I did it. I defeated the horrible Google Home "cast-start" prompt sound!

I don’t know if the /local directory is universal, but how might I reference the media files that are in my /media directory?

See here at the bottom:
https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/media_source/

Dear all,

The solution playing 1sec.mp3 each 4 minutes works for me most of the time and not always, sometimes fail and I get the following errors:

Failed to cast media https://xxxxxxxxx.duckdns.org:8123/local/sound/1sec.mp3. Please make sure the URL is: Reachable from the cast device and either a publicly resolvable hostname or an IP address.

Does this happen to anyone?, any solution?,

Thanks,

I made an account just to say this is an easy fix, I just fixed it tonight!

  1. Send a command to change the volume of the Nest Mini to 0 or .01
  2. Then start the TTS cast with no text or a space. The sound plays, but it’s silent to near inaudible.
  3. Delay 1 second then set the volume back to the level you want.
  4. Lastly send the actual message.
  5. optional, you could send a stop command so the Nest can be used if you’re checking if it is playing.

Since the cast is already active, the BWOMPT sound doesn’t play. I don’t think this will work well for speaker groups, but I could be wrong! Best part is there is no need to have something activate cast on the Nest every 4 minutes all the time.

I did this all in Node Red, I don’t know how you would do this in ymal.

~Ben

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I will try this out when I get time for it.

1 Like

In YAML:

A small update on the time piece of the automation. i needed to change to time pattern in order to get it working.

  alias: Stop google idle
  description: ''
  trigger:
  - platform: time_pattern
    minutes: /2
  condition:
  - condition: or
    conditions:
    - condition: state
      entity_id: media_player.huiskamer
      state: 'off'
    - condition: state
      entity_id: media_player.huiskamer
      state: idle
  action:
  - service: media_player.play_media
    data:
      media_content_id: media-source://media_source/local/sounds/1sec.mp3
      media_content_type: music
    entity_id: media_player.huiskamer
  mode: single

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I needed to see this. I absolutely hate that start tone. I’m assuming they still haven’t made an official fix, though? I haven’t seen a way to turn it off still :confused:

Same for me. I want to move from xiaomi gateway with zigbee devices to conbee and zigbee2mqtt but I use this gateway as dorbell sound so I treid to move to google home mini but this prompt sound is…echhh

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If that helps, I now only use the Xiaomi gateway as a night light and as a light sensor. Guess you could use it just as a doorbell chime?
If not try the options above

I would prefere to remove it so not to disturb zigbee network

It would nor disturb it, it would be a different network. Bit different than having a neighbour with their own zigbee network…
But I understand it would be more “clean”

By 'disturb" I mean occupying one zigbee channel

Works perfectly, thanks for the updated solution! I like that it uses the integrated media-source folder without having to (localy) expose a directory.

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Opened an issue at https://github.com/home-assistant-libs/pychromecast/issues/463
to see if it’d be possible to implement it transparently

Is it just me or not. My time pattern trigger every 2 minutes does not always fire every 2 minutes:

image

2 Likes

are you playing something else on your GH? If so it’ll stop the automation from running if you’ve set conditions (which you should have)

No. Nothing else is running. It looks like it misses 2 minute pattern

Hi @majkers, reading you in Error reading from socket / communicating with socket for cast speakers · Issue #47923 · home-assistant/core · GitHub I think you aready found this:

It’s not triggering because the google home goes “unavailable” due to that bug.

I’ve updated the automation so it also triggers when chromecast becomes available.

alias: Keep Google Home Alive
description: ''
trigger:
  - platform: time_pattern
    minutes: /2
  - platform: state
    entity_id: media_player.home
    from: unavailable
    to: idle
  - platform: state
    entity_id: media_player.home
    from: unavailable
    to: 'off'
condition:
  - condition: or
    conditions:
      - condition: state
        entity_id: media_player.home
        state: 'off'
      - condition: state
        entity_id: media_player.home
        state: idle
action:
  - service: media_player.play_media
    entity_id: media_player.home
    data:
      media_content_id: 'media-source://media_source/local/silence.mp3'
      media_content_type: music
mode: single

Not sure if this will fix the problem, I’m going to try and see. Please let me know of the result if you also give it a try.

Edit: It works! Even with minutes: /4 :slight_smile:

2 Likes

Ok. I will check it tomorrow. Thanks