Muahahaha.
There have been very few tech toys that have come out in recent years that I *had* to have. Maybe it's age, maybe it's just that I'm tired all the time and don't care as much. But one day I realized that I needed to fully embrace Skynet in my home.
Enter, Alexa via the Echo Dot.
Now, I don't have a smart home. My thermostat isn't fancy, and my lights are all standard LED bulbs. My locks are old fashioned and can only be picked manually. The only security camera that I have keeps an eye on my ducks.
But, I do have a Roku TV. A TV where the remote is lost 80% of the time, and maybe my hands are full or I'm rushing out the door. After a quick google search, I stumbled upon a very well documented (seriously, anyone can do it) tutorial on creating your own custom Alexa skill to control your Roku.
Now, it might seem intimidating at first to set this up. It does require you to create Amazon Web Services and Developer accounts. It also requires you to modify some scripts to run on a local machine inside your network and to run in the cloud. The documentation has screen shots and will hold your hand through the entire process. This does get slightly trickier if you have multiple Roku devices in your home. I choose to only control one device via Alexa,
Here's the project on Github! Enjoy!
https://github.com/chris1642/alexaroku
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