Using now HA since a while I’d like to try the Alexa thing for audio control of my system. I have seen the new Alexa setup in HA Cloud but documentation is really very light on it ! First of it how can I setup easily an Alexa system without buying one from Amazon ? I’d like to use the cheap electronic I have suck as ESP, Raspberry, Orange One Plus, USB micro, little classic 8ohm speakers. Is it possible and how on such hardware ?
Will et work then with the Alexa HA cloud system ?
Is your objection the cost? The Echo Dot is only $50, cheaper if you buy them in bulk. Setting up Alexa on something else like a Raspberry Pi isn’t going to be a lot cheaper and it’s going to be a lot more time consuming.
If you’re objection is related to sending all of your data to Amazon, running Alexa on your own hardware won’t help you.
Got it but problem is that no Alexa product are avalaible here in France ! You can’t even buy it from Amazon UK, they refuse to ship it to france (which is illegal by the way inside europe !).
I expected that but there is nothing avalaible in open source right now that works as well or nearly
Have you tried buying from another site other than Amazon? I’d suggest buying an Echo Dot from eBay, then when you set it up you’ll have to use a fake US address to get it going. This is what I did, Amazon Alexa wasn’t available in Canada for quite a while so I had to fake a US mailing address.
In the end, I ended up disconnecting my Alexa as the voice commands didn’t do much for me. Most of my system is automated so lights turn on/off as needed without needing any interaction.
Well, complete lack of availability is a problem! There are lots of tutorials out there on how to set up Alexa on a Raspberry Pi. I’ve never done anything with them myself though, as the instructions were quite involved.
As far as I know, it’s the real deal and the only limitation is the hardware you run it on. I’d recommend going with a Raspberry Pi as that will have better community support than anything else.
A quick Google suggests they’re launching in France in the next couple of weeks, given they are by far the best way of using Alexa probably best to hang on a bit longer and see.
Well to make it short I found the nearly perfect solution for voice control Use of non-cloud Voice recognition system with HA ?
It fully runs on local (no cloud and problem of confidentiality, and works even if internet connection is down or in remote places withotu internet), needs only a Raspberry, free and open-source and in fact more efficient in most cases than cloud solutions
