Alexa is Amazon’s digital assistant. Alexa is a lot like Apple’s Siri, but instead of existing within your phone or computer, Alexa lives in Amazon cloud. A few years ago, the coordinated smart home felt like a dream but Amazon Echo changed the way with interact with smart home devices over voice. Lets make PiHome work with Amazon echo.
Update PiHome
Lets update your PiHome software from Github to latest. login to your raspberry pi and issue following commands.
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cd /var/www/ git pull origin |
Update PiHome Database
Updating PiHome database is easy enough, run following two lines, this update process will create backup of your exiting database in case if you need to revert back.
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cd /var/www/MySQL_Database/ php update_db.php |
Install python serial library
After PiHome version 1.73 python serial library required to connect to your Smart Home Gateway
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sudo apt-get install python-serial |
Setup
- 1. Execute the installer using – ‘sh install_echo.sh’
- Tell Echo, “discover my devices”
- Use Echo’s “zone name on” and “zone name off” to set the BOOST on or off as required
Note: if the hot water zone name contains the words ‘hot water’ then Echo will respond to ‘hot water’ e.g for a zone name of ‘Ch. Hot Water’ Echo will respond to ‘hot water’ on/off
