Pocster Posted August 29, 2023 Share Posted August 29, 2023 Yes ! The title is not click bait ! In her absence ( but now returned ) I was given a gold star. Never really a fan of Alexa because without viable use it’s just a gimmick ( an interesting one at that ) But now , now we have SWMBO approval for HA application of Alexa . ” Alexa , tell media server to play the latest Coldplay album in the living room “ media server references squeezebox on a pc . Living room ( it couldn’t understand my pronunciation of lounge ) is the raspberry pi with dac to speakers ; so not through Alexa speaker . Naturally you can instruct media server to change volume , skip track , play radio , play random etc etc ” Alex red lights on “ in the bathroom causes led rgbw to go red . Naturally we have a cycling “ rainbow “ option . It’s important to appreciate I have no ‘Alexa enabled devices ‘ in our home apart from the phone . So this is about adding functionality to things that don’t have it . I then struggled ( with a work around ) and did “ Alexa open door “ . Perhaps need to be careful with that one ( someone shouting outside could open our front door !! ) HA is doing a lot of the heavy lifting here as none of the devices support Alexa natively. So many ideas of things to try now ! 😎 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteamyTea Posted August 29, 2023 Share Posted August 29, 2023 20 minutes ago, Pocster said: skip track If it is Coldplay, end track. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted August 29, 2023 Share Posted August 29, 2023 So if none of your devices are natively alexa aware, how and what do you program and in what sort of language, to make alexa talk to your media centre? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyT Posted August 29, 2023 Share Posted August 29, 2023 Fast forward 10 years and the house isn’t working due to lack of IT updates…. get a light switch, at a push a PIR on the lights too. Stock up on batteries for remote controls life is too short for home automation, the drama that goes along with it!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteamyTea Posted August 29, 2023 Share Posted August 29, 2023 13 minutes ago, TonyT said: drama that goes along with it Or Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pocster Posted August 29, 2023 Author Share Posted August 29, 2023 58 minutes ago, ProDave said: So if none of your devices are natively alexa aware, how and what do you program and in what sort of language, to make alexa talk to your media centre? No languages really . It’s all rather convoluted though …. So in homeseer ( HA ) it has Alexa functionality built in . But it can deal with any and all devices - which means it has a rather broad approach . To do something simple “ Alexa , turn on bathroom light “ is just a few menu tick boxes . To talk to squeezebox ( music streamer ) is more tricky . The instructions online aren’t very good … Need to create a custom script ( which a website helps you do ) , run this as a windows power shell . This then creates an ngrok tunnel . You get a unique identifier - you then use this to link the tunnel to squeezebox . There are a few other things that need to be done and caveats ( hence why most customer reviews are ‘ rubbish doesn’t work ‘ ) - it requires some effort . It’s obviously not aimed at the point and click brigade . The fact it takes an old but useful piece of software and adds Alexa functionality is pretty good I think ( squeezebox is small , efficient and very practical ) . You can then via HA have a keyword to trigger entire events if you wish e.g “ Alexa , do Christmas “ - could do any sequence of events . So then you can simplify come spoken words for speed - but I guess almost creating your own dialogue …. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pocster Posted August 29, 2023 Author Share Posted August 29, 2023 1 hour ago, TonyT said: Fast forward 10 years and the house isn’t working due to lack of IT updates…. get a light switch, at a push a PIR on the lights too. Stock up on batteries for remote controls life is too short for home automation, the drama that goes along with it!! The drama is the fun ! Automation in my opinion should just happen ( lights on / off for example ) . Choice of music though requires some input ( tbh it’s often quicker to just use iPeng and select it ) . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteamyTea Posted August 29, 2023 Share Posted August 29, 2023 5 minutes ago, Pocster said: run this as a windows power shell You (expletive deleted)ing what. Bash Bash Bash Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pocster Posted August 29, 2023 Author Share Posted August 29, 2023 (edited) 2 minutes ago, SteamyTea said: You (expletive deleted)ing what. Bash Bash Bash Yeah I know ! You have to run the script this way though … on windows Edited August 29, 2023 by Pocster Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteamyTea Posted August 29, 2023 Share Posted August 29, 2023 4 minutes ago, Pocster said: Yeah I know ! You have to run the script this way though … on windows Civilisation comes to Bristol. All the poncy hipsters must have moved out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted August 29, 2023 Share Posted August 29, 2023 14 minutes ago, Pocster said: No languages really . It’s all rather convoluted though …. So in homeseer ( HA ) it has Alexa functionality built in . But it can deal with any and all devices - which means it has a rather broad approach . To do something simple “ Alexa , turn on bathroom light “ is just a few menu tick boxes . To talk to squeezebox ( music streamer ) is more tricky . The instructions online aren’t very good … Need to create a custom script ( which a website helps you do ) , run this as a windows power shell . This then creates an ngrok tunnel . You get a unique identifier - you then use this to link the tunnel to squeezebox . There are a few other things that need to be done and caveats ( hence why most customer reviews are ‘ rubbish doesn’t work ‘ ) - it requires some effort . It’s obviously not aimed at the point and click brigade . The fact it takes an old but useful piece of software and adds Alexa functionality is pretty good I think ( squeezebox is small , efficient and very practical ) . You can then via HA have a keyword to trigger entire events if you wish e.g “ Alexa , do Christmas “ - could do any sequence of events . So then you can simplify come spoken words for speed - but I guess almost creating your own dialogue …. That sounds like a lot of different button pressing and confuguring. How do you backup and restore that lot so WHEN a part fails you can program the new part just as it was. If it was ALL contained in a script or a program that you could save and restore, it would be easy. I can see the fun of battling to make something work like that, but would not want to rely on anything I could not simply restore to a working system if one part broke. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pocster Posted August 29, 2023 Author Share Posted August 29, 2023 1 minute ago, ProDave said: That sounds like a lot of different button pressing and confuguring. How do you backup and restore that lot so WHEN a part fails you can program the new part just as it was. If it was ALL contained in a script or a program that you could save and restore, it would be easy. I can see the fun of battling to make something work like that, but would not want to rely on anything I could not simply restore to a working system if one part broke. I do have automated backups of everything to my nas . But yes - it’s not plug ‘n play ! This of course is ontop of phscon , deconz on conbee …. so getting ( hopefully ) any zigbee device to work . Nothing worse being stuck for example in ‘ Philips hue ‘ world - where you must buy their product at an inflated price to have the functionality you want . Cheap , cheap direct from China - but can require work … Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dnb Posted August 29, 2023 Share Posted August 29, 2023 Do you have all your scripts and stuff stored away in a version control archive too? (SVN or GIT?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pocster Posted August 29, 2023 Author Share Posted August 29, 2023 7 minutes ago, dnb said: Do you have all your scripts and stuff stored away in a version control archive too? (SVN or GIT?) Nah - I’m not that organised! 🙄 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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