Can I use Speakers connected to my HAOS PC for notifications?

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1

I have Home Assistant (OS) setup on an HP 'Micro PC', and it's working well for everything I do.

I have a Yolink speaker in my office that I have used for alerts; someone in the drive way, at the door, when the door to the pool yard opens etc.

At this point we need to be able to hear it in the Livingroom as well, so I'm thinking I could move the Yolink speaker to the Livingroom, and am looking for another option for in my office.

Is there a way I can can use speakers physically connected to the HAOS PC for such things?

Basically just need to be able to have it say 'someone's at the door' or 'the pool door is open' like I get from the yolink speaker.

Can this be done with locally connected speakers, or do I need to get another yolink speaker or something else?

Thanks!

2

It can be done with speakers connected to the server by using the VLC app and VLC Telnet integration to create a media_player entity you can use as a target for TTS actions (as well as Media Player actions).

3

Keep an eye out... already in beta and in a few weeks (I hope) also 'prod' Music Assistant will be able to play to local machinery (usb/pin/hdmi/speaker)

4

Is there any reference or doc out there that can help me figure out how to do that?

5

You'll need to be more specific...

Are you asking for help setting up the VLC app and integration? That is covered in the app docs... but it's basically:

  • Install the App and start it.
  • Wait a minute or two for it to do its thing.
  • Install the Integration. The device should be created and auto-discovered by HA and you should then have a media player, media_player.vlc_telnet.

Or, do you need help with TTS? There are a number of TTS integrations available in core, as well as custom integrations. You may already have one installed like Piper (as part of the Wyoming integration) or Home Assistant Cloud Voice.

Or, setting up notifications via TTS? This isn't completely necessary, but it can make it easier on future-you.

6

Sorry! I've got VLC installed and VLC via Telnet installed, but no idea what to do from there.

Fortunately as I was stepping through the steps I've previously used to do a notification on the speaker, I created a new automation and somehow figured it out!

Thanks for your help and getting me pointed in the right direction!

7

One more thing given the success with the speakers.

Can I do the same thign with my Pixel 6 with the HA NApp on it?

I created another action and set it the same except with the Pixel6 as the media player rathert han VLC-Telnet. It reports that it runs but I get nothing. There are three 'pixel 6' entries in the media player list, but nbone seem to actually doanythign.

Any ideas?

Thanks again!

8

The companion app creates a notify action for each device, and the Android version can use it's own TTS functionality.

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