This is the problem with serious events of colossal size - it's hard to move on from them. Once I wrote a post on Lata di there was nowhere to go. How could I talk about something trivial after talking about that superhuman human being? But this post will work for that. Lata di may be gone in her physical form but her voice will always be with us as a gift from the universe for ages.
Here is the project outline. I am a big fan of Amazon Echo aka Alexa. I have several devices of different types and I want to buy a couple more. Two of these devices are close to each other and step on each other's toes when I say "Alexa!" One is an original Echo first gen in black. I bought it on pre-order before it came out.
It still works perfectly. Too perfectly I would say because I have an echo dot second gen, this one in the kitchen.
Most of the time when I want to talk to the Echo Dot the bigger Alexa from the living room jumps on that command like a big brother grabbing the younger one's dessert. The reverse also happens but not often, you know how sweet and decent younger brothers are :) (I am the youngest of 4 brothers).
On the flip side, I don't have any Alexa in the bathroom and I wanted to have music in the bathroom. When I first bought my Samsung Note 20 Ultra, one time I was able to change the song from within the shower with the water running. That was an exciting day! It was also a unique day. It never happened again. Another problem with using the phone for music in the bathroom is that I have to remember to take the phone with me and set up everything beforehand - start Spotify, find my playlist, adjust the volume to the optimum level...you get the picture. I also don't want messages and emails to interrupt my music.
If I had Alexa in there those things can all be sorted out because:
1. Alexa has great hearing thanks to its multiple mic's.
2. It can play music from Amazon Music or Spotify
3. I can adjust the volume at any time even from the shower.
Then what's the challenge? There are multiple challenges:
1. Alexa comes with its own power adapter with a 3-pin (in UK) plug on one side and a narrow pin on the other side. No USB of any kind.
2. There are no plugs in the bathroom for that, for obvious reasons. I do have a socket for the shaver but even that has gone the way of the pharaohs.
3. Bathroom is often full of humidity and steam and Amazon Echo devices are not waterproof. Why would you want to send your beloved Alexa on a suicide mission?
In the words of Sheldon Cooper "...you know me to be a very smart man." Here is what I came up with. I bought an adapter cable that goes from USB-A to the thin Alexa pin it was not very expensive and came the next day. I have a huge repository of power banks of different sizes. Seriously, I don't even know how many I have in total. Definitely more than 10 and maybe even more than 20. These are all collecting dust (I dust them often though.) except when I go out for an overnight trip and pick a couple of them based on "eenie, meenie, miney, mo..."
Picking up one of the spare power banks of 10000mAh capacity, I plugged it into Echo dot with the new cable. Echo Dot came to life and responded to my commands.
Then I put them both in a "produce bag" I recently got from a supermarket. It's a mesh bag that would block some humidity but not the sound. The idea was to hang the bag from some place in the bathroom using its cord. It didn't work. You need to keep the Alexa away from the toilet (germs), from the shower (steam, humidity), from the heated towel rack (heat) and once you do all that you run out of options.
But there is a medicine cabinet, every bathroom has one (usually). I made some space in that and put the bag inside. Magic!
Alexa can hear me every time without fail even from inside the shower with the water running and the cabinet doors closed. The cabinet works like a speaker "cabinet" and adds some "reverb" to the music which is pretty cool.
I don't know how long the power bank would last with the occasional usage this Alexa would see but I am expecting to change power banks maybe once or twice a week. But even if I have to change a power bank everyday, it's worth it for me.
Now I can say "Alexa, play Lata Mangeshkar songs!"
