the weather in Tokyo, rather than trying to set the location as Tokyo.
You can view your AlexaPi input and output, on a desktop PC by going to alexa.amazon.com but don't try to change your unauthorized time zone or location by simply changing the settings this way, as they won't work. You need to use CURL. You can use the Amazon Alexa app for other devices. This is also a good way to train Alexa to recognize how you speak. All the Amazon.com Fire tablets now have Alexa capability, though no AVS option; you have to press a button, then ask your queston.
Your Android device almost certainly has "OK Google" capability. OK Google has the advantage of being able to remember your questions in order to hold a sort of conversation, whereas Alexa can only answer the current question, based on the current input. You can ask Google who the Presidet of the Unted States is, then ask how old is he, then ask who was his running mate, and so on.
My favorite question for both Alexa and Google is, "Who ya gonna' call?" You can also ask why the chicken crossed the road.
The question asked about automating the start-up procedure for the AlexaPi has a simple answer: It can't be done. The complex answer is that, it might be possible, but I haven't seen how, yet (which doesn't mean that it doesn't exist). So, what do you do if your AlexaPi crashes, or the power goes out, or you shut it down? The answer is that you have to manually do the three step configuraton, each and every time. That means three different Terminal tabs, or three different Terminal windows. Do not shut any down, nor shut down the browser, as all three & the browser have to be running. Where I live the power is unreliable, so I have become an expert on restarting the AlexaPi. My advice is to keep the three Terminal commands in a text file on the Raspberry Pi's desktop. Then just cut and past into Terminal tabs or windows. This also means that you might have problems taking Chris' advice to remove the keyboard, monitor and mouse and run headless. This might work if you use VNC, but won't work if you try to use SSH.
There is a common argument that it is just easier to buy an Amazon Dot for $50, than to use a $35 Raspberry Pi, and go through all the various steps, and put up with the initial headaches. My answer to that argument is, "Well, duh!" Of course it is. But it is tremendous fun following Chris' advice to build your own. It will give you a wonderful sense of acomplishment, once you get it working. And you can always just pop out the SD card and put in a different one to have your Raspberry Pi do something else.
Thanks for this -- really useful input. :) Esp. interesting to know that it will work on a Pi Zero -- that will please others here.
Stephen Hill. Thank you for your kind words. I've done the AlexaPi start-up dozens of times, and it takes maybe two minutes. Steps one and three are simple enough. It is step two that is the difficut one to automate. As part of step two, your browser will open a window. But, there are three possible outcomes in doing this. The first is that your browser will say there is a security problem, and asks if you want to continue (as seen in Chris' video). The next is if you had a power outage, or improper shutdown of the previous session. You have to tell your browser to ignore that old session, not try to recover, and, instead, start a new session. The third possible outcome is if your browser session starts normally. I rarely see the third outcome.
For the third step, I prefer to use the kitt_ai wake word agent. If you want to be able to chose which wake word agent to use on boot, you would have to set up the default and a timer, so that manually intervening during the time period would then use the other wake word agent, otherwise the default is used. I haven't searched recently to see if anyone has been able to automate the start-up. When I lived in the USA, I had maybe one power outage every 5 years. Where I am now, it is almost a miracle for a week to go by with no power outage(s). So I have plenty of practice restarting the AlexaPi.
Amazon.com doesn't ship the Echo or Dot outside the USA, UK or Germany. Who knows if this will ever change? I'll be going back to the US for a visit, and will get some Dots to bring back. Then I'll retire the AlexaPi, meaning I'll simply put the SD card into storage, just in case I need it again.
Chris did his usual great job of explaining computers. There are other UA-cam videos that do this, and it seems like every one takes a different approach. There are lots of ways to make an AlexaPi.
I haven't tried using a Bluetooth speaker with the AlexaPi. In theory, it shouldn't be that difficult. The main thing about the audio settings might need configuring in the .asoundrc file. You have to tell the Raspberry Pi where the input is, and where the output is. There are many ways to configure the .asoundrc file, using different formats. Below is just one way to do it, if you are using the Pi's audio jack, and a USB mic (or mic from a webcam). This is a hidden file located at /home/pi/
sudo nano /home/pi/ .asoundrc
==========
pcm.!default
{
type asym
playback.pcm {
type hw
card 0
device 0
}
capture.pcm {
type plug
slave {
pcm {
type hw
card 1
device 0
}
}
}
}
==========
Playback means speakers, and capture means microphone. Basically, card 0 means speakers connected to the Raspberry Pi audio jack, and card 1 for the mic means USB input. I assume that, if you use a USB sound card for both mic and speakers, then both devices would be set to card 1. Maybe this is where you could configure Bluetooth speakers, assuming that anything needs to be done, other than pair the devices. But, I haven't put any actual thought into this, as the file above works for my setup, and saved me after hours of aggravation and/or frustration. Once again, do not mess with setting audio preferences, through the Pi's main menu, which is the place that I assume most users would obviously go to, at first. It seems like such a simple solution. The only downside is that you can easily mess with it until it doesn't work any more. Preferences settings change the .asoundrc file automatically to something you might not want, so just go back and change the file to the example above. Remember, it is easy to manually test that your mic & speakers are working, after completing step two, as Chris shows in the video.
Art Becker. Thank you for your insight and advice. I certainly value and appreciate it. I spent many, many frustrating hours trying (and failing) to get this to work on the PiZero. The Pi 3, however, was a doddle.
For the Pi Zero, I was using a USB microphone like the one in the video, and a separate USB combo audio/mic dongle for the audio out. Although I finally got the mic to work with the wake word, I couldn't get the Alexa app to work with the audio out. Do you have a working Pi Zero configuration file you could share? Thanks!
yeah i would like to see a tutorial on how to set this up on a pi zero with a config file , a setup that uses the GPIO for mic input
and for audio out ,would be nice to have a build that just requires an OTG but no USB hub ,and also some RGB LEDS to GPIO
Frak N, there is the "oops" method of potentially fixing your problem. Try this first. Click on the speaker icon in the upper right of the main screen and increase the volume almost to the top. If the mute button has been selected, then fix that. If this works, then don't tell anybody about it.
With the Pi Zero, I used a USB handset with both speaker and mic on the same USB device. I only had the 3.5" jack speakers, and no USB sound card, so had to use a USB handset for mic and speaker.
Either with or without the separate mic, edit the .asoundrc file, shown in my reply above, and change "card 0" to "card 1" (leave the second "card 1" alone), then reboot.
Without using the separate mic, did you try just the device you have that has both mic and speakers on it? There is nothing special or magic about the small mic dongle, shown in Chris' video. I found that the mic on an old web cam worked better for me than the USB mic dongle. The webcam mic had a 3.5MM plug, so I used the USB sound card that I couldn't find when trying the Pi Zero. Trying to configure one device is easier than trying to configure two devices.
It might be possible, in your case, to configure the devices through the main screen Preference menu, then Audio Device Settings. Select C-Media etc, instead of BCM2835, then use Select Controls and check all of the Control Settings (mic and speakers), increase the volumes almost to the top, select Make Default, then OK, then reboot. If this throws everything out of whack, then you probably have to edit the .asoundrc file manually to get things back to normal.
There are threads about fixing other Alexa Pi problems on the official forums at raspberrypi.org as well as some UA-cam videos that address sound problems. Sound really can be the most difficult problem to fix, but eventually you will find something that works. Solving problems is part of the "fun" in making your own AlexaPi.
There are ways to use GPIO, though you probably need some minor additional components, such as resistors, capacitors, and intergrated circuits. None of these are expensive. You can easily get them from Chinese sources, like AliExpress.
To make LEDs work, you need to add that function to the software. The early AlexaPi instructions, that used a push button instead of wake word, showed how to do it, and it was fun watching the two LEDs show what stage your Alexa request was at. Once the AVS methods became available, buttons and LEDs went away. Still, if you go the GPIO route, you should be able to figure out how to integrate LEDs as well. There are lots of available pins on a Raspberry Pi.
That was really awsum professor, thanks for sharing. Will have to try this myself.
Thank you very much. I have been addicted to your channel becuase of episodes like this. Very imformative and easy to follow! Thanks
Chris, if you get to find a way to write an executable script which will restart the service if an unfortunate power cut occurs, then this project will be a real winner!
In the meantime, a HATlike the Pico UPS is the only way I can think of to prevent rendering ''Alexa'' unresponsive after a reboot. That will be a good ''workaround'', although it raises the cost significantly and with Pico, RPi, Mic and Speakers you will end up paying the asking price of an Amazon Dot...
Thanks for the excellent videos and long live Nottingham! ;)
I love your videos they are sooooo good! and very educational too! greetings from lithuania!
Wow, thanks for the great videos time and time again, I learn so much from this channel.
Watching this whilst having an Amazon Echo on your desk is a fun experience
Sorry!
Thank you so much for your hard work. Brilliant as always. My students are going to absolutely love this. I plan to set it up right in front of them during an open session of class. Thanks again.
Thanks -- and this will I am sure make a great teaching session. A long setup, but the end result speaks for itself! :) And there are a lot if special/trick questions Alexa is primed for! It can also turn on most radio channels (which I did not show for copyright reasons).
"...the result speaks for itself" - Pun intended? ;-)
amazing is that how small computers can be made these days. Enjoy watching your video's.
Brilliant! Can't wait to set this up for my elderly father who has macular degeneration
OMG the Logitech Soundman speaker ... can't forget that signature shape. It was my very first 4.1 speaker system :)
Hello from Bangladesh !
I just found your channel and I am enjoying it very much.
Greetings from the UK! And welcome to the channel. :)
Thanks for an interesting Pi project. Keep up the good work.
Very nice Step By step Guide I will try it soon
Chris, excellent ! Glad you made this. I have 4 Alexa's in my house...why not 1 of my Pi's !! 👍
Your video was a great help to me. Thanks !
Love your desktop wallpaper!
Brill! Fantastic! What a really useful video. Great work.
Amazing video! Didn't know this was possible, now I do. :)
Thanks for the video! Yet another cool thing to do with RaspPi :D
Thanks Chris, excellent as usual.
All your base are belong to us! Welcome to the birth of the age of the Geth :O
Cool video as always!
Glad to see you make tea in a pot, very civilised :-)
thanks for not saying " Alexa volume 10 play rock music. my alexa was doing your command better than me.
Another great video Chris thanks. Using these settings, will the Pi reboot to Alexa or do terminal windows need to be run on each reboot?
what a great video!! looking forward to give it a go! keep the good work up!
Great video! ... will be getting a Pi ASAP :)
First again! Muawhaha! Also when is Asus Tinker Board with Kodi Video coming out?
Another Gold Medal to you then! :) On the Tinker Board, I am still waiting for them to release Kodi. I hear there is an update to the OS released now, so I will investigate that.
Why not call it alexa pi
:)
Avi Bents or maybe Alexa home
Every time he says "Alexa" my Echo wakes up.
same (mines an echo dot)
why no pi-lexa
really interesting definitely going to try it thank you Christopher :)
dude this was your best episodes
Many thanks. I was rather worried it has a lot of setup detail.
I disagree. Don't get me wrong, this is a fine episode indeed, but one that many, many others have made as well. The github instructions speak for themselves and are easy to follow. Frankly, I was surprised you joined the 'put Alexa on a Pi' band wagon.
I enjoy the episodes where you wire electronic components to GPIO pins via a breadboard and make them do things with Python code. Keep up the good work!
I quite enjoyed this, I'm looking to build something similar to this for my car, and i can tether internet from my phone via bluetooth or wifi tethering, hook it to the radio for sound and power either from the radio or a car charging port that I just never take out, something like this. lots of work to do, basically will never get it done cuz im lazy but at least right now it sounds cool lmao.
Your videos deserve more views.
Thanks. :)
I think you could install terminology. It is a terminal program from the enlightenment desktop that can be splited horizontal or vertically, keeping the child terms in the same path than the original. It is very handy for multiterm stuff like you show in this really cool video.
Hi,Cristopher, nice video, and nice channel ! When you will readdress this topic, by showing us how to autostart this Alexa Pi installation? Thanks!
This is very Nice! Thank you :D
Another awesome video! However I do suggest using tab complete when in the terminal to save you self some typing
Thanks! :) My dilemma here was how closely to follow the Amazon instructions in terms of the commands I typed and how. I could clearly have moved up and down directories as needed and executed the commands, but I was also aware that views may use this video in combination with the Amazon instructions, and hence I wanted to show the three final processes being typed in and run exactly as the Github page shows . . .
Someone needs to tell Alexa, Fahrenheit is not measured in "Degrees" that is Centigrade only. However its a great video and I will try to do the same with my Pi.
You are a hero to this planet
I love your videos so much
another great video man 👍
Thanks. :)
a wispa bar? you sir have good taste
Raspberry Spy.
Nice.
Spark Plug Good one
A Raspberry Pi Spy :)
1:44 It can hear us.
You must be really ignorant. If you ever checked Alexa's privacy notice you'd know Amazon's Assistant devices aren't sending your every word to servers. They only send a few-second-long audio clip, the microphone is not sending audio to the servers and it will wait for you to say the wake word. Get a life and do your research before writing something stupid like this.
Great video! I got it up and running after only two little missteps on my part. I have the audio piped through HDMI, but it sounds a little crackly.
hi, there is an error. I recompiled it but still no luck. Yes, I have selected the wake word option as yes. thank you.
bash: ./wakeWordAgent: No such file or directory
Did you get solution....im also facing similar problem
Interestingly my Echo listened to your programme and 'Alexa' gave very similar but not identical answers to your questions. Plainly the weather in London answer was slightly different but, curiously, the Raspberry Pi was slightly different despite that both systems answered the same question. A few other questions were also slightly different. Do you know why ?
Very interesting. May the answers evolve over time, or are location dependent.
It is likely because the Alexa API services are slightly different to the system used on actual Alexa devices. This can also mean functionality that is available on the devices isn't available via the API.
Nice Marina Bay Sands wallpaper!
I got it to work. But how am I gonna set it that it can run all of these programs at startup? Then we don't have to open three terminal tabs everytime.
I love your channel! cheers mate
Thanks. :)
gotta make this and show it off to the kids.
reckon they'll have some fun with alexa
Struggling with Wake Word. Having to wipe and start again. Great video, thanks!
thank you very much!
very helpful video!
Wow! *This* is awesome! However, the Echo Dot I have in this room wouldn't shut up while watching this video! :-)
I'm still claiming 2016 too! LOL Great video Chris and BTW she or it has to be better than SIRI I am pretty sure.
nice you're the best teacher
ExplainingComputers superb stuff to try
Excellent stuff and I did it! Thanks for showing the details. Now I'm interested in how to add skills to Alexa. Can you also make a video about this?
Great video tutorial. I wonder if there is a change of getting Alexa running on the pi without graphical user interface?
it works but it wont work with any wake word something about sample rate error, any ideas? also how do i auto start AlexaPi app on start up?
great video ! very nice everything. i just wonder why you didn't used tab-completion in the terminal to not have to type out every file you ran or dir you cd'ed into! also i wonder which operating system is installed on the raspberry pi. i guess its default but would be nice to write in the description. thanks for doing this and keep up the great work :D
I'm new to your channel and Raspberry Pi ,but look forward to learning about all you show and will make the Dot one of my first try's. thanks for your sharing of knowledge and resources. On a side note, I was originally going to start with the Chip, but it is now the Chip pro and seems down sized. Will you be doing a comparison or review of the chip Pro? Thanks
Welcome! I may indeed look at the CHIP Pro -- on my list.
if i have leds that can be controlled by alexa, will they be able to be controlled by this too? I want to automate my LED lights and i have a wifi controller for them thhat alexa can control. Should i setup pi for alexa or for specifically to change the leds???
U seem like a very cool dude.
thumbs up man.
Chris, you have to update the wake word every 120 days. Git hub said after it expires, just download the latest version and re-link.
Wow! Great video!
Great video. Thanks.
I am trying to get it to run on Jessie Lite, so I don't have the desktop interface to work with. How do I go about setting up the mic?
you are just simply awesome, I have a query regarding same I followed all the steps and made it and next step i want to add camera module to raspberry pi model 3b , like any intruder comes it automatically takes the pics, pls update for the solution, waiting for the response.
me: alexa where where you born
alexa:by the rassbery py
Would this be possible to do on a Raspberry Pi Zero W?
In theory, no. In practice, if you look in the comments here, some people have got it working! :)
will it work if i use my ip instead of local host ? because i want to do it remotely .
With this I shall give Wudsworth LIFE !!!!
Is there a way to use the power supply for the speaker to power the pi.. is it just splicing it
If the directory you're trying to get to is relatively unique, you can use the tab key to autocomplete the directory name after typing one or two characters.
Nice video! Even though i've only watched 1 second
:)
I have an original raspberry pi model B, can you suggest any current uses for it or is it just scrap now?
can you still run Alexa on the Pi whilst doing other things or does it tie the PI up to to s single task only thanks
I really want to change the Wake Sound to the Star Trek board computer confirmation sound, also you can apparently already change the wake word to 'computer' as opposed to Alexa?
Hi Chris, thank you for another interesting video. You can save a lot of time typing in terminal if you press "Tab" after you typed a few initial letters - it will autocomplete folder/file names. If you have 2 RPis with Alexa, will they talk to each other? :)
+ExplainingComputers
which PWM Motor driver can you tell me to buy for one DC motor with 20V/10A ?
so with the installation of alexa can it work like an ECHO to control lights and other "smart" Items?
Can you call specific commands from this version of alexa? Like if I build a home automation system from scratch can I say "turn on my TV" and have that trigger something on a different pi that will send IR commands?
This Was Very Interesting, & Very Educational As Well.. I Have Not Worked With A Raspberry Pi.. But I'm Learning More, & More.. I Was Wondering If.. You Can Install Jarvis Voice Command On A Raspberry Pi 3.. I Have Seen Your Other Video on The CHIP, & DIP.. So Would It Be Better On The CHIP.. Thank You Very Much.. Have A Merry Christmas..
The CHIP is not powerful enough to run this. Merry Xmas! :)
worked perfectly thank you. so awesome
Hey EC...where can I get the parts list that u use for your confib
Great instructions! How did you catch the pi screen video?
If I was using an audio bonnet for my pi. Should I put hdmi or 3.5?
57 degrees in london? People would be dying!
Dante Yagyu that's what I was thibkibg. they go through the trouble of making the AI voice British but they don't bother converting to celsius?
Would this work if you had a bluetooth Mic and Speaker combo hooked up to raspberry pi via bluetooth?
can the alexa on the pi be used like an echo (to operate a smart home)