Onju Voice - "Recycling" Google Home/Nest Mini (Gen2)

Hardware
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With all that is going on with the “year of the voice” stuff, I was wondering how difficult/expensive it would be to replace all my Google Homes. I was thinking that the cheapest way was probably to just stuff some ESP in there, do some soldering and it would be good to go…

And today I found this: A New Choice in Voice - Hackster.io
There is not really much information available, but the guy apparently thinks about selling his PCB, I think I also saw some Home Assistant devs in his twitter feed - who knows, this might be some exciting hardware for the future!

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I would love to be able to do something like this, but only if it worked as well as (or nearly) a google mini.

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Impressive ! And Justin Alvey’s Blog shows some of the clever design of these devices. However replacing the PCB (available from 3-Oct-23) is only part of the solution - we’re missing FOSS versions of all the audio processing software magic, which IMHO is the heart of the problem.

I wonder how Onju-voice PCB compares to Espressif ESP32-S3-Box-3 ? Both are ESP32-S3 based with audio hardware.

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Should it not be able to work with esphome and home assistant to do all the necessary processing?

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Yes, ESP32-S3 is programmable with Arduino or ESPHome … but my understanding is that most of “the necessary processing” is currently closed-source code :frowning:

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Further details of project published on PCBWay here. Well worth a read and to follow his updates on Twitter at https://twitter.com/justLV

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And apparently there now is a working esphome version with all we need :slightly_smiling_face:

2 Likes
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Very cool, does anyone know the best way to order the PCB so I can just drop it into the speaker without needing to do any solering etc?

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PCBWay do a complete service, assembly and test. ~80USD for 5 , 133USD for 10 142USD for 20 including delivery. If we could only get some people who are geographically close to share the cost…

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Germany here, I would join for an order.

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Netherlands here, would also like to join

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California. I’d be in for 5+ if it supports the older Google Home Mini’s.

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It might be possible for me to fund the purchase of a batch for delivery to UK. Me shipping to other countries, especially in quantities is now difficult.

Is there anybody in the UK who’d be interested in sharing? I’m not what the forum rules are on this?

1 Like
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The blurb says “2nd gen”, I have a 2nd gen and it looks like it will fit. I don’t have a 1st gen to compare against though.

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Hi from France. i would be interested for 2 of 5 from PCBWay. If you are from France, i can book one for your when i succeded to order. No margins, just shared cost

for information, cost without shipment for 5 units is 125$, 120€

Bonjour depuis la France, je serais intéressé par 2 unités achetés sur PCBWay, si vous êtes en France, je peux vous en réserver un quand j’aurai commandé. pas de marge, juste un partage des couts.

Pour information, le cout hors expédition pour 5 unités est de 125$, 120€

someone interested ?

Link for quote : Free Transfert - Service d'envoi de fichiers
Lien pour la cotation : Free Transfert - Service d'envoi de fichiers

Laurent.

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I’m UK based and would interested in getting in on an order.

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UK here :wave:
Definitely interested. @ChrisThomas

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Germany here. I would take 2.

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@ChrisThomas UK here, count me in for 1!

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Also interested in sharing and UK based.