Setting up bluetooth proxy with M5 Atom Echo voice assistant

Configuration
1

I’m just getting started with HA Green. I have already set up an M5 Atom Echo as a voice assistant, and would like to try to also use it as a bluetooth proxy, as described in this post:
https://community.home-assistant.io/t/m5-atom-echo-voice-assistant-with-bluetooth-proxy/617596

Based on the comment marked as the solution for that post, it sounds like this could be possible, but I’m having trouble pinning down exactly how/where to modify the YAML or where to go from there.

I took a stab at this by adding the configuration lines that worked for OP (mentioned here) to my /homeassistant/configuration.yaml.

After saving those changes, nothing seems to be breaking, so maybe that’s good? But uh, yeah, I don’t know wth I’m doing. Like is that even the right place to make those changes – or if it is the right place, what do I do next so I can use it…

Any advice would be appreciated.

2

The provided configuration doesn’t go into the HA configuration.yaml…it goes into the configuration YAML file for the ESP device inside the ESPhome add-on (or local ESPhome if you have it setup somewhere else).

If you used the blog guide, it looks like that is using the ESPhome web interface to flash a pre-compiled firmware. To do what you want, you’ll need to go the “advanced users” route. At a high level:

  1. Install the ESPhome add-on (this is different than the integration)
  2. Click “+ new device”
  3. Hit continue
  4. Give it a name
  5. Select “ESP32” from the list
  6. Click “Skip”
  7. Click “Edit” in the box for the new device
  8. Copy/paste the code “for advanced users” that’s in Github: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/esphome/firmware/main/voice-assistant/m5stack-atom-echo.yaml
  9. Scroll to the bottom and add these two lines:
bluetooth_proxy:
  active: true
  1. Click on “Save”
  2. Click on “Install” and select the “Manual Download” option. Wait for the firmware to compile.
  3. When prompted, select the “modern format”. This should download a *.bin file. Chrome keeps blocking these for me so you might have to check downloads and click the “keep” option.
  4. Plug the Atom into the computer.
  5. Go to https://web.esphome.io/
  6. Click Connect and select the port like you did when you initially set it up.
  7. Click on “Install” and select the file you just downloaded.
  8. Wait for it to finish.
1 Like
3

i tried doing this just now and followed all the steps successfully, but what do i need to do after that?

I didn’t see any new devices discovered nor what i would expect to add a BT proxy.

i do see a device to adopt in ESP home though? but trying to do so fails

4

There’s nothing to add for the BT proxy feature. If it picks up a supported device, you’ll get a prompt to add it.

If a device is seen but failing to add, I’d presume the signal is weak.

5

how can i check if the device is online? i had previously configured this device using the normal config, so would using the steps above have reset that? do i need to delete and re-add it?

6

Just check the ESPhome integration. It may (probably) have picked it back up as the same device. Are any of the entities showing available? Deleting and re-adding it will not hurt anything.