Using Alexa without openHAB cloud

I’m not sure that would work because it is my understanding that the voice recognition processing actually takes place on Amazon’s servers. So without internet for your Alexa it won’t be able to recognize your spoken commands.

I do computer security type stuff for a living and when I see statements like this I question the risk assessment.

OK yes, in the unlikely event that someone gets your login and password they can access your OH dashboard. That is a remote risk but not zero. The why do you find it acceptable to have a device that is constantly listening to everything you say within 30 feet of it’s many microphones? All of that audio is being transferred to Amazon’s servers (OK, not all, only the audio spoken after the wake words).

For one article that discusses the concerns:

So really, IMHO, if you are OK with using a voice assistant like this, being afraid that someone might get your username and password for myopenhab.org is somewhat misplaced. At least be consistently paranoid. :wink: And I’m not saying you are wrong to be paranoid. What I am saying is if you are worried about myopenhab.org, you should be as worried or even more so of Alexa.

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@rlkoshak I was thinking Alexa needs cloud even if you use hue emulations. I was hoping the op might conduct the experiment to prove or disprove this. :slight_smile:

Alexa obviously needs internet to process the voice data into an actual command, but it is my understanding that with a Hue hub (or Hue emulation) the Echo device will communicate directly to the Hue hub/emulator on the local network. This is why I have chosen to use Hue emulation in my setup because i’ve found in the past that using the official skill & myopenhab tended to add delays (in some cases several seconds) between command given and actual execution where with Hue emulation it is almost instant.

Right, question the risk assessment is what I am doing here. In my opinion a two factor autentification is recommended, before I am starting with hosting data into a cloud system

But you are exposing even more data through the Alexa. I guess my main point is if you are worried about nyopenhab.org you probably shouldn’t be using Alexa.

Just to make up my mind, I am confused.

I have bought an Amazon Echo Dot, and I am not sure yet how to setup because I have read there are two ways ¿? Amazon Echo binding and Amazon Alexa Skill. I can find Amazon Echo Dor binding in PAPER UI but not Amazon Alexa skill.

So, After installing Amazon Echo Dot, how I start to setup OH2? with Amazon Echo Dot?

Thank you.

https://docs.openhab.org/addons/bindings/amazonechocontrol/readme.html
https://docs.openhab.org/addons/ios/alexa-skill/readme.html

hi Juan,

it depends what you’re wanting to do with your Alexa & openHAB.

For switching a light on & off, you can install the Hue Emulation binding (in the ‘misc’ section of Add-Ons in PaperUI), and then tag the OH light item with [ “Switchable” ] (with the ‘channel’ part being correct for your light)

Switch		Echo_Office_Light		"Office Light" 			<light>		(gVoice)	[ "Switchable" ] { channel="wemo:MZ100:Bridge-1_0-231503B123456:94103EF6BF123456:state" }			

Go to configuration -> services > IO -> Hue Emulation in PaperUI and set it to ‘Pairing Enabled’, otherwise Alexa can’t see your tagged devices.

Then say “alexa discover devices” and it should find devices with [ “Switchable” ] in the item line.

And then say “alexa turn office light on” (and off), and it should work.

I hope that helps. :slight_smile:

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ok. Well, right now I only want Alexa for turn ON/OFF swithces, nothing else.

So the others bindings are dedicated for more complex controlling, right?
thank you.

The hue emulation is used to control openHAB with Alexa.

The Alexa binding is used to control Alexa with openHAB.

So, if you want to talk to openHAB, you need the hue emulation. If you want to automate Alexa, you need the binding.

hi Juan,

that’s correct, use the Hue Emulation binding to use Alexa as a simple voice switch.

Thanks @job and @DSTM.

Now is clear. :smiley:

one bit I missed telling you…

Before saying “alexa discover devices”, you need to go to configuration -> services > IO -> Hue Emulation in PaperUI and set it to ‘Pairing Enabled’, otherwise Alexa can’t see your tagged devices.

Thanks :wink:

I use Paper UI for all of my Thing/Item setup and configuration. Do you know how I can use the Hue Emulation binding (or specifically how I can tag my items) when I don’t have any .items files to tag?

Use the REST api:

Thank you! This did the trick :slight_smile:

@rlkoshak You are consistently the best contributor to this community. I had a take on this topic I hope will help illuminate why I agree with this threads desire to keep to hue emulation versus myopenhab skill:

Alexa = billions of $'s or resources used and a legal penalty drive due diligence to protect you from bad actors i.e. keep the attack plane small.

Myopenhab.org = voluntary support and minimal $'s available to protect you from bad actors. Attack plane is “potentially” huge.

Paranoia about your data going somewhere aside (those folks should assess what tech would be left to them without it being paid for by their data being collected) - myopenhab.org has access to real world physical impact to the end user and that should not be taken lightly. For me I discontinued use (still have an account) after my garage door opened and alarm arm button had a call to “off”. I had no way to know what IP sourced that from myopenhab as the logging is opaque to me. Response in this community was “someone hacked your lan/wan” not myopenhab. Myopenhab is a nice to have but considering its opaque to my seeing the logs - cant use it. I wont use it as a vm in the cloud on my own for the same reasons - $'s to ensure safe and time to maintain it being safe.

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Hey together!
I have similar concerns, so my question is:
Is it possible to create my own cloud version via means of port forwarding or something comparable. I build the Alexa Skill from scratch so I am able to change the url the skill is talking to. I’m just not sure if it is that easy or if there are any traps on the way.
For sure then I am in charge to secure it, but via basic Auth, a firewall allowing only traffic from Amazon IP and maybe some kind of brute force protection it should be good to go.
Furthermore it is less likely that a single instance is hacked with high effort compared to the effort-outcome relation for hacking my openHAB.org.

Hope someone has tried it or can give some advice about the concerns related. :slight_smile:

Best regards
Patrick

Source and Readme for openhabcloud

Basically about 2/3rds down are instructions on spinning your own myopenhab.org instance on amazon. You of course will need to think about security, dns registration etc but your custom alexa skill would point to it as well as the ios/android apps. Your openhab cloud connector would need to be configured to point to your custom instance
Openhab Cloud Connector binding info
YMMV

Hi,
I can confirm that Hue Binding works with Alexa without openHAB Cloud on openHAB 3.4.4 if you use som extra steps as nginx settings and change uniqueid manually:

Thanks to d0t from this thread:

We also provide step-by-step tutorial on our web pages from our scenario example with screens:
https://opentux.eu/blog/pihome/voice-control-smart-house

Majkee

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