Amazon’s Echo ($180), Dot ($90) and Tap ($130) devices get their smarts from the Alexa Voice Service. Not only can Alexa make day-to-day tasks more convenient, but we found it to be nothing short of life-changing. For those of you who are unwilling to shell out the $90+ or who love to tinker with technology, Amazon has shared an official GitHub guide for building your own Alexa-enabled device.

You’ll need a model B Raspberry Pi 2 ($37), microSD card ($13), USB microphone ($3) and a couple other small items to get started. This project also requires a USB keyboard and mouse, plus an HDMI monitor, but hopefully you already have those pieces.

The instructions are very thorough so anyone with basic programming skills should be able to work through it. The only glaring downside to building your own Echo is that it doesn’t include the always-listening feature. Ready to tackle this project? Click here for Amazon’s official walkthrough.

This project demonstrates how to access and test the Alexa Voice Service using a Java client (running on a Raspberry Pi), and a Node.js server. You will be using the Node.js server to get a Login with Amazon authorization code by visiting a website using your computer’s (Raspberry Pi in this case) web browser. This guide provides step-by-step instructions for obtaining the sample code, the dependencies, and the hardware you need to get the reference implementation running on your Pi.

Source: Lifehacker

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