very nice! great job guys!
so now I have to figure out how to replace the echo hardware in the original case, so the speakers and maybe even more of the original device hardware are used…
Thought about this a bit more, and the even better usecase is one, where the amp isnt running all the time, while the HA voice is on 24/7. So by default feedback and music would play through the HA voice, but once the amp is switched on (controlled via HA e.g.), the audio output could be switched to the amp as well.
You folks are making history here! Just ordered one for tests and if it works like promised, I’m replacing like 11 Echos around my house.
One suggestion for the non-Preview device - please consider making the case so that cables can go behind as well. Half of my Echo Dots are wall mounted and I see a lot of people do the same. Visible cables is one thing that drives me truly crazy.
I think that the guys at Home Assistant and Nabu Casa have done an amazing job.
One thing I’d really like to see is the ability to have actionable notifications. I’d like to be able to get the device to ask a question and then wait for a response. Then return that response to an automation.
I think there was a WTH about this but I can’t find it now.
From how the product pictures look, the connectors are not flush with the outside of the case, but a bit recessed. So with a 90 degree adapter you should be good to go
The reason I ask is I think that the computational load would likely increase the need for larger servers. Hopefully that’s already taken into account at the current subscription fee.
This 100% opensource platform designed to be heavily extended is really what we needed to get to the next level. Hardware & code possibilities with ESPHome are so wide that we really lacked a common starting point. Lossless audio streaming really is the cherry on the top of the cake. Great vision and outstanding achievement !
OK Nabu. Take my money, send me the PE and just leave and take a well earned Christmas holidays now!!!
Can someone please make a design as replacement PCBs for all Google Nest / Google Home speakers?
That is, now that the production-ready IC components is both finalized and the PCB design/schematics being open source, using all this as the reference hardware design I hope some people in this community are skilled electrical engineers and interested in making replacement PCB designs with open source schematics for existing smart speaker products so we can retrofit/convert them into becoming ESP32 + XMOS hardware running ESPHome firmware.
I mean, would love the option to just swap out of the circuit board internals if could repurpose most existing Google Nest / Google Home and Amazon Echo smart speaker hardware, as many of those already have nice enclosures and good enough built-in speakers built-in to play music for multi-audio (at least if you are not too picky about your Hi-Fi audio quality).
Squeezelite is more limited than Snapcast as Snapcast is a full blown opensource Sonus challenger for wirelesss multichannel audio.
You place your speakers in the best place for speakers which usually is a stereo pair on a facing wall giving room coverage.
This allows your microphone to be optimal and close and away from your speakers, but not cloning always far more choice as not only are they your smart speakers they can be cast to by any device you set up with opensource casting software.
You can pick what amplifier you wish and if each speaker is active wireless or a reciever may drive several speakers.
My setup is snapcast with a Pi that needs no enclosure as its stuck on the back of a subwoofer I got from ebay for £20 and there are a whole load of very cheap but amazing quality as class D amp boards have improved so much.
Not embedding a speaker creates choice and opens up to other devices that can cast to them so those speakers can be the output for all room media not just a ‘smart speaker’ …
Also makes enclosure design much easier as the engineering that goes into the Google and the rest is actually immense, you can check out a Nest audio and its ridgid cast metal body to stop resonance in its casing to help isolate speaker from microphone array. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-3VodA-Nlo
Seperating microphone just makes software and engineering needs so much easier, enclosures… stick your amps to the back of your speakers on hex pillars and feed from a 24v brick PSU…
I might have misunderstood it, but how does the timers work? It runs on the device itself? Because that is the biggest problem I have with timers in Alexa - thy run on that device. Is it possible to say “set tea timer for 2 minutes” and get it to start actual timer entity in HA, so I can display it on dashboard, and have it announced in whatever room I’m currently in, instead of the original device?
