homeThing S3 - iPod Smart Home Remote with Voice Control

Voice Assistant Contest
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I finally got around to making an update video for homeThing. The new device is faster, has a better screen, a mic for voice control and a new case!

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More Info

Parts:

  • Custom PCB for TDisplay S3
  • TDisplay S3 (Soldered Pin)
  • Adafruit ANO Directional Navigation and Scroll Wheel Rotary Encoder
  • Adafruit ANO Rotary Navigation Encoder Breakout PCB
  • INMP441 i2s Microphone
  • PCF8574n GPIO extender for I2C 8-bit
  • 470ohm resistor
  • 0.1uF capacitor

Specs:

  • Battery: 700mah
  • Display: 170x320 1.9" TFT LCD
  • Wireless: Wi-Fi 802.11, BLE 5 + BT mesh
  • Processor: ESP32 S3
  • Memory: 16MB Flash, 8MB PSRam
  • Controls: Scrollwheel, Directional Pad, 5 Buttons
  • I/O: Microphone, Infrared Emitter, Stemma QT Port
8 Likes
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Very cool :smile:

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I just created the normal T-display one and it is great.

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This looks pretty cool.
It would be so amazing I this could be flashed onto an old Logitech Squeezebox Controller unit. These things have all the componentsā€¦a screen, buttons and a jog dial and of course WiFi connectivityā€¦but most likely no Espā€¦

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Thatā€™s awesome I would like to have the biger screen combined with a battery. This combination could replace my Harmony and I hope the WAF is still high enough :slight_smile:

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The results of the contest are out!
They may be of interest to you :wink:
Have a look!

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Nice! Was about to start something similar, thanks for the ā€œinspirationā€ :wink:

Whatā€™s your experience around battery life for both versions of the device?

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wow, I just found this, and see youā€™re nominated for this too! so cool, congrats.
reading up, and hope to be able to get stuff over here (NL) and play with it some time soon.

for the time being, could you please tell me what this card is in your HA dash:

SchermĀ­afbeelding 2024-03-21 om 08.03.00
SchermĀ­afbeelding 2024-03-21 om 08.03.001224Ɨ1050 75.7 KB

thanks!

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Wanted to chime in, this looks fantastic with a huge feature set! Iā€™ve been thinking recently about a project just like this, so I think I might order some parts as well (a few parts I already have) just to play with it and get some experience.

I was wondering if you have any experience with using RF or BLE? My aim was to make the battery last as long as possible (I was also thinking about a solution with just buttons), and I figured I would probably have to make a non wifi remote and some sort of ā€˜base receiverā€™ that is connected to the home network.

Sadly my experience with BLE on esp32 so far has been that it still uses a lot of power (it still turns on the wifi radio as well it seems) and probably the esp32ā€™s computing power is overkill in this case.

I ask this because frankly, a screen is overkill for my usecase. Really all I want is some clearly labelled buttons for activities, so that any user in the house can watch youtube/netflix/HBO/etc. (not sure where I can source the labelled buttons from, but that is a problem for another day :wink: )

In your video you mention a 2 day battery life, could this maybe be extended with some smart deep-sleep logic (it could save a lot of energy when noone is home for instance)?

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custom sonos card, itā€™s pretty nice because it has access to favourites

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I put the IR blaster in so I could turn my TV on without having to wait to connect to wifi.

I havenā€™t played around with BLE power usage on esphome, but it shouldnā€™t be hard to make the remote broadcast some commands over BLE

the device sleeps after a few hours and can last over a week on deep sleepā€¦ 2 days of battery life on average with use per charge.

I think the OLED screen might be a good battery life improvement, also increasing the battery side by slimming down the electronics

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Thanks, Iā€™ve since ordered all components (the rotary encoder was a bit hard to source here in the Netherlands), so Iā€™m going to play around with it. First Iā€™m just going to copy your work and then hopefully add to it :slight_smile:

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Nice! I know itā€™s hard to find parts in a lot of countries so I set up this store for anyone else interested

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thx for the link, I didnā€™t know that card, and yes, seems a nice alternative, I style with modern Tile sliders et allā€¦

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Love the concept, I am waiting on some of the parts, but I realized I bought the lily go s3 with touch. Two questions, has anyone tried to get this thing to work as a homething and any chance I can get this touch screen to function? Oh, it looks like the front .stl will not fit, hopefully I can tweak it without too much effort. Anyway, thanks for your work on this project, pcbway order came in about 5 daysā€¦ Impressive. If anyone wants a pcb, I could spare one or two. Dm me

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Sorry for the late reply! I think the dimensions are the same as the TDisplay S3 amoled.
The menu isnā€™t designed for touch, LVGL would be a better alternative.
@mattmariani did you ever tweak the front case to fit the tdisplay touch?