So. I have a nice HA system setup at home, based on a VM with lots of sensors and offline control. All good.
It’s getting to that time where I’m looking to simplify my Mother’s apartment so that she can use voice to turn on the lights, TV, etc.
She’s completely embedded in the Amazon / Alexa ecosystem…
As I’ve built up a non-cloud, offline self-hosted setup over the years, I’ve no idea where to start with a very simple, but obviously cloud-connected system for her to use Alexa.
What’s the best way here? HA Green? Intel NUC?
I don’t need any LLMs - she’s got Alexa for that… so I think even a Pi would be fine.
Anyone recently done something similar?
I did do it a while ago with my system when I managed the remote access myself and remember it to be a bit of a faff.
I moved Internet providers and the new one didn’t have inbound traffic enabled so it stopped working. Rather than go through the hassle of contacting support to allow incoming traffic I signed up for Nabu Casa. It was a lot easier than setting up the security myself and it made Alexa integration trivial.
https://support.nabucasa.com/hc/en-us/articles/25619363899677-Configuring-Amazon-Alexa-to-work-with-Home-Assistant
So if an annual or monthly fee is an option then it’s worth considering.
Ah, thanks for the link to the article - I’d not looked there.
… and yes, I think a subscription would be good for all the reasons… thanks
This here. On top of what he said above I would mention that you want this to be as easy to maintain as possible so using Nabu Casa’s Alexa cloud integration saves you the hassle of having to do some complicated setup.
Years ago I went through the steps to do the google project/workspace tutorial to setup integrating with google home and it was a pain, especially getting it to allow google devices to talk locally. If it blows up and requires setting up again with the same complications I’ll either swap to the cloud thing(already pay the Nabu Casa sub to support them) or just move to running voice locally.
I’ve been messing with running local voice satellites the past couple months and they are way better than I thought they’d be. Been running an HA VPE in my office and has been so good I’ve removed the google home from that room. This past weekend I used this project to return an old shield tablet into a display satellite. Has a few things to left to iron out but I’m liking it.
All that to say, I’d never do all that work in a location I don’t live in😂. Pay the sub and live your life.
Ok, yes, thanks for the additional info… I don’t have an Alexa, but assumed it would need some developer API key or something… if it’s easier with a Nabu Casa subscription… I’ll go that way. Thanks!