I meant not so bad for anyone that does not want to go through the experimentation of getting it set up locally. My reference point is what my time is worth and how much I am willing to “invest” (meaning time, effort, potential frustration, money etc.) into getting this to work with a local server. That having been said, for me personally, as I mentioned in a previous post, I am currently awaiting arrival of a RPi400 and am trying to learn as much as possible about how to get it set up locally with the help of this community. So for me, I guess (even if I am the person who is being quoted) that I have also determined that $7/month is not worth it and I will be using this “opportunity” to learn another “skill”, LOL.
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Keep us posted as IIRC this seemed to be one of the issues with earlier implementation of attempts to run this locally which appeared to be handled by Heroku. Hopefully, this will continue to work for you (I’m rootin’ for you)!
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My rpi400 is also on its way... setting up docker looks pretty straightforward. If the docker image is eventually made available in the online repository the installation should be pretty straightforward.
For those looking at setting up a Pi for this project, I recommend using the latest Ubuntu LTS. Unless you need something specific to the Raspberry Pi OS, you're going to have better luck finding tutorials and help with a wider-used distro. The 22.04 LTS release will work all the way back to the Pi 2 for the "Server" (non-GUI) version. In fact, that's what I'm using on my local Pi server running PiHole and Homebridge.
Same for me. Authentication was successful on first try after restart. Thanks!
YMMV.
I've found that Ubuntu runs into stranger errors than Raspbian, generally.
For a newbie to the Raspberry Pi, the tutorials from RPi are more appropriate, IMO... and I'd say that the only reason to use Ubuntu is if you need something specific that isn't in the Raspbian distro.
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I'm sorry. Does anyone have detailed instructions on this? It took me for every just PI setup and docker working. I'm on RPi - 64.
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I'm hoping for a docker image being made available on the docker hub (at some future point) and I just suck it down and go! Or is it not likely to be that easy? (Kidding but not really.)
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I don't think the docker situation is fully fleshed out to reliable step-by-step instructions yet.
That said, if you're new to Linux, I wouldn't bother with Docker at this time -- it's extra complexity that may just lead to headaches. The instructions here were pretty much perfect: [RELEASE] Echo Speaks V4 - #629 by user2305
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I've got a pi that works well for pivpn and a weekly hub restart. My Echo needs are limited so for now a few routines triggered by virtual contact sensors have replaced my Echo Speaks announcements. I'm going to disable Echo Speaks for the time being and lurk until this gets simple.
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I've got a pi in a drawer somewhere, and not a lot of desire to dig it out and figure out how to make this work. I've deleted Echo Speaks and my Heroku account, switched over to virtual contact sensors for the few things I need an Echo to announce, and I have one Echo telling the others that I'm home so Guard will turn off. It's working OK. I also am lurking for now, hoping this goes back to being relatively simple.
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Out of curiosity, are you having one Echo actually announcing to other Echos that can hear it to
“Turn off Guard”? JFYI, I remember a while back when this was the only was to get Guard to turn off (you could turn it ON with a HE virtual switch) and some found it to be a little unreliable. However, for some time now, you can do this with a custom command in Alexa so you don’t have to rely on one Echo actually announcing this to your other Echos. Was not sure of how you were implementing the announcement based on your description, but just wanted to let you know that you did not have to have one Echo listening to another one to implement this. Don’t know if this helps or if I just misinterpreted what you where doing. Sorry if the latter.
BTW, for the time being, I have also gone back to virtual switches as triggers for announcements until I can figure out more of this RPi stuff (awaiting delivery).
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I'm not sure why you rushed into that -- there's still almost three months until action was required...
In hopes to stem the tide of departures, do note that the Heroku situation won't change until November 28, 2022.
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I didn't know this! Thank you! Yes, I was having one announce it to another Echo. I've switched to a custom command and it works great. Again, thanks!
I do realize that nothing is happening until the end of November.
I wasn't doing that much with Echo Speaks so changing to virtual contact sensors hasn't been a big deal. And Echo Speaks was throwing a lot of errors quite often — some on the Amazon side and some because of Heroku — and I'm happy to have that out of my logs. Also, I was never super comfortable with Heroku having my Amazon login info. With the coming change in cost and no desire to set up a Pi I called it quits. I'll keep an eye out here to see what others come up with, but doubt I'll jump on the bandwagon.
Glad it worked out for you @jabecker . I find that it is much more reliable using the Custom Commands (since it is not affected by any ambient noise) and less obvious (you wouldn’t want just anybody to come in and control your Guard status)!
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Just a quick update it's been running fine now for 2 days. Hasn't had to renew the Amazon cookie/auth token yet that will be the real test. Just a heads up it is generating a log file per day in the data/logs directory. Will keep an eye out of that to check if it has a version limit but with one line per in two of the 3 logs I am not worried that it will impact space.
|9-1-2022 - 7:29:06pm debug: |Alexa Login Status: Login Successful|
|---|---|
|9-1-2022 - 7:29:06pm silly: |Echo Speaks Alexa API is Actively Running at (IP: 192.168.20.251 | Port: 8091) | ProcessId: 1|
|9-1-2022 - 7:29:07pm info: |** ServerVersion Sent to Hubitat Cloud Endpoint Successfully! **|
|9-1-2022 - 7:29:07pm error: |AlexaGuardDataSupport | No Alexa Guard Appliance Data found...|
|9-1-2022 - 7:29:07pm info: |** Alexa Cookie Data sent to Hubitat Cloud Endpoint Successfully! **|
|9-1-2022 - 7:29:10pm debug: |/config page requested|
|9-1-2022 - 7:29:10pm info: |Checking for Server Version Updates...|
|9-1-2022 - 7:29:11pm info: |Server Version is Up-to-Date.|
|9-2-2022 - 5:00:43am info: |Server Wakeup Received | Reason: (healthCheck)|
|9-3-2022 - 5:15:42am info: |Server Wakeup Received | Reason: (healthCheck)|
This is the response I received from Heroku...
Hi,
Danielle from the billing support team here, thanks for reaching out. I have been able to review the apps within your account that have a free dyno attached and those include:
echo-specho-speaaks-cc1qkbdug
and
echo-speaks-wsj17cgs0.
In this case, the pricing for these apps would move to $7/month per app if the apps were upgraded from a free dyno to a hobby dyno. This pricing is based on the resources currently provisioned for the app, and any additional resources would incur separate costs. I have more information on our dynos and their respective pricing here:
f no upgrade is made, free dynos will be scaled down to 0 starting November 28, 2022.
I have also included a link on how to upgrade your resources:
I hope this was helpful, if you have any questions please let me know.
Best,
Danielle
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Can we use AWS instead of Heroku? I think they have a free account option.
