A friend was dumping stuff prior to a move. I took all his electro gadgets just to prevent it becoming e-waste.
In the pile of stuff is an Amazon Alexa. Fuck #Amazon. I boycott Amazon and also have principled objections to their snooping, business practices, etc. My choices seem to be:
- trash the Alexa
- donate the Alexa to charity
These are both lousy choices. Donating it as-is would ultimately put it in someone’s house which then feeds Amazon.
Is there another option? I did a quick search and see no FOSS to replace whatever garbage Amazon has on it. It could be attached to the LAN with an egress firewall that blocks cloud access, but I suppose then it is useless, correct?
(update) I added a link to an article that shows what the thing looks like. The article is otherwise irrelevent.
New extra requirement: the user must be able to say “Oh, yeah, no, for sure” without the thing exploding into flames.
(update 2)
There is no product ID info on the device itself. I had to go through a lot of analysis just to find out what the fuck the thing is. Apparently it is an Echo gen 2. So then I looked for a manual. Found this:
https://www.amazon.com/Echo-2nd-Generation-Manual-Guide-ebook/dp/B0793JNBYR/
No PDF manual! WTF. Amazon expects us to subscribe to some Kindle bullshit just to get the manual, or /pay/ the cost of a big mac to get a paper manual. Motherfuckers.
I don’t need it that bad.
(update 3)
related threads:
- https://community.home-assistant.io/t/hacking-using-old-amazon-echo-devices-for-voice/626351/28
- https://community.home-assistant.io/t/retasking-a-2nd-gen-echo/709084/5
Although a lot of chatter is about the echo DOT, which is something else.
(update 4) this thread is worth a look.
11 Comments
Steve@startrek.website · 25 pts · 164d
It was e-waste the moment it was made, its not your fault.
Natanael@slrpnk.net · 20 pts · 165d
Which model?
https://www.androidauthority.com/echo-show-5-jailbreak-lineageos-3636721/
activistPnk@slrpnk.net · 10 pts · 165d
I don’t have it in front of me but it’s the cylindrical fabric speaker that looks like this:
https://www.cravingtech.com/best-alexa-smart-speaker-for-the-price-with-great-sound-bass-amazon-echo-3rd-gen-2019-review.html
That will be nice if I can put Lineage OS on it. Though I have to wonder how useful a headless unit could be.. if I could get a remote display on my PC that would be cool.
Natanael@slrpnk.net · 6 pts · 165d
Theoretically possible
https://github.com/Dragon863/EchoCLI/issues/15
DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 165d
Trex202@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 165d
Repurpose the battery? Short of scraping it for parts, I'm not sure Amazon designed it to be anything other than their spying tool
JustEnoughDucks@slrpnk.net · 8 pts · 164d
You could replace the microcontroller with an ESP32S3 and use the speaker and microphone with Home Assistant/Music Assistant or Willow voice assistant to essentially replace a lot of the real-use functionality: lights, music, and timers that Amazon said itself was almost all of its use according to their data harvesting 😂.
It depends how DIY/electronics savvy you are or if you are looking for a project.
HairyHarry@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 165d
Not sure if you want to do that, but:
Exchange leds, mics and board and build your own localized or cloud based (for example homeassistant) voice assistant.
Or send it to me ;)
WaffleStomper@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 165d
I am currently in the process of de-Alexafying myself, and I had the same question. Unfortunately I haven't found any real answers.
HubertManne@piefed.social · 1 pts · 164d
somehow amazon has managed to make fire products that no one seems to be able to jailbreak or such. I mean there is tons out there so its not like its not a good target.
moonshadow@slrpnk.net · 6 pts · 164d
Last I checked people were into both their tablets and tv sticks. "Jailbreak" an alexa and you end up with a shitty wireless speaker, not a lot of incentive there
MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 164d