Getting Started : Alexa with Pi

Getting Started With Raspberry Pi and Alexa

Hardware you need

• Raspberry Pi 3 or Pi 2 (Model B) - Buy at Amazon - Pi 3 or Pi 2.

• Micro-USB power cable for Raspberry Pi.

• Micro SD Card - To get started you need an operating system. NOOBS (New Out Of the Box Software) is an easy-to-use operating system install manager for Raspberry Pi. The simplest way to get NOOBS is to buy an SD card with NOOBS pre-installed - Raspberry Pi 8GB Preloaded (NOOBS) Micro SD Card. Alternatively, you can download and install it on your SD card.

• USB 2.0 Mini Microphone - Raspberry Pi does not have a built-in microphone; to interact with Alexa you'll need an external one to plug in - Buy at Amazon

• External Speaker with 3.5mm audio socket/stereo headset jack - Buy at Amazon

• Internet connection (Ethernet or WiFi)

• WiFi Wireless Adapter for Pi 2 (Buy at Amazon). Pi 3 has built-in WiFi module.

Setting up the Raspberry Pi

The first thing we’ll need to do is install Raspbian Jessie on our Pi. The easiest way to do that is by downloading NOOBS.

What is NOOBS? NOOBS is an easy operating system installer which contains Raspbian. It also provides a selection of alternative operating systems which are then downloaded from the internet and installed.

NOTE: If you already have Raspbian Jessie installed on your Pi, you may skip to Step 2 - Installing utilities - SSH, VNC Server, VLC, Node below.

0.1 - Downloading NOOBS

If you have a micro SD card that came with NOOBS pre-installed, make sure it has Raspbian Jessie available as one of the install options. If not, follow the steps below to download the latest version of NOOBS.

• Download the latest NOOBS zip file - downloads.raspberrypi.org/NOOBS_latest

• Format the SD card using SD Formatter

• Drag and drop NOOBS files on to the SD Card: Once your SD card has been formatted, drag all the files from the extracted NOOBS folder and drop them onto the SD card drive.

0.2 - Installing Raspbian Jessie

• Insert your micro SD card with NOOBS pre-installed into the micro SD card slot on your Pi.

• Plug in the USB 2.0 Mini Microphone, and the (optional) WiFi Wireless Adapter.

• Connect your monitor using the HDMI port.

1 - Booting up the Raspberry Pi

• Now plug in the USB power cable to your Pi.

• Your Pi will boot, and a window will appear with a list of different operating systems that you can install.

• Tick the box next to Raspbian and click on Install. Make sure it is Debian Jessie.

• Raspbian will run through its installation process.

• When the installation process is complete, the Raspberry Pi configuration menu (raspi-config) will load. Here you can set the time and date for your region and enable a Raspberry Pi camera board, or even create users. You can exit this menu using Tab on your keyboard to move to Finish.

• Once rebooted, login to your Pi. The default login for Raspbian is username pi with the password raspberry

To load the graphical user interface at any time type startx into the command line.

2 - SSH into the Raspberry Pi

SSH allows you to remotely access the command line of your Raspberry Pi from another computer (as long as they are both on the same network). This removes the requirement to have an external monitor connected to your Pi.

NOTE: SSH is enabled by default on Raspbian Jessie. If you run into problems getting SSH to work, make sure it’s enabled. This is done using the raspi-config utility.

So, let's SSH into your Raspberry Pi. To do that, you need to know the IP address of your Raspberry Pi.

Type this command into the terminal:

hostname -I
> 192.168.1.10 //this is an example Raspberry Pi’s IP - it would be different for you

If you’re on a Windows PC, follow the instructions here to SSH Using windows

Now that you know the IP address of your Pi, you are ready to connect to it remotely using SSH. To do this, open the terminal utility on the computer you would like to connect from and type the following:

ssh pi@<YOUR Raspberry Pi IP ADDRESS>

It will prompt you for your password. NOTE: the default password for the user pi is raspberry

Voila! You’re remotely connected to your Raspberry Pi. Now you can install all the utilities while connected remotely via SSH.

3 - Install VNC Server

VNC is a graphical desktop sharing system that will allow you to remotely control the desktop interface of your Raspberry Pi from another computer. This will come in very handy as you get rid of the external monitor connected to your Pi. Type:

sudo apt-get install tightvncserver

Start VNC Server

To start VNC Server, type:

tightvncserver

You'll be asked to set a password to access the Pi. You'll need this when you try to access the Pi from another computer, which we will be doing in a moment.

Run VNCServer at Startup

You want to make sure the VNC Server runs automatically after the Raspberry Pi reboots, so you don’t have to manually start it each time with the command tightvncserver through SSH. To do that, type the following in the terminal:

cd /home/pi
cd .config

Note the '.' at the start of the folder name. This makes it a hidden folder that will not show up when you type 'ls'.

mkdir autostart
cd autostart

Create a new configuration by typing the following command:

nano tightvnc.desktop

Edit the contents of the file with the following text:

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=TightVNC
Exec=vncserver :1
StartupNotify=false

Type ctrl-X and then Y, and then press Enter to save the changes to the file.

That's it. The next time you reboot, the VNC server will restart automatically.

Connecting to Raspberry Pi via VNC

• Mac: See https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/remote-access/vnc/mac.md

• Windows: https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/remote-access/vnc/windows.md

• Linux: https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/remote-access/vnc/linux.md

4 - Install VLC

Get VLC media player by typing:

sudo apt-get install vlc-nox vlc-data

NOTE: If you already have VLC installed, you will need to remove two conflicting libraries by running the following commands:

sudo apt-get remove --purge vlc-plugin-notify
sudo rm /usr/lib/vlc/plugins/codec/libsdl_image_plugin.so

Unable to fetch errors If you run into some "Unable to fetch" errors while trying to install VLC, try the following:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get install vlc-nox vlc-data

Source: https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=67399

Make sure VLC is installed correctly

Type the following into the terminal:

whereis vlc

This will provide you with the installation path.

Most programs are stored in /usr/binOn my Pi, I see:

vlc: /usr/bin/vlc /usr/lib/vlc /usr/share/vlc /usr/share/man/man1/vlc.1.gz

Set the environment variables for VLC

Type the following into the terminal:

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/vlc
export VLC_PLUGIN_PATH=/usr/lib/vlc/plugins

Check if the environment variables were set successfully

echo $LD_LIBRARY_PATH
> /usr/lib/vlc
echo $VLC_PLUGIN_PATH
> /usr/lib/vlc/plugins

5 - Installing dependencies - Node, JDK, Maven

Download and install Node.js

Type:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

Set up the apt-get repo source:

curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup | sudo bash -

Install Node:

sudo apt-get install nodejs

Install NPM

Change directories to /home/pi/Desktop/alexa-avs-raspberry-pi-master/samples/companionService

cd /home/pi/Desktop/alexa-avs-raspberry-pi-master/samples/companionService

Install the dependencies:

npm install

Install Java Development Kit

You need to have Java Development Kit (JDK) version 8 or higher installed on your Pi. To make things easier, we've included a script that will install the latest version of JDK on your Pi and remove older JDK versions.

Goto:

cd /home/pi/Desktop/alexa-avs-raspberry-pi-master/samples/javaclient

Run the installation script:

./install-java8.sh

You will get a message from Oracle Java installer that you must accept the Terms of Service for Java SE Platform, press Enter. Then, press Tab, and then Enter to say “Yes” to the Terms of Service.

Step 3: Verify your version of JDK

Now verify the commands with the -version option:

java -version
>> java version "1.8.0_91"
>> Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_91-b14)
>> Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 25.91-b14, mixed mode)
javac -version
>> javac 1.8.0_91

Install Maven

Step 1: Download Maven

Download the Binary tar.gz file apache-maven-3.3.9-bin.tar.gz from maven.apache.org

Step 2: Extract the contents

Goto:

cd /home/pi/Downloads

Extract the contents of the tarball to the /opt directory

sudo tar xvf apache-maven-3.3.9-bin.tar.gz  -C /opt

Step 3: Tell your shell where to find maven You’ll do this in the system profile settings so it is available to all users.

Create a new file /etc/profile.d/maven.sh, by typing the following in the terminal:

sudo touch /etc/profile.d/maven.sh
sudo nano /etc/profile.d/maven.sh

In the editor, add the following to maven.sh:

export M2_HOME=/opt/apache-maven-3.3.9
export PATH=$PATH:$M2_HOME/bin

Type ctrl-X and then Y, and then press Enter to save the changes to the file.

Log out and back into the Pi so the profile script takes effect. You can test that it is working with the following command:

mvn -version
>> Apache Maven 3.3.9

Generate self-signed certificates

Step 1: Install SSL

Get openssl:

sudo apt-get install openssl

Verify install

whereis openssl
> openssl: /usr/bin/openssl /usr/share/man/man1/openssl.lssl.gz

Change directories to /home/pi/Desktop/alexa-avs-raspberry-pi-master/samples/javaclient.

cd /home/pi/Desktop/alexa-avs-raspberry-pi-master/samples/javaclient

Step 2: Run the certificate generation script:

./generate.sh

Step 3: You will be prompted for some information:

These must be entered exactly as they appear below. See Assumptions above for more info on this.

• When prompted for a product ID, enter my_device

• When prompted for a serial number (DSN), enter 123456

• When prompted for a password, press enter to leave it blank.

A private key would be generated for you.

6 - Getting started with Alexa Voice Service

Register your product and create a security profile.

• Login to Amazon Developer Portal - developer.amazon.com

• Click on Apps & Services tab -> Alexa -> Alexa Voice Service -> Get Started

• In the Register a Product Type menu, select Device.

• Fill in and save the following values:

Device Type Info

• Device Type ID: my_device

• Display Name: My Device

• Click Next

Security Profile

• Click on the Security Profile drop down and choose “Create a new profile”

• General Tab

• Security Profile Name: Alexa Voice Service Sample App Security Profile

• Security Profile Description: Alexa Voice Service Sample App Security Profile Description

• Click Next

Client ID and Client Secret will be generated for you.

• Now click on the Web Settings Tab

• Make sure the security profile you just created is selected in the drop-down menu, then click the "Edit" button.

• Allowed Origins: Click "Add Another" and then enter https://localhost:3000 in the text field that appears.

• Allowed Return URLs: Click "Add Another" and then enter https://localhost:3000/authresponse in the text field that appears.

• Click Next

Device Details

• Image: Save the following test image to your computer, then upload it:

• Category: Other

• Description: Alexa Voice Service sample app test

• What is your expected timeline for commercialization?: Longer than 4 months / TBD

• How many devices are you planning to commercialize?: 0

• Click Next

Amazon Music

• Enable Amazon Music?: No

• Click the Submit button

You are now ready to generate self-signed certificates.

7 - Enable Security Profile

• Open a web browser, and visit https://developer.amazon.com/lwa/sp/overview.html.

• Near the top of the page, select the security profile you created earlier from the drop down menu and click Confirm.

• Enter a privacy policy URL beginning with http:// or https://. For this example, you can enter a fake URL such as http://example.com.

• [Optional] You may upload an image as well. The image will be shown on the Login with Amazon consent page to give your users context.

• Click Save.

• Next to the Alexa Voice Service Sample App Security Profile, click Show Client ID and Client Secret. This will display your client ID and client secret. Save these values. You’ll need these.

8 - Update the config files

Login to the Raspberry Pi via VNC

Open config.js:

nano /home/pi/Desktop/alexa-avs-raspberry-pi-master/samples/companionService/config.js

Edit the following values:

• clientId: Paste in the client ID that you noted in the previous step as a string.

• clientSecret: Paste in the client secret that you noted in the previous step as a string.

While pasting the values, be careful to enclose them in single quotes.

Type ctrl-X and then Y, and then press Enter to save the changes to the file.

9 - Run the server

Login to the Raspberry Pi via VNC

In your terminal window, type:

cd /home/pi/Desktop/alexa-avs-raspberry-pi-master/samples/companionService
npm start

The server is now running on port 3000 and you are ready to start the client.

10 - Start the client via VNC

Open a new terminal window/tab (SHIFT+CTRL+T in Raspbian) and navigate to:

cd /home/pi/Desktop/alexa-avs-raspberry-pi-master/samples/javaclient

Build the app

Download dependencies and build the app by typing:

mvn install

When the installation is completed, you will see a “Build Success” message in the terminal.

Run the client app:

You are now ready to run the client app by typing:

mvn exec:exec

11 - Obtain Authorization from Login with Amazon

• When you run the client, a window should pop up with a message that says something similar to: Please register your device by visiting the following website on any system and following the instructions: https://localhost:3000/provision/d340f629bd685deeff28a917 Hit OK once completed. DO NOT CLOSE THIS WINDOW YET

Copy the URL from the popup window and paste it into a web browser. In this example, the URL to copy and paste is https://localhost:3000/provision/d340f629bd685deeff28a917 .

NOTE: Due to the use of a self-signed certificate, you will see a warning about an insecure website. This is expected. It is safe to ignore the warnings during testing.

• You'll be taken to a Login with Amazon web page. Enter your Amazon credentials.

• You'll be taken to a Dev Authorization page, confirming that you’d like your device to access the Security Profile created earlier.

Click Okay.

• You will now be redirected to a URL beginning with https://localhost:3000/authresponse followed by a query string. The body of the web page will say device tokens ready.

• Return to the Java application and click the OK button. The client is now ready to accept Alexa requests.

• Click the Start Listening button and wait for the audio cue before beginning to speak. It may take a second or two before you hear the audio cue.

Press the Stop Listening button when you are done speaking.

12 - Let’s talk to Alexa

Ask for Weather: Click the Start Listening button. You: What's the weather in India? Click the Stop Listening button. Alexa: Current weather report for India

Helpful Links:

https://github.com/amzn/alexa-avs-raspberry-pi

Refer the videos too !

They are really Awesome !

Project that I am currently working with Alexa

Find the meaning of the word !

And another one which involves raspberry pi and Alexa.