Alexa is fast becoming the virtual P.A. for more and more of us.  With this project, you’ll soon be adjusting your JustBoom audio boards using the JustBoom OS REST API and Amazon Alexa. 

 

1. Set up pHAT

If you haven’t already set up your JustBoom board, head on over to https://www.justboom.co/start/ and install your very own player.

 

2. Configure router

  • Open a web browser and access your router’s home page by using the router’s web URL. This should be on the reverse of your router.
  • Enter your user name and password and click through to Port Forwarding.

 

  • Replace the IP address with your JustBoom IP address by adding these settings to forward port 80 to your JustBoom player:

Local IP: 192.168.X.X

Local Port: 80

External Port: 80

Protocol: Both

  • Click Add Rule or Enable to add the Port forwarding for the player.
  • Open your web browser and go to http://www.whatsmyip.org . You’ll see your external IP address at the top of the page, you can use this to connect to your JustBoom player from anywhere.

 

 

2. Connect to player

  • Using your mobile phone with Wi-Fi switched off or an external computer, open a browser and navigate to http://yourip/ replacing yourip with your external IP address.

You should now be connected to your JustBoom home page

 

3. Set up IFTTT

IFTTT stands for If This Then That. It is a web service that lets you connect and control devices across different platforms. We will use it to link Amazon Alexa to a Webhooks service using our voice command from Alexa to call up, say, a URL.

 

 

  • Click on My Applets on the top left of the IFTTT home page.

 

 

  • Click on New Applet.
  • Click this in the title if this then that.

 

  • Search for Amazon Alexa and click on the service.

 

 

At this point, we need to choose a trigger, something that will activate the call we send to the JustBoom player. It’s best to use a specific phrase such as “Alexa trigger music on”.

  • Select the trigger, say a specific phrase and type music on in the text box.

 

 

Now it’s time to configure ‘that’, which is what we want to call when the trigger is activated. In this case, we want to call a URL to the JustBoom player.

 

 

  • Type web in the search box.

You should see the service ‘Webhooks’ which let you call the JustBoom URL.

 

 

  • Click on Make a web request, in the URL field, add http://yourip/api/v1/commands/?cmd=play  followed by your external IP address. This is the URL used to play the music.
  • Click Add ingredient followed by Create action.

 

 

  • Review the applet, make a note of your chosen trigger, and click Finish.

 

 

5. Give It A Try

  • Try out the IFTTT applet using your phrase: Alexa trigger music on.

Your JustBoom player should start playing your favourite music.

Now you’ve added the “music on” command, you can add as many applets as you want to IFTTT. There’s a whole bunch of playback commands you can call for the JustBoom player. You can check out some of these for starters:

Toggle between play and pause: http://yourip/api/v1/commands/?cmd=toggle
Stop: http://yourip/api/v1/commands/?cmd=stop
Pause: http://yourip/api/v1/commands/?cmd=pause
Previous: http://yourip/api/v1/commands/?cmd=prev
Next: http://yourip/api/v1/commands/?cmd=next
Volume: http://yourip/api/v1/commands/?cmd=volume&volume=80
Play playlist: http://yourip/api/v1/commands/?cmd=playplaylist&name=Rock

 

 

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