Feature Request: An Alexa interface to the FPP?

[jklingert]

It was a cute April Fools video, but it got me thinking that there must be someone out there with the skills to develop an Alexa interface to the FPP?



I wish I had the development skills, but here are some starters for those who do:
New Alexa Skills Kit Template: Build a Trivia Skill in under an Hour https://developer.amazon.com/blogs/post/TxDJWS16KUPVKO/New-Alexa-Skills-Kit-Template-Build-a-Trivia-Skill-in-under-an-Hour

Steps to Build a Custom Skill: Review a step-by-step guide to building a custom skill for Alexa https://developer.amazon.com/public/solutions/alexa/alexa-skills-kit/overviews/steps-to-build-a-custom-skill

Getting Started with the Alexa Skills Kit: Learn how to give Alexa new abilities with the Alexa Skills Kit. https://developer.amazon.com/public/solutions/alexa/alexa-skills-kit/getting-started-guide

Alexa Skills Kit: Design & develop voice experiences for Alexa. https://developer.amazon.com/alexa-skills-kit

[CaptainMurdoch]

I have been thinking about something like this recently and it will be a lot easier when we get a true API for FPP.  Tim is working on this as part of a UI rewrite while I'm slowly working on other backend changes for FPP v2.0.

I recently setup Home Assistant on a "spare" Pi here talking to some Z-Wave switches and some old X10 hardware that has been sitting in a box since we moved from our previous house.  For now, the kids love being able to turn on the various lights, etc. in their rooms with their own remote control.  I'm almost at the point where I'm ready to pickup a Dot or Echo and hook it up.  We already have a couple FireTV's so I might try to do some testing with those first.

[Setarcos]

I did something along these lines with FPP 1.8/1.9 over the Christmas+New Years holiday, but used my home automation controller (MisterHouse-based) to interact with the Lambda functions and custom skills. The Lambda function serves as a proxy of sorts to just forward the Smart Home API requests to MisterHouse which in turn acts on them and responds back to the Lambda function which forwards the response back to the Smart Home API or ASK custom skill API.

I haven't added support for the new Smart Home API color control directives in my MH code that Amazon released earlier this month, but will likely be doing so in the next week or so.

My Lambda functions are for the Smart Home API forwarder, ASK custom skill forwarder can be found in my IoT-Playground Github repo.

The current working version of my MH Alexa code is here.

MisterHouse invokes a few different functions to control FPP managed pixels via test mode or starting/stopping playlists using the current JSON and XML APIs. I even figured out a way to do dimming based on an initial RGB value, but my code for that part (thus far not shared) is a bit clunky right now.

You can see it in action here:

The "kitchen under cabinet light" is a WS2811 pixel strip being controlled via FPP test mode, and "indoor tree" is a separate FPP instance controlling several sets of WS2811 pixels in a looping playlist. The other lights being controlled are Insteon light switches.

[TexasStingray]

I use opening which has an Alex skill that I already use if there was a REST call into FPP that would open the world up for development into it.

[lithgowlights]

Wondering if there was any update on this idea since the original post?

[rwthib]

Has anyone done anything with Alexa.  I am thinking of setting up my Summer Patio and backyard using pixels and it would great to have guest be able to change colors or start a simple show.

[CaptainMurdoch]

Has anyone done anything with Alexa.  I am thinking of setting up my Summer Patio and backyard using pixels and it would great to have guest be able to change colors or start a simple show.

If you integrate Alexa with a home automation system, then you should be able to have Alexa control FPP, but there is currently no direct integration.

Alexa and home automation integration is one of the reasons I started adding the MQTT support, because I wanted to be able to integrate the three.  I run Home Assistant on a Pi 2 B at home and have that integrated with Alexa via a SmartThings Hub v2.  I don't currently use FPP in any integrations, but can have Alexa trigger things in Home Assistant.

[rwthib]

I use SmartThings too. Will have to look but before I statrted wants to see if someone had done it to save me some time.

[Sawdust]

Maybe someone should look into the ARCUS....open code or soon to be.  Was discontinued by Lowes, but was Alexa friendly.


Look at this....
https://www.irisbylowes.com/support?guideTitle=Iris-releases-an-Open-Source-Smart-Home-Software-as-%E2%80%9CArcus%E2%80%9D&guideId=b5a9c492-3036-47be-a0d4-c9c4114c7158

[bshep]

I built an alexa skill to control my audio system at home, it works, but its hard coded to my system, i could never figure out how to detect / configure the system to make it 'universal', it wouldnt be hard to adapt it to FPP, however everyone would have to configure it manually for their own system which is a chore.


If anyone is interested i can share the github repo with the code, its ugly code though.

[CaptainMurdoch]

Posting to an old thread, but it's just as good of a place as any.

I got sidetracked the past couple days and now have a working Alexa skill for FPP v3.5.5 with several actions implemented and working already.  So far, I can control playlists (start/stopNow/stopGraceful), effects (start/stop by name), and pixel overlay models (on/off/fill) using the FPP Commands API.  I can also query for the list of available effects and playlists.  The code can also switch to control different FPP instances using a voice command so I can control our indoor pixel tree or the display outside by asking Alexa to switch 'servers'.

I'm currently doing this through a web service running in a single PHP file in FPP.  Amazon requires a SSL cert on the web service, so I'm tunneling it through ngrok.com for testing.  On the local FPP side, the PHP file is running in a separate doc root and network port, so I'm not exposing FPP itself to the internet via the tunnel.  The web service also checks for the alexa skill ID to before processing any input.

This is my first Alexa skill, so I'm still trying to think of how to make it multi-user so that this can be made available to other alexa users without them having to build their own skill and setup a tunnel.  I'd like to include the base code in FPP and provide a plugin to do the integration with some external site which would receive the SSL requests, but I'm still learning how other skills do that.  I also run MyMediaForAlexa at home with a Logitech Media Server/Squeezeserver to allow me to play all my mp3 files on any Echo in the house.  The local MyMediaForAlexa daemon keeps an SSL connection open to their server to handle the remote connection without having an inbound connection to the local network.

[mcangeli]

On another note, I was thinking of using IFTT to setup some google home access so I could have my google home start a playlist.

[CaptainMurdoch]

On another note, I was thinking of using IFTT to setup some google home access so I could have my google home start a playlist.

It's definitely usable and in multiple ways.

Starting a playlist via the home automation system (Home Assistant) would possibly be easier for me since I already have it hooked into FPP somewhat for status, but I didn't want to have to use some kind of emulation for controlling things like effects, overlay models, etc..  Plus, learning the skill to create a skill is another feather in my cap.

[MichRX7]

On another note, I was thinking of using IFTT to setup some google home access so I could have my google home start a playlist.

It's definitely usable and in multiple ways.

Starting a playlist via the home automation system (Home Assistant) would possibly be easier for me since I already have it hooked into FPP somewhat for status, but I didn't want to have to use some kind of emulation for controlling things like effects, overlay models, etc..  Plus, learning the skill to create a skill is another feather in my cap.

I was asking this to people around. I have some google home assistant products in the house and was looking at my Pergola and thinking wouldn't it be nicer to take out my phone and say "Hey Google, turn on my Pergola playing Sequence XYZ. Did you get anywhere with this? It'd be so much better than running up and plugging in the boring white LED whites I have now.

[CaptainMurdoch]

I was asking this to people around. I have some google home assistant products in the house and was looking at my Pergola and thinking wouldn't it be nicer to take out my phone and say "Hey Google, turn on my Pergola playing Sequence XYZ. Did you get anywhere with this? It'd be so much better than running up and plugging in the boring white LED whites I have now.

Other FPP fixes and enhancements took priority during December so I haven't put much time into it over the past month or so.  I do still have it running though and want to spend some more time in the off season and get the web service code added to FPP along with adding more commands.  Right now I have implemented or stubbed out intents for starting/stopping/listing effects, model on/off/fill, starting/stopping/listing playlists, turning repeat on/off (before starting a playlist), selecting a different FPP instance by hostname, volume up/down/set, querying what playlist is running, querying what song is playing, and querying the volume.  Most of those are hooked up, but a few still need some integration code.  I also still need to do research on possible options for making it multi-user and eliminating the need for manually creating a skill and setting up a SSL tunnel/proxy.