Concept: RoomAssistant (Validating the idea)

Share your Projects!
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I have a concept/idea, in my opinion will this make power features easily available to newbies and experienced users alike.

The basic idea is that there will be a single repository with pre-configured specific purpose image for creating the ideal but configurable room-satellite from a Raspberry Pi Zero 2W (Z2W).
Putting one in a room will add that room to your HomeAssistant, with the ultimate goal that no other device is needed in a room to cover the basics! (Besides things like door/window-sensors, blinds, media-devices, and lights obviously)

Please respond below if you are interested; curious how many people would adopt this kind of “RoomAssistant” device in their smart home.
Are there people willing to collaborate on this idea, I have some system-integration and programming experience, but can’t pull off this by myself.

There are a lot of opportunities as well;

  • Seamless integration between the “RoomAssistant” and a HomeAssistant
  • NabuCasa could sell the hardware or an all-in-one Z2W-Hat that includes presence-detection, audio, air-sensors.
  • With remote-GPIO enabled by default this could offer low-code solutions like ESPHome offers for microcontrollers.
  • Older Pi 2/3B+/GPIO-computer images could also be created, re-cycling these devices.

Below the outcome of a ‘discovery’ session in the form of a user-experience, I do realize this is by no means an MVP but a result to work towards in a lot of iterations.

As a default-user I want to…

  1. Use the Raspberry Pi Imager (Or balenaEtcher, whatever) to prepare my SD-Card.
  2. After putting the prepared SD card in a Z2W and powering it, I can add the Z2W to my home Wi-Fi network by connecting to a mini hotspot it creates, by means of a “Captive Portal”.
  3. The “RoomAssistant” is discovered in my already running HomeAssistant instance (Assuming they are on the same subnet)
  4. In HomeAssistant I can further configure the new “RoomAssistant”, give it a name, room, etc.
  5. When there is an update to the “RoomAssistant” image I will get a notification in HomeAssistant to install it, just like HomeAssistant updates.
  6. Enable/configure the “RoomAssistant” to be used as a Wyoming-Satellite
    • Supporting several auto interface options (ReSpeaker 2/4-mic, Bluetooth audio, other solutions, etc).
    • Local wake-word configuration
    • I can enable/disable/change the audio start/stop/listen sounds (Like the Enterprise computer beeps, or something completely different)
    • I can enable/disable/change the RGB LED’s pattern used (Color when listening, speaking, or other effects, etc.)
    • All other audio optimization etc.
  7. Enable/configure the “RoomAssistant” to be used as Snapcast-device
    • Same audio options as above, plus the option to use pulseAudio to mix with the Wyoming services.
  8. Enable/configure presence detection for the specified room.
    • Configure/enable a GPIO-Pin a PIR is connected
    • Configure/enable a GPIO-Pin a mmWave sensor is connected
    • Configure/enable ESPresence to work with the onboard Bluetooth
  9. Enable/configure a GPIO-Pin to be attached to additional sensors like room humidity, room temperature, brightness, several types of Air Quality sensors, etc.

As a power-user I want to…

  1. SSH to the Z2W to hack/change the behavior (Add non-standard local wakewords by example).
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So are you requesting a feature, or actually sharing a project?

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I am looking to see if more people would be interested in this concept and/or would like to team up to start working on it.

But also enlighten me on the downside of this concept.

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Then I would suggest the ‘Share your Projects’ or the ‘Installation’ Topics where it will get a better audience.

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Hi @Zaleo80
Great idea, something I’ve been thinking about for a few days :grinning: :+1:
I’m currently collecting information on various “individual projects” with the idea of finding a solution as to how they could possibly be “put together” so that as much as possible would run on a common hardware.

The main points I currently have in mind are:
HA-Assist-Satellite + ESpresense + Multiroom audio streaming, all together using one common controller, and also a common audio amplifier and speakers for HA-Assist and audio streaming.
Optional thoughts would then be PIR and/or radar sensor, as well as a small camera.
A weak resolution would be sufficient for the camera, as I only want to use it to be able to check false alarms from smoke detectors from a distance…, being able to look into the room in the event of a smoke alarm to check whether it is a real alarm or a false one.

I think our thoughts go in the same direction!?

I think such a project would be great and would be happy to support it, but unfortunately, I don’t have any notable knowledge of programming.

Tinkering with electronic hardware is more my thing :mechanic:

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Definitely

Cam support is a good addition to the previous mentioned list, the Zero2W has a CSI-2 camera connector, combine this with the Pi Camera Module v3 for up to 12 megapixel images I believe.
But I see no reason to not support USB WebCam’s in the future.

Needed to get the everything connected to the Pi Z2W.

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is there a possibility to do Bluetooth proxying too? can never have enough BT proxies!

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Yes, I put it on the list.

I am not sure if it is possible to add Bluetooth proxying/audio/ESPPresence at the same time. You might have to choose in the configuration what option(s) to use.

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