How to build an Amazon Alexa speaker using a Raspberry Pi

Alexa is a voice assistant launched by Amazon in 2014, used in smart speakers such as Amazon Echo or Echo Mark. Alexa acts as a central control unit in these devices, responding to the user's voice commands. For example, you can download songs from Amazon Music or SpotIfy, play audiobooks from Audible, and get news and weather updates. Even the program can manage regular activities such as shopping, and can determine to-do lists, and can schedule appointments in appropriate calendars. Therefore, in this tutorial, I will show you how to build your own DIY version of Amazon Alexa by installing the Alexa Voice Service (AVS) on a Raspberry Pi 4.

Components needed to build Alexa

Raspberry Pi 4

USB Microphone

3.5 mm line-in speaker

Create an Amazon developer account

Before installing Alexa on your Raspberry Pi, you need to create an Amazon developer account. So go to the Amazon Developer page and create a new account. Once logged in, go to the dashboard and select Alexa Voice Service.

In the next window select "Products" and click "Add New Product".

Now enter the product name, product ID as per your choice in the product details page. Select “Device with Alexa built-in” in the product type and select “No” in the companion app option.

Scroll down and select "Other" in the product category and type "Raspberry Pi" in the given box. Then write a short description about your project, for example: "Amazon Alexa on Raspberry Pi". Then select "Touch to Start" and "Hands-Free" for the end-user interaction. Ignore the image option and select "No" in the next question and click "Next".

The next step is to create a security profile. So click on Create a new profile and enter a profile name and description in the next window.

In the next window, we need to add some URLs to the Allowed Origins and Allowed Return URLs fields as shown. Change the IP address according to yours. Then click on "Finish". You will see a pop-up window telling you that your product has been created.

Installing Alexa on the Raspberry Pi

Now that we have an Amazon developer account, we will install Alexa on the Raspberry Pi. First, move to the /opt directory by issuing the following command:

CD/Select

After that install git if not already installed. Use the following command to install git:

sudo apt-get install git

Now clone the Alexa-pi repository into your Raspberry pi using the following command:

sudo git clone https://github.com/alexa-pi/AlexaPi.git

After cloning the Alexa-pi repository, run the setup script with the following command:

sudo ./AlexaPi/src/scripts/setup.sh

During this process, it will ask for the operating system and device. Select "debian" and then "raspberrypi". After that, it will ask for the device type ID (product ID), security profile description, security profile ID, client ID, and client secret.

If your account details are correct then it will display a URL on the Pi terminal window. Click on the URL or paste it into your browser and a page will pop up asking for permission.

Click Allow. In the next window, it will ask you to select the country. Select your country and complete the process.

Now, power your Raspberry Pi and connect the speaker to the 3.5mm jack and microphone in the Raspberry Pi USB port.

After that connect the USB microphone and speaker to the Raspberry Pi and restart the pi. After restarting, you will hear Alexa say "Hello". In addition to restarting, you can also start the Alexa service and check the status of Alexa using the following commands:

sudo systemctl startAlexaPi.service

sudo systemctl status AlexaPi.service

Here you can see some images of Alexa at work.