Mycroft Community Forum

Mycroft Questions from a Snips user

#1

Hello from a Snips user. If you haven’t heard already Snips has been bought by Sonos and is shutting down user access in a month. So there’s a good chance I’m not the first and certainly won’t be the last to check out Mycroft.

Coming from Snips I do have some questions.

Does Mycroft have the ability to run Satellite devices? I currently have a Pi0 w acting as a remote device. It’s pretty awesome.

If there is no satellite option for Mycroft will it run on a Pi0 w? Cause I have one of those :slight_smile:

I think I read that Mycroft relies on the cloud to work, please tell me this isn’t correct. If this is the case how is Mycroft different from Google Home or Alexa?

Is there a cool demo video of Mycroft in action? How about a demo video that isn’t cool? I’d like to see what Mycroft can do before I make the switch.

I’m sure I’m forgetting a hundred other questions…

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#2

Mycroft is much more than snops. But yes it relays on servises in the cloud. A small devices like mycroft cant know everything and skills (apps) often rely on external servises like getting the news or weather info etc.

It also needs external services for STT (speech to text) and if wanting premium voises TTS (text to speach). But those servises is anonymized to respect your privacy.
It is posible to run those servises localy on own server, but I wouldn recoment that for now unles you like fidling with lots of stuff.

There isnt yet a satelite out of the box solution, but you can have multiple devises around the house, and I read that work is made to let them know each other. But hasssnt yet seen that part work.

Making new skills (apps) to mycroft is easy and really fun. There is good documentasion and a fine comunity here on the forum and on mattermost chat channels. (there is also a mattermost skill for mycroft)

A Pi0w isnt powerfull enough to run mycroft :frowning:

A cool video is this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frp8n-0ixo0 but just search youtube and there is good stuf around.

Biggest differens between Mycroft and google home and Alexa etc. is your privacy and the posiblity to read and change the code. You are in control and noone can listen in what is going on unles you let them.

#3

@rlongfield,
First off, welcome aboard! There are methods scattered throughout the forum from users who have managed to pull Mycroft completely offline. Look up “backend server” or something like that. Also, imho Mycroft is definitely not like those other services that are mentioned as Mycroft the company has no interest in obtaining and storing your voice data for its own IP. Everything is available open source and there is a great community here to assist as well as over on mattermost. Glad you are here and hope you hang around for a bit.:grin:

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#4

I’ve been doing a lot of reading and I am intrigued by what I am seeing. I’m not thrilled out needing the cloud to function 'Out of the box". I’ll have to take a look at the posts around moving the backend offline.
Snips shutting down is a perfect example of why I feel this is important. What I currently have setup in Snips will work forever since it’s all contained within my house. Now I won’t be able to update or change it but it will never stop working. Also there is this nightmare (https://hackaday.com/2017/04/05/iot-startup-bricks-customers-garage-door-intentionally/)

Let’s just say I’m skeptical of all things that require the cloud. Now if a certain skill doesn’t work because it can’t get the weather or some other bit of data because the cloud is down that’s not a huge deal. If I can’t turn on/off my lights because the cloud is down, that’s a definite problem.

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#5

The personal backend or Selene tools can be used to run everything locally. You will need more resources than a pi3 to handle them all, how much depends on how speed/quality/capability.

Home assistant and other open source home automation tools should be able to make most IOT stuff work without needing to go through the cloud, though this also depends on the manufacturer’s devices in some cases.

#6

Some good information here too…