Echo Dot Activate trigger bracket

I wanted a way to get a trigger from the Dot as soon as the Activation word is said before the rest of any command.

I then use the trigger to turn down volume / mute of any external device so that the rest of the command is recognised more accurately. I find that having TV on normally means I have to say commands quite loudly to make them reliable. The activation word (Alexa) is normally picked up more easily.

The method I use is to use a Light dependent resistor picking up part of the Dot LED ring which lights up as soon as the activation is spoken. This is fed into my Infra Red blaster which Alexa also controls, The LDR can be used to pull down a pin with a high value pull up (e.g. 20K) or it can be passed through a single stage FET (A03400) buffer to give a more definite switch over. (E.g. LDR from 3.3V to gate, gate to 0V via 10K, source to 0V, drain to input pin and 4.7K load resistor to 3.3V).

So Activation causes mute, command is spoken and system is unmuted at the comp