I have a fairly large HA setup (900 active entities) and have been using Google through nabu casa for years to control things with “Hey Google” using google smart speakers scattered all over the house.
It works great. I hate that it isn’t local, and have tried to follow with interest all the “year of voice” work (or years).
What I cannot seem to follow is hardware – I tried for a couple years ago experimenting with an M5 Atom speaker and it was completely impractical other than as an experiment.
It APPEARS that the voice control software is getting mature enough to use.
But hardware – I love these speakers, I have two MAX, two Home, and a boatload of Mini’s. They are loud, clear, and anywhere in my home I can “Hey google” and things happen (often what I asked for!).
Is there comparable hardware to replace these? Especially the mini’s, I would probably keep the Max for music.
I do a LOT of experimenting, lots of ESPhome, etc. But in terms of hardware for voice control i want to buy off the shelf and have it just work.
I don’t understand – the google home speakers (all? just max?) can be connected to HA directly for voice? And if I turn off the mic how do I get heard?
(Maybe I haven’t followed all the progress as well as I thought)
I guess the first question is does not “Preview” edition imply “not ready for general use”? I just assumed it was like a super-ATOM and let you get a feel for it, not something comparable to a google mini.
Or am I wrong?
I’d be happy to buy a bunch and replace all the mini’s if it worked that well.
But as to connecting the MAX to them – is that a thing that’s done somehow wirelessly? Or is the suggestion be I open them up and rewire them?
I don’t actually NEED the Max’s to change – I can keep them for casting. Though it would be nice.
I do need a replacement for the google mini’s in each room.
Get a Voice PE and try it is all I can recommend. From the reading I have done there is no plans to upgrade the PE anytime soon but it will be fully supported into the future. So basically it is the production unit for the for seeable future.
Google Home Max is the only one with an Auxiliary Input (I won’t say Aux Cord like the young kids today) .
I thought the USB was a bit limited from past reading I had done.
Also even with the Auxiliary plugged in your cast capabilities should still work.
But as to connecting the MAX to them – is that a thing that’s done somehow wirelessly?
Yes you could do wirelessly with a 3.5mm jack transmitter and receiver, via Bluetooth. So essentially have your Voice PE connected somewhere else.
But this probably adds an extra layer of complexity that is not required.
The speakers can still be used for casting and operate like normal. (While the Auxiliary cable is plugged in)
When it detects the Auxiliary is active it just switches to AUX automatically and then back to normal casting mode when no AUX signal is detected (Approx 30secs later).
I have been able to get the HA Voice PE to play music through the Google Max but the sync is not very good even if they are grouped. (I am still using my Google Home App Speaker Group on the same set of speakers for Music)
While casting music to a group of Google Home Max, there does seem to be a bit of a stumble if activation a Voice PE Auxillary input on one of the speakers.
Setting up as a stereo pair did transmit the HA Voice PE from the left (Master Speaker) over to the other speaker, a slight delay is experienced. But a HA Voice PE plugged into the other speaker did not reliably cast back the other way.
No cross talk interference between Okay Nabu and Okay Google.
Playing music through a Google Cast Speaker Group and trying to talk to a HA Voice PE while this is happening. Confuses the group of speakers when the aux is activated on one speaker and or ignores the aux input. Not the end of the world, just don’t use voice prompts when playing music.
I will report back with further findings, so far you would think the Google Max speakers are purpose designed for just this use case.
