DIY Amazon Echo

The Amazon Echo devices running the Alexa AI voice assistant have been gaining a lot of popularity lately. While the new Echo costs $100, the Echo Dot costs $35-$50 depending on if there is a sale. At that price, the Echo Dot is very affordable and practical, and the sales have shown that people agree with me on that. After recently purchasing two smart switches to control lights in my room, I was interested in purchasing an Echo Dot for myself. But then I realized that I could build my own for a little cheaper. An actual Echo would have more features and better components, but I wanted to have some fun and build my own. I found many articles and videos online on how to do this project. The key parts of this project are a Raspberry Pi running special Amazon software, a USB microphone, and some sort of wired speaker. I had an original Raspberry Pi Model B (the first one) sitting around after I had used it to make a retro video game emulation box, so I decided to use it. I also had an old webcam with a mic, so I used that as well, along with a Bose SoundLink speaker (with aux input). I installed Raspian (a Linux based operating system for the RPi), and followed directions from this website to configure all the Amazon software. Essentially, you sign up for a free Amazon Developers account, register a product, enter some product info into some software that you install on the RPi, and it all works pretty well. I had a few issues regarding the mic being detected and the software responding to me saying "Alexa", but I found very helpful advice that solved my problems on various forums, usually on Reddit or GitHub (the software that actually runs the Alexa platform on the RPi is from a GitHub developer). Another tip that might help you is using SSH. SSH is a method to access your Raspberry Pi from another computer over the internet. This means that you don't have to hook up a display to the RPi, instead just receive a visual feed on any internet-connected computer. Setting up the SSH is fairly simple, and was a breeze for me. Again, there are many videos and articles about this to help you. After some testing with my Echo, I realized that the RPi wasn't able to read long articles or play music without some buffering or glitching. I suspected that this was due to the lack of processing power in my old RPi, so I bought the newest RPi model on Amazon (the RPi 3) for $35. I also bought a far-field sensitive USB mic to replace my old webcam. After reinstalling the Amazon software on my new RPi, everything worked as planned and just how I expected it to. To finish it off, I 3D printed a mount for the RPi so it could stand upright, and cleaned up the cables. This AlexaPi (as many call it), can do almost everything a regular Echo Dot can do, except play music without using the Alexa app (the actual Echo can do it through voice command). Also, the far-field mics on the actual Echo are better than the cheap mic I got on Amazon as well. With most of my projects, it usually takes me a while before a desirable result is reached. However, this project was a lot easier than I thought it would be, and I think most people who simply follow instructions could do it with ease. While the actual Amazon Echo Dot is more practical in terms of price (if you don't already have a RPi, mic, speaker), I like that I built my own. Whenever you build something on your own instead of buying it, all your work pays off, and you get a feeling of accomplishment and achievement.