No Alexa, I want YOU to be the speaker, Not my TV!

[Karajorma]

I have an Echo dot and a home theatre PC (OSMC running on a Raspberry Pi 3). Sometimes I would like to output the audio from the PC through my Alexa via bluetooth (i.e use the Alexa as the speaker). The problem is that when I attempt to do this it works half of the time and the other half of the time the Echo uses the TV speakers for its output, exactly the opposite way round from what I want.

It doesn't seem to be at all consistent. Even if I do the same things it's still 50:50 as to which device will decide to be out and which will be in.

Is there any way to tell Alexa which device should be used for output?

[froglips]

You can tell it to disconnect bluetooth , that should do what you want.

[renegade600]

yep, telling it to connect or disconnect should work.  I think that is the only solution. 

[Karajorma]

So I've basically got to tell it to disconnect and then keep rolling the dice on which way round it will connnect until it gets it right?

That's not very impressive!

[mike27oct]

It's not "impressive" because YOU do not really understand how bluetooth works.  It is a wireless connection between two devices that will reconnect again automatically unless you turn off the bluetooth connection between the two devices.  So turn off the BT of a device not needed, and turn on BT of a needed one.

[Karajorma]

I think you're failing to understand what I want to do. I have only two bluetooth devices, a Raspberry Pi which is connected to the TV via a HDMI cable and an Echo. I want the Echo to connect to the Pi so that the Pi outputs via the Echo. What is happening 50% of the time is the exact opposite, the two connect and the Echo outputs through the Pi via the TV speakers.

Turning off Bluetooth is obviously not a solution to this problem.

[jwlv]

Sounds like the Pi is the determining factor on where the audio output is going to be. I assume you have the Pi because it's being used as a media player. It is likely that the Pi decides what speaker to use as its output. If it decides the TV's speaker is the output device, then the Echo becomes in input device. If the TV is not part of this setup, then automatically both input and output are with the Echo since it's the only device. Because there's something between your devices (namely the Pi) and the speaker, it's not the Echo that decides where the audio output is. The device in the middle (Pi) is where your troubleshooting should be focused on.

How does the Pi decide what output device to use? I can only guess that it depends if the TV is on or off, if it's plugged into power, how many hours it has been off, how many hours or days since the TV was last used with the Pi, what software/media player you are using on the Pi (and its settings), or any number of other scenarios. But the troubleshooting must start with the Pi.

[mike27oct]

I agree with jwlv.  It appears OP is trying to do the impossible, because the Echo is not just a BT speaker (i.e BT receiver) but it is also a BT transmitter   OP needs a dedicated speaker ( BT speaker might work) for the Pi, and take the Echo out of the loop, entirely.

[Karajorma]

I can't be the only person who has ever tried to connect two devices together which can both transmit and receive bluetooth signals. But fair enough, it does seem reasonable to assume that the Pi is the device which is controlling things even if I initiate the connection on the Echo.

I'll give this a try from the Pi forum side of things.

[tuicemen]

I've played a bit with BT and my RPi but I don't have an external speaker.
Even still it required me disabling the sound out puts to get it to work reliably.
You may need to create a script to turn off the external (TV) speakers when a BT connection is requested.