Owlbox: A Simpler, HA-Native RFID Jukebox

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Hey everyone,

I looked into building a Phoniebox and thought it seemed a bit… Well, I wanted a kid-proof RFID jukebox without the complex setup, 32 bit distro and extra services. I also wanted it to be more useful on the long run.

That’s why I created Owlbox, because I made it look like an owl for my toddler!

owlbox
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  • No more convoluted services: Instead of a dedicated server on a Pi, it uses an ESP32 with ESPHome. This makes it more reliable, simpler to manage, and cheaper to build.
  • Deep Home Assistant Integration: Because it’s built on ESPHome and a custom HACS integration, it’s a first-class citizen in Home Assistant. All your tag mapping and controls are right where they belong.
  • Powered by Music Assistant: Leverages the best music backend for Home Assistant for seamless playback.

The main contribution is the custom integration, which basically handles RFID mapping and playback. Of course, this would not have been this easy without Sonocotta’s Louder ESP32 , 100% recommended, very nice hardware. He has done a lot of work to make it work nicely with ESPhome, and I basically just added the RFID and button parts to his configuration.

If you want a modern, streamlined, and truly integrated RFID jukebox for your kid (or home), this is it. All the details, code, and hardware guides are on on GitHub: GitHub - XtracT/rfid-jukebox

Let me know what you think!

/Xtract

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I love the design. When one of my kids asked me “dad I want my toy with a push button so it can talk,” I thought, well, I will not buy a new toy, but I have an ESP32 somewhere around, so I can fix it. I have used an AtomEcho from M5Stack and an RFID module from the same vendor, and it worked until the speaker in the AtomEcho burnt (and I don’t know why, but when trying to reproduce a file just got warm enough to fry an egg). So I will try a second Echo, assuming the one damaged is just some faulty component. Reclamation ongoing.

I just wanna say that I printed out the box because I love the design. I have printed out the eyes for now, but when I get the time, maybe I will replicate the whole project. So far, I’ve been using the Sonos speakers for the kids.

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Sorry about the Echo! Honestly, those little guys are notorious for that. They’re underspecced for this kind of workload, you can see a bunch of others having the exact same “burning” issue here: M5Stack Atom Speaker Kit - #7 by SpikeyGG

​If you have the opportunity try with the sonocotta Louder, it is the superior device for this setup, and your kid will be happy!