1. Got a question or need help troubleshooting? Post to the troubleshooting forum or Search the forums!

Wrote an Alexa-based receptionist app

Discussion in 'Off Topic' started by OutsourcedGuru, Mar 17, 2018.

  1. OutsourcedGuru

    OutsourcedGuru Active Member

    Joined:
    Jun 3, 2017
    Messages:
    752
    Likes Received:
    141
    Bought an Amazon Echo Dot last weekend and spent a few off hours working on an app. Got to show it off to my boss yesterday so that was cool.

    "Alexa, ask Origin App for the wi-fi password."
    "Alexa, ask Origin App to page Jeff."
    "Alexa, open Origin App."
    "Alexa, ask Origin App for another fact."

    etc

    Wrote the AWS Lambda function myself from scratch, as well as the Intents/Utterances/Slots for the Alexa Skill itself.

    And this morning, I wired up an external power switch to the printer and have that working from Alexa. Although I've got the ASK/Lambda happy for the printer control/status, I now have to work up some sort of gateway to get it through the firewall so that Lambda can ultimately query/control the printer from inside my private IP space.
     
  2. OutsourcedGuru

    OutsourcedGuru Active Member

    Joined:
    Jun 3, 2017
    Messages:
    752
    Likes Received:
    141
    Oh yeah, and I wrote an SMS gateway so that the app could send text messages for that.
     
    mark tomlinson likes this.
  3. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
    Staff Member

    Joined:
    Feb 21, 2013
    Messages:
    23,962
    Likes Received:
    7,344
    Yup, we love playing with stuff for Alexa :)
    I have it turning off and on the alarms now too.
     
  4. OutsourcedGuru

    OutsourcedGuru Active Member

    Joined:
    Jun 3, 2017
    Messages:
    752
    Likes Received:
    141
    So now... I'm working on an octo-proxy in Node.js and a firewall-forward on the port. If authenticated, it will proxy to the printer from the Internet from that Lambda function. I'll then just rig the Lambda function to query the printer and Bob's-your-uncle.

    Gonna run the proxy on a Raspi Pi Zero W here locally.
     
  5. OutsourcedGuru

    OutsourcedGuru Active Member

    Joined:
    Jun 3, 2017
    Messages:
    752
    Likes Received:
    141
    Sweet. I setup a new Raspberry Pi Zero W, dropped on the octo-proxy code I created, setup the Lambda function at Amazon, finished the J.A.R.V.I.S. (Alexa) skill and did an end-to-end test on that. It now accurately reports status back via Alexa's voice.

    Comments from the proxy file itself explaining things...

    Screen Shot 2018-03-18 at 8.14.01 PM.png
     

Share This Page