Home Assistant Voice - Preview edition installation issues

Configuration Voice Assistant
1

Hi - total noob here, trying to set up Voice with HA Green on an Android app.

I have had the ‘can’t connect to Home Assistant’ issue even though I can turn the LED on/off in the app. I have now reset the Voice Assistant and put my phone onto the same 2.4GHz wifi, and attempted to setup VA from scratch. I get to the ‘say Okay Nabu’ bit, and then am asked the location of the VA. After that, I get a black screen with just a language dropdown in the top right corner. I have been through this loop about four times now. Any ideas how I can proceed with the setup?

TIA

2

Did you set up the voice assistant integration in HA? Settings >> voice assistants?

3

Thanks for helping.

I went onto Settings / Device & Services / Integrations / Discovered and selected ‘add’ under home-assistan090168 via BLE and then into configuration with ESPHome

4

yes but that not what im asking about.

im really asking if you are using the Cloud assistant provided by Nabu Casa or Local Assistant (using addons) and did you set these up?
HA >> settings >> Voice Assistant
you do this to setup speech to text and text to speech and set the voice and maybe wake word.

5

No, I was using the ESPHome wizard as recommended in HA / settings / Voice Assistants.

I have set up an account with Home Assistant Cloud, but that just hangs when I try to sign in via HA / Settings / Voice Assistants and shows as permanently loading in HA / Settings / Home Assistant Cloud even after restarting HA. I can log into Home Assistant Cloud OK via their webpage and it shows the account as operational.

6

is your goal to use local assistant or remote assistant?
before you setup voice device, you should have local assistant or remote assistant working?

7

Remote.

I have finally persuaded HA Cloud to sign me in and I have got that voice assistant working from my Android device. I now need to figure out how to get the VA hardware to connect to it.

8

I take over and use esphome device builder to flash below changing 1st three lines to info appropriate for my device.

substitutions:
  name: hav-last6digitofmac
  friendly_name: HAV last6digitofmac
  

    # Phases of the Voice Assistant
  # The voice assistant is ready to be triggered by a wake word
  voice_assist_idle_phase_id: '1'
  # The voice assistant is waiting for a voice command (after being triggered by the wake word)
  voice_assist_waiting_for_command_phase_id: '2'
  # The voice assistant is listening for a voice command
  voice_assist_listening_for_command_phase_id: '3'
  # The voice assistant is currently processing the command
  voice_assist_thinking_phase_id: '4'
  # The voice assistant is replying to the command
  voice_assist_replying_phase_id: '5'
  # The voice assistant is not ready
  voice_assist_not_ready_phase_id: '10'
  # The voice assistant encountered an error
  voice_assist_error_phase_id: '11'

packages:
  Nabu Casa.Home Assistant Voice PE: github://esphome/home-assistant-voice-pe/home-assistant-voice.yaml

esphome:
  name: ${name} #becomes device hostname 
  name_add_mac_suffix: false
  friendly_name: ${friendly_name}

api:
  encryption:
    key: !secret api_key

wifi:
  ssid: !secret wifi_secure
  password: !secret wifipass_secure


ota:
  - platform: esphome
    password: !secret ota_password

micro_wake_word:
  models:
     - model: alexa
       id: alexa

i add below to “secrets” in esphome device builder (i use docker but i would guess you need addon)

# Your Wi-Fi SSID and password

wifi_secure: "mywifissid"
wifipass_secure: "mywifipassword"

ota_password: "random 32 characters password"
api_key: "random 32 characters  key"

i then go to HA >> setting >> devices and services >> esphome >> add device to add device. it will ask for api_key

How you added should have worked but I know above works. its just self manage. really its all the same really. just in case the basic instructions for connecting without all the above are here

9

Unfortunately I don’t understand any of this ^

Luckily, the ESPHome wizard has now worked (probably because you got me to set up assist) so I think I may be ok.

Thanks again - your patience is much appreciated.

If only my smart bulbs connected via Matter would reconnect, I might actually have something to control…

10

matter is not what I hoped it will be but its not terrible.

There was a thing where devices would lose their commisioning and you would need to readd them. I had this happen to one or 2 devices out of 16. if they are accessible it may be easier just to reset and readd

11

Yeah, I’ve reset them (there are 5) about 10 times and successfully added them to the Wiz app but using the sharing code from there won’t work. They were shared OK, but then I had to change my dual band wifi to separate 2.4 / 5 GHz wifis to specifically connect my phone to 2.4. After that, I had to readd the bulbs and only 3 worked and now none do. I have rebooted the router (I am using native IPv6), deleted the Wiz app and reinstalled, factory reset the bulbs, tried setting them up as new devices straight into Matter.

It’s doubly annoying as they were set up and working fine.

12

I use Orein matter bulbs. They connect direct to matter server, no app needed.

If you require app there are a lot of possible pitfals like manufacturer breaking connection. If the bulb is unstable it just sound like bad product. need to seperate wifi is also bad sign for wifi product.

13

Separating wifi was for the Voice Assistant. I don’t think they need a separate app either, that was how they worked before I had HA and I was transferring them over. They don’t connect either way at the moment so I am wondering if some setting changed when I separated the wifi.

14

now fixed.

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