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Ask HN: Hacking an Echo Dot?
My company gave us Amazon Echo Dots for the holidays one year. I don't want Amazon in my home, so it's been sitting in the box.
Does anyone know if it's possible to get Alexa off of it and put custom software on it? Uses I can think of include making it a Bluetooth speaker, putting an open source assistant on it, or any number of other things if I could load custom code.
- scjosh 7y agohttps://github.com/echohacking/wiki/wiki/Echo-Dot-v2 https://github.com/echohacking/wiki/wiki/Echo-Dot-v2 has some links to resources regarding custom firmware and some great write-ups explaining the OTA updates.
- mises 7y agoI'd recommend taking a look at the ifixit teardown here: https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Amazon+Echo+Dot+Teardown/61304 https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Amazon+Echo+Dot+Teardown/613... They document which chips are inside. This is first gen, but they don't have a second-gen with the same chip description. You probably have second (which is for the better, as it's a mediatek running android and much more usable). Other things you may find interesting: * This guy went over intercepting and tinkering with firmware updates. They were HTTP when he did it; that may have changed. If not, they may still be vulnerable to SSL stripping. https://medium.com/@micaksica/exploring-the-amazon-echo-dot-part-1-intercepting-firmware-updates-c7e0f9408b59 https://medium.com/@micaksica/exploring-the-amazon-echo-dot-... * Part 2. Here it is found that it can boot fastboot and be hacked : https://medium.com/@micaksica/exploring-the-amazon-echo-dot-part-2-into-mediatek-utility-hell-b452f62e5e87 https://medium.com/@micaksica/exploring-the-amazon-echo-dot-... * People here rooted an echo; this may or may not work on a dot: https://github.com/echohacking/wiki/wiki https://github.com/echohacking/wiki/wiki * Forum dedicated to it: https://www.echotalk.org/index.php/board,2.0.html https://www.echotalk.org/index.php/board,2.0.html * Paper on this subject: https://vanderpot.com/Clinton_Cook_Paper.pdf https://vanderpot.com/Clinton_Cook_Paper.pdf I suggest googling for more info. If all else fails, I guess just flashing the nand might do it? In summary, v2 is a linux system which means you could likely run anything linux on it (including an open-source assistant), though I suspect it will take no small amount of hacking.
- _bxg1 7y agoYeah..... I was hoping the effort level would be more along the lines of flashing a Raspberry PI or Android phone. May not be worth it :P
- beenBoutIT 7y agoHacking Amazon devices is IMO far worse than hacking Apple devices, I recommend selling the thing on eBay and buying a Google Home AIY kit or Google Home mini.
- emdubs 7y agoI'm curious about this too. Amazon mistakenly sent me an echo 2 instead of a dot. They refunded me the cost of the dot, but apparently the echo serial number was reported lost/stolen in their system so it is unusable. They told me to just throw it out, but seems like a waste of perfectly good hardware.
- cheeze 7y agoYou can use an echo as a BT speaker. Just don't connect it to the internet