I’ve been working on a Home Assistant / voice-assistant ceiling speaker project and finally have it organized enough to share publicly.
The idea is a retrofit-friendly PoE network speaker controller that can work with ordinary ceiling speakers rather than requiring a custom enclosure. The current main board uses an ESP32-S3, W5500 Ethernet, PCM5122 DAC, and TPA3116D2 amplifier, with a target around 30 W into 4Ω.
I’m also planning a separate 8-microphone PDM ring that mounts behind the existing speaker grille. Different ring diameters could fit different ceiling speakers while keeping the same main board. The ring also reserves space for listening/mute/privacy status LEDs.
This is still pre-prototype Rev E. It has not been fabricated or electrically validated yet. ERC/DRC are clean under the current project rules, but I’m still working through Ethernet routing, power/protection, audio/thermal review, and manufacturability before ordering the first boards.
I’m an IT admin and electronics tinkerer, not a hardware engineer, and the project has been developed heavily with AI-assisted CAD/design/review. I’m sharing it now because I’d really like experienced hardware people and HA/Assist users to tear into it before I spend money on prototypes.
The repo includes the full KiCad source, engineering review notes, roadmap, prototype validation plan, open issues, and microphone-ring concept. GitHub: GitHub - 74kumi/Esp32-Poe-HA-Speaker: ESP32 poe-powered network audio controller with dac, amplifier and sensor support -designed in kicad with ai · GitHub
I’d especially love feedback on Ethernet/PoE design, DAC/amplifier implementation, microphone-array/AEC expectations for HA Assist, useful HA diagnostics/configuration, and anything obvious I’ve managed to completely screw up :
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