Reverse (?) Alexa Integration

Posted on
Fri Feb 02, 2018 6:28 pm
BeeEss offline
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Joined: Jul 22, 2016

Reverse (?) Alexa Integration

If it's dumb and it works, it isn't dumb.

For quite some time, I had been using the Mac app Radium to tune SiriusXM stations - it has a bunch of Applescript hooks, so it was easy enough to use Indigo to automate the start of a stream. But I guess SiriusXM deprecated a prior version of their online player (which I assume Radium was using), so I was looking for another solution.

Found out that an Amazon Echo can tune a SiriusXM station with a voice command - "Alexa, play SiriusXM Lithium," or "Alexa, play SiriusXM channel 8." Then I remembered that Indigo can speak commands, so I figured what the heck:

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That's an Echo Dot with one half of a Skullcandy Cassette headphone sitting on top of it. So this Control Page allows us to select a station:

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When you tap a station link, it sets a variable (stationLink) to a text value of the channel number ("fifty three"), then calls Action Group 'Tune SiriusXM Station,' which among other things like setting the correct Airfoil speakers, does this:

Code: Select all
indigo.server.speak("Alexa, play serious XM channel" + stationLink)

It works beautifully. I am sort of shocked at how dead-on consistent it has been. Alexa even announces the channel name before she starts playing it.

This was important, because my morning alarm involves displaying HIPster (my Home Information Portal) on various TVs across the house, and playing some SiriusXM station for sound. HIPster is Magic Mirror running on a Raspberry Pi connected to my A/V receiver. The Pi also runs Airfoil Speakers (or Satellite, or whatever they call it.) So in the morning, Colorado4Wheeler's rad Alarm Clock plugin does its magic - turns on my bedroom TV (and others), sends Alexa the command to start a station that I've selected (via a Control Page) and fades in lights in appropriate parts of the house. The only thing I miss is that HIPster used to display the track/artist and station name in the bottom left - since that's coming from the Dot now I don't have that info, but that's okay:

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Now I just need to think of other stuff that might be handy to tell Indigo to tell Alexa to do. Hmm...
Last edited by BeeEss on Fri Feb 02, 2018 9:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Posted on
Fri Feb 02, 2018 6:38 pm
mundmc offline
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Re: Reverse (?) Alexa Integration

This rules. I’ve been there.

Nothing beats weirding out my mother-in-law like having my British-voiced bluetooth speaker giving commands to Alexa.

Posted on
Fri Feb 02, 2018 6:56 pm
jay (support) offline
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Re: Reverse (?) Alexa Integration

Awesome. Please make a video of it in action and post on YouTube (or somewhere) - I'd love to see it in action!

Jay (Indigo Support)
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Posted on
Fri Feb 02, 2018 8:22 pm
ckeyes888 offline
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Location: Kalispell, MT

Re: Reverse (?) Alexa Integration

Too funny. I thought I was the only one weird enough to set that up.
So true though...it seems virtually bulletproof.
I’ve been using it to set Pandora stations.

Carl

Posted on
Fri Feb 02, 2018 9:22 pm
BeeEss offline
Posts: 27
Joined: Jul 22, 2016

Re: Reverse (?) Alexa Integration

Here's a crude phone video. For the video I turned the headphone on top of the Dot to 100% volume, but it usually sits at 35-40%.

https://youtu.be/qa6m5s5mERY

Posted on
Sat Feb 03, 2018 7:43 am
jalves offline
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Re: Reverse (?) Alexa Integration

I love this hack! (Would we have called it a kluge in the "old days"?) I'm going to have to try out something similar.

Just a thought but the same thing ought to work with Siri. Shouldn't it?

Running Indigo 2023.2 on a 24" iMac M1), OS X 14.4
Jeff

Posted on
Sat Feb 03, 2018 8:35 am
matt (support) offline
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Re: Reverse (?) Alexa Integration

This is awesome (and hilarious)!

Image

Posted on
Sat Feb 03, 2018 9:07 am
Colorado4Wheeler offline
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Re: Reverse (?) Alexa Integration

Awesome! Does that book have an ass#toggle ability? :lol:

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Posted on
Sat Feb 03, 2018 9:16 am
Colly offline
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Location: Ireland

Re: Reverse (?) Alexa Integration

Colorado4Wheeler wrote:
Awesome! Does that book have an ass#toggle ability? :lol:

I was expecting someone to reference the book


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Posted on
Sat Feb 03, 2018 9:58 am
jay (support) offline
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Re: Reverse (?) Alexa Integration

Fantastic!

Jay (Indigo Support)
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Posted on
Sat Feb 03, 2018 9:01 pm
BeeEss offline
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Joined: Jul 22, 2016

Re: Reverse (?) Alexa Integration

LOL, whoops - forgot about my notebook. It’s a Simpsons reference - bit of a deep cut.

Posted on
Wed Feb 28, 2018 9:12 pm
mundmc offline
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Re: Reverse (?) Alexa Integration

Everything about that video is a win. Strong work.


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