Ricmedia PC Help

Tech Guides for Everyone

Build an AlexaPi with Amazon Alexa & Raspberry Pi

Build an AlexaPi with Amazon Alexa and Raspberry Pi
Build an AlexaPi with Amazon Alexa and Raspberry Pi

Introduction

Today I want to show you how you can build your very own Amazon Echo with Alexa, on a Raspberry Pi using the excellent AlexaPi package by renekliment at GitHub. It’s not as complicated as you’d think and works just like the real thing, and I offer a free, sleek 3D printed case plans to print on your own 3D printer, or use a 3D printing service (which are pretty cheap). I also highly recommend installing the Gordon Ramsay Skill Set (free) so he can tell you how bad your cooking is 🙂

[youtube=”https://youtu.be/MlJrmqjPZhQ”]

Contents

  1. Introduction, Hardware Requirements, Flash Raspbian to microSD card
  2. Create an Amazon Developer account, Setup Device & Security Profile
  3. Update Raspbian, Install AlexaPi, Summary

Hardware Requirements

The hardware required for this project is reasonably easy to acquire, but the speaker needs to be a specific type/brand if you want to 3D print the case as it’s designed to slot into the top, but I’ll give you all the relevant links.

Raspberry Pi

You can use either a Raspberry Pi 3 or 2B models for this project, along with a minimum 8GB microSD card and a good quality power adapter for your Pi. Best to buy a starter pack which you’ll find on the links below.

Microphone and Speaker

Pretty much any mini USB microphone will do the trick, and I have given links below for the specific speaker (A10 Mini Speaker) depending on whether you’re printing the 3D case, if you’re not printing the case, you can use any speakers you like.

Case

I am giving away the 3D case print files for nix which are available here. You will need to follow the instructions to build the case.

Once booted up, just say "Alexa" then ask anything you like
Once booted up, just say “Alexa” then ask anything you like

 

Flash Raspbian

Let’s get started. Now we need to flash your microSD card with the Raspbian operating system. You’ll need a microSD card of 8GB or more and the application Etcher to transfer the .img file to it (Etcher supports Windows, Linux and MAC).

  1. Download the latest version of Raspbian (full version, not lite) from raspberrypi.org
  2. Click on and extract the .img file and take note of it’s location
  3. If not already installed, download and install Etcher for Windows, Linux or MAC
  4. Insert your microSD card into a card reader, close any automatic windows, prompts or alerts
  5. Fire up Etcher which should detect the microSD card automatically (important! if you have multiple choices, be sure to choose the SD card we are working with)
  6. Click on the Select Image button, navigate to your Raspbian .img file, select it and/or click Open
  7. Once you’re sure you have everything right by double checking, click on the Flash! button
  8. Etcher will now start the flashing process, click Yes to the Windows prompt, and close any automatic alerts/windows that show shortly afterwards
  9. Flashing should take about 5 minutes, then you’ll be presented with the “Flash Complete!” dialog
  10. Close Etcher, remove the card reader and microSD card
  11. Insert the microSD card into your Raspberry Pi

Now we can move on to the next section Create an Amazon Developer account, Setup Device & Security Profile.

Build a Raspberry Pi RAID NAS Server – Complete DIY Guide

Build a Raspberry Pi3 RAID NAS Server – Complete DIY Guide

Introduction

Today I will show you how to build a Raspberry Pi 3 RAID NAS server using USB flash drives, the Linux native RAID application mdadm, and SAMBA so the drive will show up as a normal network folder on Windows PC’s. It’s a pretty easy tutorial and shows you how to create a Linux RAID array which is a good skill to have.

Contents

  1. Introduction, Hardware Requirements & RAID Levels
  2. Install/Update Raspbian 9.x “Stretch” and mdadm
  3. Setup RAID Volume & File System
  4. Install/Setup SAMBA, Summary

Hardware Requirements

Raspberry Pi

You can use Raspberry Pi’s from version 2 onwards, so 2B, 2B+ and RPi 3’s are fine, but I recommend the latest Raspberry Pi 3. You’ll also need a good quality microUSB power pack suitable for the Raspberry Pi you’re using, if in doubt, just buy a combo pack that comes with case, power pack and other goodies.

USB Flash Drives

We will be using USB2.0 flash drives for our RAID array because RPi’s (all versions) only support USB2.0, so there’s no use spending up big on USB3.0 drives (unless you want to). The drives should all be the same size and preferably the same manufacturer for a good RAID array however, if you have an odd one out, just make sure it’s the same size or larger than the smallest drive.

In terms of drive size, your budget will be the determining factor, so just get what you can afford. Remember that with RAID-0 you get the total amount of all drives put together, so 2x 64GB drives will give you 128GB. RAID-1 will halve your total capacity, so 2x 64GB drives will give you 64GB, and RAID-5/6 will give you roughly 2/3 of total capacity, so 3x 64GB drives will give you 128GB of storage. RAID-10 will halve you total capacity, so 4x 64GB drives will give you 128GB storage (more about RAID levels further below).

RAID Levels

The number of drives you have with determine what RAID level you will be able to create. I suggest 3 (or more) drives which is the minimum required for a RAID-4/5 array that offers a good balance between redundancy and speed. If you only have 2 drives, I suggest using RAID-0, and even though there is no redundancy, RAID-0 rarely fails on solid state media. I have had my workstation running on SATA-3 SSD RAID-0 for years and it never skips a beat, but If you’re storing important files, definitely go with RAID-1.

If you’re confident in your Linux skills you can create a RAID-10 array with 4 drives, which is 2 sets of RAID-1, then each set is used to form a RAID-0 array giving you the benefit of speed and redundancy (I will show you how to create all types of Linux RAID arrays).

Number of Drives RAID Level Availability
2
  • RAID-0 Stripe (Fastest, but no redundancy)
  • RAID-1 Mirror (Excellent redundancy, good speed)
3
  • RAID-0 Stripe (Fastest, but no redundancy)
  • RAID-4 Dedicated parity disk (Good speed & redundancy)
  • RAID-5 Block-level striping with distributed parity (Excellent speed & redundancy)
4
  • RAID-6 Block-level striping with two parity blocks distributed across all member disks (Excellent speed & redundancy)
  • RAID 10 (nested RAID 1+0) (Excellent speed and redundancy)

Once you’ve chosen a desired RAID level you’re happy with, let’s move onto Install/Update Raspbian 9.x “Stretch” and mdadm.

Set custom DNS servers on Linux with Network Manager or resolv.conf

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aLuVw7JB28]

Setting custom DNS servers on Linux can increase performance, security and even thwart some websites using Geo-blocking via DNS. There are two ways to do this: via Network Manager GUI that’s included in many Linux distros like Debian, Ubuntu and derivatives, or via resolv.conf (not directly, but via the head file) and I’ll show you how to do both in this guide.

FYI: The resolv.conf file is overwritten on each boot so we can’t edit this file directly, but we can edit one of the two files used to create the resolv.conf file, those being the head and base files in /etc/resolvconf/resolv.conf.d/. We’ll be editing the head file in the second part of this guide so that each boot-up, resolv.conf gets written with our custom DNS servers at the top.

Before changing DNS servers you’ll also need to find a third-party DNS provider, there are plenty of good (and free) services available too. I recommend Google DNS which is what I use and have never had an issue. I will list here the most popular DNS providers:

  • GOOGLE
  • Primary IPv4: 8.8.8.8
  • Secondary IPv4: 8.8.4.4
  • Preferred IPv6: 2001:4860:4860::8888
  • Alternate IPv6: 2001:4860:4860::8844
  • OPENDNS
  • Primary: 208.67.222.222
  • Secondary: 208.67.220.220
  • Preferred IPv6: 2620:0:ccc::2
  • Alternate IPv6: 2620:0:ccd::2
  • DNS.WATCH
  • Primary: 84.200.69.80
  • Secondary: 84.200.70.40
  • LEVEL3
  • Primary: 209.244.0.3
  • Secondary: 209.244.0.4
  • NORTON
  • Primary: 199.85.126.10
  • Secondary: 199.85.127.10
  • COMMODO
  • Primary: 8.26.56.26
  • Secondary: 8.20.247.20
  • VERISIGN
  • Primary: 64.6.64.6
  • Secondary: 64.6.65.6
  • MORE SERVERS…
  • See: Free and Public DNS Servers
  • See: Public DNS Server List (extensive)

Watch the video above or follow the text guide below.

Set custom DNS servers on Linux with Network Manager

  1. Click on Network icon top-right of your screen, then click the Edit ConnectionsSet Custom DNS - Click on Network icon, then click Edit Connections
  2. Select your connection (either wired or wireless), then click Edit buttonSet Custom DNS - Select your connection, then click the Edit button
  3. Click on IPv4 Settings tab, if Method is set to Automatic (DHCP) change it to Automatic (DHCP) addresses only, if Method is set to anything else, leave as is. Next enter your primary and secondary DNS server IP addresses separated by a comma, then click Save buttonSet Custom DNS - Click IPv4 Settings tab, change to DHCP Addresses Only, then enter your DNS servers
  4. (Optional) Click on IPv6 Settings tab, if Method is set to Automatic change it to Automatic, addresses only, if Method is set to anything else, leave as is. Next enter your primary and secondary DNS server IP addresses separated by a comma, then click Save buttonSet Custom DNS - Click IPv6 Settings tab, change to DHCP Addresses Only, then enter your DNS servers
  5. Finally click Close button to exit
  6. Ubuntu doesn’t cache DNS so we don’t need to flush it, but other distributions might. Just search for "[distro_name] flush DNS cache" to find instructions on how to do it
  7. All done!

Set custom DNS servers on Linux using resolv.conf

  1. Click the Search icon, type in "Terminal" then click the Terminal applicationSet Custom DNS - Go to Software icon, then type in Terminal, click the first result to open Terminal app
  2. Now type in the following command: sudo nano /etc/resolvconf/resolv.conf.d/head and hit EnterSet Custom DNS - Enter commands as shown
  3. Just after the comments, type nameserver 8.8.8.8 (or your desired primary DNS server IP address) then on the next line, type nameserver 8.8.4.4 (or your desired secondary DNS server IP address). Now press Ctrl + O to save, then Ctrl + X to exit.Set Custom DNS - Type in nameserver then the IP address for both primary and secondary DNS servers
  4. At the command prompt, type sudo resolvconf --enable-updates and hit EnterSet Custom DNS - Enter the command as shown
  5. Now type sudo resolvconf -u and hit Enter then close the Terminal applicationSet Custom DNS - Enter the command as shown
  6. Ubuntu doesn’t cache DNS so we don’t need to flush it, but other distributions might. Just search for "[distro_name] flush DNS cache" to find instructions on how to do it
  7. All done!

Setup LAMP Server on Raspberry Pi 3 – [Updated 2019] Complete DIY Guide

Introduction

[This guide has been fully updated in 2019 to reflect the changes to MySQL in Raspbian “Stretch” v9.x and the FTP issues have been fixed] You wouldn’t think a little PC like the Raspberry Pi 3 could handle the job of being a Web Server, but it does, and performs flawlessly too. Today I will show you how to source genuine Raspberry Pi 3 hardware, then setup a fully fledged LAMP Server (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) along with instructions to install WordPress. You’ll also know how to access your web server via FTP, SSH and PHPMyAdmin. We will be using the latest version of Raspbian “Stretch” v9.x.

Contents

  1. Introduction, Hardware, Download & Burn Raspbian Image
  2. Setup Raspbian
  3. Install LAMP Server Packages, Setup FTP
  4. Install WordPress, Summary

Hardware

My first experience buying a Raspberry Pi 2B didn’t go very well, I unwittingly purchased a fake knockoff from China via eBay that didn’t even work, needless to say I was very disappointed. Since then I have learned you have to be very careful where you buy any Raspberry Pi hardware. There are several official Raspberry Pi hardware suppliers that I’ll list below, but first let’s go through the list of parts you will need for this project.
  1. Raspberry Pi 3 motherboard/SBC
  2. A suitable case for your Pi (I like metal cases)
  3. 8GB (or more) MicroSD card class 10
  4. Raspberry Pi Micro USB power supply
  5. LAN Network cable
Raspberry Pi 3 SBC
Raspberry Pi 3 SBC
Official Raspberry Pi 3 USB Power Supply
Official Raspberry Pi 3 USB Power Supply
Raspberry Pi 3 Metal Case Black
Raspberry Pi 3 Metal Case Black
8GB SanDisk Ultra MicroSD Card Class 10
8GB SanDisk Ultra MicroSD Card Class 10
There are really only two official suppliers of Raspberry Pi gear: RS Components and Farnell/Element14. Both sell world-wide with Farnell selling smaller quantities via authorized resellers. Below you will find links to the entire list of resellers for Element14, Farnell, and a link to all the countries that RS Components serves. I do strongly urge you to only buy from these suppliers or their authorized resellers. Once you have your Raspberry Pi 3 board and case you can go ahead and fit the board into the case carefully, some of the components on the board are prone to being crushed so be gentle and if something is not fitting, don’t force it.

Download & Burn Raspbian Image

Download Raspbian

Raspbian is the official operating system for the Raspberry Pi, and based on the excellent Debian Linux distribution. Raspain comes in to flavors: full Raspbian with the Pixel desktop, or Raspbian Lite with no desktop, which is the one we want. So go ahead and visit the Raspbian Downloads page, download the Lite version .zip file (if you have a BitTorrent client, choose the .torrent as it’s faster).

Burn Raspbian to SD Card

Once you have finished downloading the Raspbian Zip file, follow the instructions below to burn the IMG file to your MicroSD card.
  1. Unzip the .img file and take note of the file location
  2. Visit etcher.io and download the Etcher Image Burner for Windows, MAC or Linux and install
  3. Insert your MicroSD card into your PC’s card reader, take note of the drive letter assigned to it
  4. Run Etcher and select the .img file you unzipped earlier
  5. Make sure Etcher has selected the correct drive letter, if not then change it to your SD card’s drive letter (Important!)
  6. Once you’re sure the right .img file and drive letter is selected, click the Flash! button
    How to flash MicroSD card with Etcher Image Burner
    How to flash MicroSD card with Etcher Image Burner
  7. Once Etcher has finished, remove the MicroSD card and insert into your Raspberry Pi with the terminal contacts facing up as shown below
    How to insert a MicroSD card into a Raspberry Pi 3
    How to insert a MicroSD card into a Raspberry Pi 3
  8. Now connect up a USB keyboard (mouse not required), HDMI, LAN network cable and have the power supply plugged into the power socket and unit but don’t turn it on just yet