I have a Samsung M5 in the Kitchen I send speech to...It looks like to use the Echo Speaks app I need a local server or pay for an online account.
Is there a relatively low end ($) device that works well with Hubitat like the M5 does...but cheaper. I don't want to do anything but announcements, so I don't need music etc. I would prefer wireless over hardware.
The Samsung Radiant R1 (WAM1500) is still available on e-bay and the like for around $50. I have three of them and they work well most of the time. Usually, the only issues I have are after power outages. I have a rule to clear their queue's an refresh all of them at once after outages.
I think it is worth the time. I just put the server on a Rasp. PI3 I already had laying around. Takes no time at all if you just copy paste the instructions. I used the non-docker method.
It is all the other features that you get with Echo Speaks - like voiceCommandAsText, which means Hubitat can just tell Alexa to do anything (even control complex devices connected to Alexa) by just building a string to send as if you were speaking to an Echo directly.
If you can find an IKEA Symfonisk speaker (actually made by Sonos), it works perfectly with Hubitat’s built-in Sonos integration as well as the built-in Text to Speech engine.
Awesome thx!
You may want to do a search for Hubvoice. You can use a few devices with it like the Home Assistant Voice Assistant preview eddition. It is 100% local as well.
I've had great luck with the Sonos speakers.
I got a bunch of the Ikea Symfonisk ones and they have been amazing for my needs (I have them all over the house and send various sound effects, pre-recorded sentences, and TTS to them--I don't really use them for tunes).
The Ikea ones also work great as a small shelf (with the wall mount holding them up horizontally).
Before, I was using the Google Home speakers, etc.--but they were rather wonky at times.
[quote="rob9, post:7, topic:163452"]
THANKS!
Ikea Symfonisk
I'm not really up on this product line. It looks like most of the lower end ones are Bluetooth only? Do you have a model number of yours by any chance?...a lot that look like they might be IP based are now unavailable on the IKEA site right now.
IKEA symfonisk speakers have Sonos guts and use WiFi to connect to a LAN.
The symfonisk line was discontinued recently, IIRC, so availability is probably a major YMMV thing at this point.
eBay is probably going to be your friend here...
Looks like Sonos has a relatively inexpensive ($189) WiFi speaker that will probably work. Not exactly cheap, but not horrendous. When the IKEA Symfonisk bookshelf speakers first came out, I think they were ~$99. It was a great deal at the time. But, that was many years ago.
Download the Hubitat app
