More and more people rely on language assistants like Alexa to perform simple everyday tasks such as setting timers, playing weather forecasts or switching lights on and off.
But can you also use Amazon’s speech recognition without Alexa? Yes! With a Raspberry Pi, a microphone and some programming skills. Below you will learn how to install Amazon Alexa on the Raspberry Pi.
The Project
Suitable for: Beginner
Time required: 45 min
Budget: 50€
What you need: Raspberry Pi 2 (or higher), SD card, USB power supply, USB microphone, speaker with 3,5mm jack connector
Prerequisite: possession of mouse, keyboard, screen, Internet access and Amazon account
Set up Raspberry Pi and find out IP address
If you already own a Raspberry Pi and you already know the IP address of your Raspberry Pis, you can skip this step. If this is not the case, you can download the current operating system from the https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/ website. You will find many detailed instructions on how to set it up on the Internet, which is why we do not want to go into it further in this How-To. Start your Raspberry Pi and open the terminal first. Enter the following command: ifconfig
Now you can read the IP address as shown in Figure 1. You should make a note of the address, as it will be needed later.
Set up Amazon Developer account
Before you continue with the Raspberry Pi, you need an Amazon Developer Account (Developer Account). To do this, open the following page: https://developer.amazon.com/de/
Click on the “Sign in” button at the top right and create a developer account.
After creating the account, log in and create a security profile. To do this you need to go to the Alexa tab, then to Alexa Voice Service and then to Get Start. On this page, go to Products then Create Product. Now you will see a form that you have to fill out.
Fill in the empty fields as followed:
– Product name: AlexaPi
– Product ID: AlexaPi
– Select: Device with Alexa built-in
– Select: NO
– Product category: Smart Home
– Letter product description: RaspberryPiAlexa
– Choose: Hands-free, Far-field
– Here you can upload a picture (optional)
– For the remaining questions, select: NO
Then confirm with NEXT.
Now you can create your personal security profile. Proceed as follows:
– Security Profile Name: AlexaPi
– Security Profile Description: AlexaPi
– Copy the three ID´s and save them in a .txt file (will be useful later)
– NEXT
If you scroll down, you will find two lines called Allowed origins and Allowed return URLs. To fill these lines, you need the IP address of your Raspberry Pis.
Now add the URLs listed one after the other.
For Allowed origins:
– https://<<< your.ip address >>:5050
– http://<< your.ip-adresse >>:5050
– https://localhost:5050
– https://localhost:5050
For Allowed return URLs:
– https://<<< your.ip address >>:5050/code
– https://<<< your.ip address >>:5050/code
– https://localhost:5050/code
– https://localhost:5050/code
Replace all << your.ip address>> with the correct IP address of the Raspberry Pi’s.
If you have successfully added all URLs, it should look like Figure 6.
Under Capabilities you can check the boxes as shown in Figure 7.
Starting the installation
Before you start with the installation of Alexa, you should copy the previously saved text file with ID´s to the Pi. A USB stick would be useful.
Open the terminal on the Raspberry Pi again and enter the following commands:
1. First we have to go to the /opt directory: cd /opt
2. Download git: sudo apt-get install git
3. Now copy the AlexaPi folder from the Github: sudo git clone https://github.com/alexa-pi/AlexaPi.git
4. Installation: sudo ./AlexaPi/src/scripts/setup.sh
Then follow the instructions in the terminal.
Before the end of the installation you will be asked for the Device Type ID and Security Profile Description, to which you have to answer both with AlexaPi.
Then the terminal will ask for Security Profile ID, Client ID and Client Secret. Simply copy the IDs from the text file. Confirm with Enter.
Next, open your browser on your PC and enter the URL in the URL bar:
https://<<<your.ip-address>>:5050
Then click on Allow and select Germany in the next step.
