Thank, I’m not a developer I just play one on HA forums and for works sometimes as I do work in IT but not a dev. I can just put pieces of the puzzle together so what I can do in an hour a real dev could do in 15 minutes or less.
Thanks for the info above and confirmed that this is going to be for testing, I wouldn’t order it if I hadn’t already and Seeed will probably never release a single firmware update (I hope I’m wrong but I doubt I will be).
As far as the LED, I fixed that, sort of with a simple solution. I actually thought of this. I’m sure others have done it but it works great, I’m sure I’ll get 3 replies from people who have done it also. But with no LED to tell if it even heard the Wake word. By far the quickest and best automation idea I’ve.had. I’ve got another when it’s done, although not really needed…
You can play sound on respeaker itself. Check how ding.mp3 is played in my code for timer. No need to create automation.
P.S. so is LED problem hardware-based for you? Because for me, LED works completely fine…
Yes, or something wasn’t soldered correctly. It hasn’t worked once. The green led and red led on the XIOS S3 work just fine. Since everything appears to be working without any issues I’m speculating it’s hardware or quality control issue. I haven’t tried to flash the PC firmware/DFU but was probably going to try and see if that works with the assist microphone add-on just to test. I’m not really expecting better results
I’ll certainly be looking at your code later, this was just a quick solution and I was sick at looking at the Android app to see if it actually heard the wake word.
UGH, looks like Mute button doesn’t have a state (like, HIGH on muted, LOW on unmuted), but instead is just momentary switch. So it can toggle, but can’t know if it’s actually muted…
I think I will get over it as it’s working better then what I put up or Seeeds code but obviously way more pieces. At first the entire media section was red because it said it didn’t recognize Nabu as a platform even though it was in the external components list. Maybe it just didn’t have time because I did a verify, clean build files, and installed (deleting the original in esphome integrations) before doing the install.
Probably the least or a tie for the least amount of shadow declaration warnings I have received (which I always ignore) because even the S3 box gets those. Thanks! It seems to be working better but placebo effect. Need some more time. Certainly nice to have it be a media player, granted I have the 5W speaker kit.
I may be the wrong that HA uses tflite micro but noticed that XMOS has been doing some updating of their tflite micro xcore kernels I don’t know if it’s the same version that applies to HA though… I think it’s micro but I could easily be wrong. Regardless, it looks like the i2s stuff has also been updated fairly recently too which is awesome considering most is a year or more ago from last edit.
Got mine, and instantly saw it is crap. Seeed people do not answer questions on their discord server, do offer 5$ coupons while I tel them I have to pay double of the unit price because they forgot to declare the goods at the customs.
What the hell of a piece of shit device did I buy again ? It did not even come with mounting instructions, nor screws to mount the speaker, nor even a clear way to get it to work.
I’m stuck with buffer errors and can’t even get that shit to detect the wakeword that actually works using a cheap 13$ atom echo.
Don’t buy that device gents… For that price, you should expect a device that has hotspot feature, asks for you wifi credentials, shows up in HA and works out of the box ! Not a set of plastic pieces you have to figure out how to assemble all by yourself !
Your attitude is strange. Before buying the product, you could read about it. I studied whole manuals section before ordering, and I knew what to expect.
Everything you mentioned as desired is part of software. But Seeed doesn’t sell ready to use product - it’s dev kit. Some examples are there, but I knew from scratch, that I’ll have to research and build my software myself.
So instead of whining I started to search and build. Now I have completely working product (with restrictions of experimental software, because XMOS is still very new to ESPHome, and we all wait for PE (Voice Kit) to be merged into main repo and become stable.
Both of my Respeaker kits are working really good. It’s not Alexa experience - but it’s way closer to it, than I had with self-made 1-mic satellites or even Wyoming Satellite.
Yes, Seeed is pretty bad at supporting things - but your word “again” indicates that you knew it.
Anyways. Research more, complain less. This is the way.
Ok, so. I finally had some time to try and play with it. Not having any results using i2s, the UA firmware works and I can use the respeaker board as a mic and speaker (line out). I tested the UA firmware using Assist in lovelace frontend and it works.
I am starting to work my way through the i2s examples in the seeed wiki to see if the microphone/speaker is working via i2s using arduino IDE. SO far, I did the first i2s test and it came back ok.
Also, I am now noticing on plugging in or unplugging the power, the lineout does pop and hiss. The LED between the mics doesnt work for me either, just the mute and power leds.
It sounds like you didn’t order the full kit that includes the acrylic case, or if you did, you didn’t receive it. I’m not sure where the confusion is about setup. Their wiki is very clear that it comes shipped with the PC DFU firmware, even if you buy the version with the pre soldiered XIAO S3. I found the instructions to be very clear and straight forward. Download the i2s DFU firmware and flashing utility, flash the I2S firmware via the USB port on the board, not the XIOS. After the firmware is flashed, unplug and plug the USB C cable to.the XIAOS and add to ESPHome like any other device. Instructions were provided via one of those QR codes you scan with your phone. While I’m not a fan of this a lot of new products are doing this. They don’t have any instructions included, they just have a QR code you scan that takes you to a web page.
The instructions for assembly are in the link below. Here is the PDF from that page. That’s what contains the standoffs and acrylic case. If you just bought the respeaker and speaker then you got exactly what you ordered. If you ordered the full kit then that’s on Seeed. You can find your order in your email and verify what exactly you purchased. If you created a Seeed account then just log in and go to orders.
It doesn’t come ready for HA. In fact they have several Arduino examples in the wiki. I had to search just to find Speeds yaml for HA and it was lackluster, didn’t use microwakeword so the above is much, much better. One being doing voice via MQTT which may be useful in HA potentially. This was never sold as a dedicated device for HA.
I can’t speak about the entire shipping fiasco as different countries have rules but if you live in the US then what you paid at checkout should have been all you had to pay.
I share some of your frustrations with Seeed. The listen light LED on mine doesn’t work but everything else does. Seems like some sloppy QC as it was well packaged so I doubt it was damage during shipping but you never know. With that said this was clearly a development board. The fact that there is an external pad for both the S3 and the XMOS chip makes that pretty apparent. I would try the following.
1 - flash the I2S firmware again with the USB Cable plug directly into the board using the DFU utility
2 - Delete it completely from HA or at a minimum delete the device under integrations
3 - Flash it in ESPHome again using the above yaml which worked perfectly on my unit, using Microwakeword plus some other benefits.
If the above does work flash the PC DFU and it should show up on your PC as an option for sound input/output. If it doesn’t work in either scenario then something is clearly wrong with the board.
This is 100 percent the same behavior as mine and now I’m more confused. The red light that comes on when pressing mute is the same LED used for the listen light so the LEF is working as mine turns red when pressing the physical mute button. The green LED for power works and red LED on the XIOS chip both work when plugging the USB cable into the XIOS.
EDIT: after further examination it does appear to be two different LEDs close to each other with the one labeled RGB being the listen light which doesn’t work for me.
No, I ended up ordering another with the XIAO already soldiered with the full kit (5W speaker and acrylic case). It’s not the board I was frustrated with about 20 posts up so yes, it works with the YAML above with the board flashed with the i2s DFU firmware.
I ordered some paste and plan to solder a XIAO to it with the steps you posted above.
In retrospect Seeeds site can be confusing, especially if you have never used it before. To get the full kit you have to click all 3 items, with 2 options for the board (XIAO and just the board) They also have the 2 speaker mic hat for a Wyoming satellite and 4 mic DSP unit which are both old products. This deserves a dedicated page IMO. Lastly, if you click on just the XIAOs option, it changes names to “2 mic voice kit” but the options for the speaker and case aren’t there and pictures clearly show just the soldered XIOS board and the full kit option disappears completely. Having purchased from them a few times I’m always extra careful to check my order to make sure everything is right 3 or 4 times. On a normal site I might check once or twice at most.
What’s up with both Seeed and m5stack websites opening a new tab for almost everything you click on? Is that just a Chinese thing similar to not having landscape options on mobile apps like AliExpress and some other Chinese apps?
Pretty positive it’s the board. I originally got the non soldiered version as I had a XIAO S3 already. I had some “issues” for lack of a better term, you can read above. The RGB LED worked on this board.
This board is a different one I ordered with the XIAO soldered and got the full kit with speaker and case. The LED has never worked on this one. I would think Seeed would do some basic testing to make sure everything worked. If they don’t maybe they missed something but the RGB LED is.conected to GPIO1 on the XIAOs and looking at the soldering job it appears to have been done very professionally which is why I think it’s the board.
Have to say that I believe you are almost entirely to blame yourself for your bad experience in this case since it sounds like you were expecting to receive a plug-and-play consumer product meant for end-users that would already be pre-flashed and pre-configured to work out-of-the-box. This is clearly not the case and if you managed to miss that then I think the fault lies with you in this case. You are very likley not the target audince for these development kits and development boards.
Seeed Studio website does make it very clear that this is a development kit for the XMOS XU-316 AI sound/audio chip and the fact that these are microprocessor development boards that are meant for software developers and electronic engineers, (not a complete and finished consumer product meant for end users). So if you had at least done some basic research then you would know that all development boards are meant for people who want to become acquainted with the microprocessor on the board and to learn to program it as well as enable developers to use them as a base hardware platform for prototype applications and products that will be using the same microcontroller hardware.
I don’t think they can make it clearer that it is just development boards, not consumer products. Yes the webpages for the ReSpeaker Lite with XIAO ESP32S3 development board on Seeed Studio website does mention that it among other things “Supports integration with voice assistants like Home Assistant via ESPHome, Amazon Alexa, and Google Assistant, enabling smart home control.” meaning that it compabible with that (which it is) but it also state that is compatible with multiple development enviroments and can be used for different purposes, however it does not say that it comes/ships preloaded or preconfigured with anything.
While the technical documentation from Seeed Studio is definitely not as good as it could be, especially not when when compare those from competing similar western companies, like Adafruit and Pimoroni, you have to remember that Seeed Studio is a Chinese company (and their prices reflect that too).
I do also think that their order page for these is a little confusing in regards to the speaker and a acrylic enclosure (which are not included unless you specifically select them which each adds an additional cost). In my opionion it would be more self explanatory and eaiser to understand what is included if they simply offered a few kits with different compnents included in each instead of letting people pick and choose what they want included, but then again, they are targeting developers and electronic engineers, .
The fact that you as the custom responsible for customs declaration, import fees, administration duties, VAT/taxes, inspection fees, etc. not shipping is not done from a local warehouse is not stange either, so that is shame on you as well for not researching your own countries import laws (which is a responsibility that falls on you as the recipient and not the company that you order from). This is even declared in their Shipping & Order page → Seeed Fusion One-Stop PCB Assembly & Custom Hardware Manufacturing
