Only use external speakers for music, but for voice interaction use internal speaker

Configuration Voice Assistant
1

Is it possible to plug external speakers into your home assistant voice, but not use it for any kind of announcement and voice interaction. I want to use the speakers to listen to music, but I don’t want to have them turned on all the time to be able to use the voice assistant. When I plug the speakers into my Voice PE I don’t hear anything as long as the speakers are turned off.

This would make the Voice PE a lot more useful for me, as I can set an automation to automatically turn on the speakers, when I am playing music…

Anyone any ideas? Help is much appreciated.

2

Make a modification (this is discussed in one of the threads on the site ).
Connect a transistor to one of the free gpio.
Add a switch to the VPE code.
Use the switch in your automations.

2 Likes
3

Thanks for this! Have you been able to figure out how to add the switch to control output in esphome? I’ve seen some discussion on doing exactly this with the ReSpeaker Lite, but not sure how this would differ with the VPE, and can’t seem to find much else on the VPE specifically.

4

It’s a standard switch in esphome.

Don’t forget to specify a name so that it appears in the HA interface.

5

Thanks, I think I was misunderstanding what you meant.

The discussion I saw re the similar ReSpeaker talked about sending an i2c command, see here.

Are you saying just connect the transistor you desoldered directly to a free GPIO on the VPE?

6

If at contact opening the detection stops, it is enough to control this connection, as it seems to me.
Study the signal levels and pinout of the transistor, then it will be clearer how to proceed. Whether a direct connection will be enough or whether you need an auxiliary element.
I don’t have the device in hand, so I can’t help you with a concrete solution.
The software solution looks great, I hope someone can clarify its implementation.

1 Like
7

Just for clarification before i do this:

Disconnecting that will enable the internal speaker all the time?

To disable the internal speaker again, i would connect it (the board side) with a GPIO.
With esphome i can pull that pin down to disable the internal speaker again.

For all interested: This topic can also be found here (with no answers yet) :

3 Likes
8

I’m still not sure how to control this connection.

Before i desolder any connections i would love to get more insight how this should be working… Can anyone confirm my suspicions? :confused:

9

I don’t want to give harmful advice, but for starters you can integrate a regular button between the leg and the pad and test the idea. If it works - read the Q2 datasheet, the general circuit, measure the levels and find a suitable way to control the key, directly from GPIO (with pull-up/down) or with an additional transistor.
As I mentioned, I don’t have the device, so I can’t help you with specific advice.