I’ve had this niggle in my mind for a few weeks now. Given that Amazon is becoming more and more privacy invasive, I would like to eliminate all of my Echo devices and replace them with something less…snoopy, but I’m not a fan of shelling out another few hundred bucks for what would essentially be speaker, mic and screen.
I’m curious if anyone has ever gutted an Echo Show 5 or Echo Show 8 and replaced the electronics to be able to reuse the screen , mic, speaker and case? I’d love to be able to reuse those instead of selling them off and replacing entirely.
Maybe stick a raspberry pi in there if I can figure out the config?
Any other possibility? Hell, maybe even as a bluetooth proxy for the echo pods?
I was actually thinking of doing this myself, but had hoped someone else had already tried it and succeeded. LOL
I watched a few videos of people opening up their Echo Dots and taking it apart, but none that showed them using it for HA. I do know that when I block the Echo Dot from outgoing internet access (this was a few weeks before the Mar28 crap), it was a completely dumb device that couldn’t process anything other than its own light-circle of death. So I don’t think there’s any brains in that thing…
I’m thinking that maybe I could try to put a HA Voice assistant in it and reuse the internal mics and speaker. I’m not ready to risk the Echo Dot yet… still hoping someone else has succeeded and will reply to your post soon. fingers crossed
Yeah I saw that already and is likely pretty representative of what I could do with the Echo Dot but not for the Show with the screen. That’s the big reason why I’d like to keep those.
One of the first things I thought of for the Echo Dot as well but it means buying it and tearing it apart which isn’t the ideal scenario for me. I may decide to just take the plunge and do it. If I do, I’ll report back.
But still interested if anyone else has seen something like this for the Show devices.