Hi,
Just wanted to share my recent experiment with installing TTS at home using a low budget LAN based solution. My requirement was very simple that is to have few speakers around the house that can make announcements like:
“The front door just opened” or
“The garage door has been open for last 20 minutes” or
“The water usage has exceeded 400 gallons, please check if any tap(s) are open”…
I looked at few options such as Sonos, Bose and seems like all WiFi (not Bluetooth) speakers are very high end and hence expensive. And to be fair these high end speakers delivers (as per reviews) really top notch music experience which is not my need.
So I experimented and found following solution working for me:
- Used Libre Computer board from Amazon (~$35)
https://www.amazon.com/Libre-Computer-AML-S905X-CC-Potato-64-bit/dp/B074P6BNGZ/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1P8CRO8IBLT90 - Installed Raspbian OS, and then manually switched the OS to non-GUI mode as I only ssh into the board over LAN
- Install mpd player
- Connected the Libre Computer board with an old PC speakers that were lying around the house (& there are plenty used ones available on eBay for dirt cheap prices)
- Added the mpd player as an integration in Home Assistant
And it works fine for me, there is not latency as the whole house is LAN based within the homee!
Just thought I’ll share and if there are any ways to trim costs that I may have overlooked for a simple TTS solution.
