Anyone tried Alexa in the shop?

[reible]

I've changed the voice to British....

I've been learning some new things that could be useful in the shop like timers and metric conversions and shopping lists.

Now rather then having to touch my phone to set a timer I can just say it.... nice when your hands are a mess and you have a white phone.

No more math to get the conversion of mm to inches, 1080 mm is ? inches, Alexa knows.

I've learning how to add things to a shopping list..... now I write them down and then loose the list so we will see if this is any better. Now as long as I bring my phone along I'll have the list....

Ed

[rpd]

Coincidently, Christopher Flanagan posted a video and an eight page white paper on the Shopsmith Trouble Shooting and Tips Facebook group today on this very subject. (the links are working for me, but you might have to be a member for them to work for you,

post with video
https://www.facebook.com/groups/4353320 ... 438392196/

White paper - details how to set up the hardware and software.
https://lookaside.fbsbx.com/file/Shop%2 ... 2sebiC0-IQ

[robinson46176]

So you get up every time you want to change channels or turn the tv on and off?

I'm guessing you are old enough to remember the days when they did not have tv remotes and I recall people saying they didn't need a remote, it was of course something new and would never catch on, people were never going to be that lazy......... How ever I don't know anyone who doesn't use them now. Same thing with computers in the home, cell phones, tablets, cars with computers in them, digital cameras........... "you will be assimilated; resistance is futile".

It is never about turn a light on and off.

Ed

We had 4 kids. I always said that we would have had more but when TV remotes got cheaper we stopped. Otherwise we would have needed to keep having kids so there would always be someone there to make get up to change the channel.

I went looking for a picture of how I want to switch my dust collectors but couldn't find one. They used to be quite common in shops and factories back in (as my grand-kids would say) "the dinosaur days".
They used lever operated knife switch fused disconnects mounted high near the machine and you operated it with a long rod that hung overhead just within reach of workers. At the switch the rod was attached to the disconnect switch lever. The disconnect was mounted oriented to the travel of the rod. In the work area there were sometimes short handles that stuck down maybe 6" at different points along the rod to make operation easier. Since my shop is 40' long and based on my configuration I figure that a 20' or a little longer piece of 3/8" re-bar down the center should limit my walking to a step or two. I'll likely just slide the rod in loose fitting screw eyes. The grip surface of the re-bar should eliminate any need of handles on the rod but they can always be added if desired.

[reible]

I'm interested but no I can not see either, no facebook account..... Not sure I want a Facebook account either.

I wonder if the named person is a member here and if so if he might post the paper and post the video to say youtube????

BTW we will have a white Christmas as of early this morning snows arrived. When I looked out the front door there were steps coming up the stairs.... and back down. At the top was a small brown box which I found that contained my Dot that was not due until the 28th. I guess they must have gotten another shipment in and sent them out early.

I've got a few projects to finish but I hope to get it up and running sometime later today. First test will be can it hear me with the shop vac running????? If not or if so how much does positioning come into play. Things like that might make all the difference in it working or not.

Ed

Coincidently, Christopher Flanagan posted a video and an eight page white paper on the Shopsmith Trouble Shooting and Tips Facebook group today on this very subject. (the links are working for me, but you might have to be a member for them to work for you,

post with video
https://www.facebook.com/groups/4353320 ... 438392196/

White paper - details how to set up the hardware and software.
https://lookaside.fbsbx.com/file/Shop%2 ... 2sebiC0-IQ

[rpd]

I'm interested but no I can not see either, no facebook account..... Not sure I want a Facebook account either.

I wonder if the named person is a member here and if so if he might post the paper and post the video to say youtube????

BTW we will have a white Christmas as of early this morning snows arrived. When I looked out the front door there were steps coming up the stairs.... and back down. At the top was a small brown box which I found that contained my Dot that was not due until the 28th. I guess they must have gotten another shipment in and sent them out early.

I've got a few projects to finish but I hope to get it up and running sometime later today. First test will be can it hear me with the shop vac running????? If not or if so how much does positioning come into play. Things like that might make all the difference in it working or not.

Ed

Ok, here is the file. I can't copy the video.

Shop Automation White Paper Christopher Flanagan 12_23_2017.pdf

(1.35 MiB) Downloaded 751 times

[reible]

Thank You! Will read it after my walk, or if not then soon after.

Ed

I'm interested but no I can not see either, no facebook account..... Not sure I want a Facebook account either.

I wonder if the named person is a member here and if so if he might post the paper and post the video to say youtube????

BTW we will have a white Christmas as of early this morning snows arrived. When I looked out the front door there were steps coming up the stairs.... and back down. At the top was a small brown box which I found that contained my Dot that was not due until the 28th. I guess they must have gotten another shipment in and sent them out early.

I've got a few projects to finish but I hope to get it up and running sometime later today. First test will be can it hear me with the shop vac running????? If not or if so how much does positioning come into play. Things like that might make all the difference in it working or not.

Ed

Ok, here is the file. I can't copy the video.
Shop Automation White Paper Christopher Flanagan 12_23_2017.pdf

[rpd]

He has posted a follow up video on Youtube.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUvDTv8oJPQ[/youtube]

[reible]

Thanks for posting the video.

I've been hamper by the cold weather. Right now the shop is at 32.9 degrees, I could heat it but it would be costly so I'm hold until we get some more reasonable outside conditions to do much more.

From what I was able to do it is clear that ambient noise levels are an issue. What I'd guess is the gain is adjusted to protect things so as the sound pressure goes up the gain goes down. As a result there is little chance that it will hear you or hear you correctly. Placement might help that but preliminary tests are not good.

It seems like even if I put it near the TV that sound will overwhelm it so it seems best to hit mute to get things to work. Of course things like the shop vac don't have a mute button.....

It does work a decent distance, I was testing at about 15 feet and it had no problem hearing the commands and acting on them, so long as there wasn't a bunch of other noise. I'd say in the relative quite it is just about 100% accurate. But after I ask it to turn on the shop vac it is another story.

With the shop vac running it may hear a command but it may not understand it. So turning the shop vac off is more like a 40% hit rate, possibly less.

Now it is possible that I could locate the shop vac farther away or try to have some noise filter to reduce the noise but I have not tried that yet.

I also have to change the voice back to American English, it might improve the nonrecognition but I do love the accent.

I also picked up a voice remote. You have to push the button to talk but it seems to fix the noise problem caused by the TV when the dot is close to the TV. Not sure this is a good fix for the shop conditions as you would have to have it handy.

Certainly more test needs to be done.

I did make use of the metric to english conversion in the shop the other day, not that that would pay for itself for just that.

Ed

[rpd]

Thanks for posting the video.

Ed

It's too bad he didn't let the whole first video run, Just after the clip included in this video

Christopher says "Alexa, open the pod bay doors."

Alexa replies, "I am sorry Dave, I can not do that. I am not HAL, and we are not in space."

The best part of the video.

[reible]

There are a bunch of easter eggs, and science fiction references. It also does jokes and the like and not ever time is the answer the same which makes it interesting when you want to "show off" with it.

Ed

Thanks for posting the video.

Ed

It's too bad he didn't let the whole first video run, Just after the clip included in this video

Christopher says "Alexa, open the pod bay doors."

Alexa replies, "I am sorry Dave, I can not do that. I am not HAL, and we are not in space."

The best part of the video.