Home Assistant Voice PE - Wake-Words rarely working | Home Assistant | Page 1

fervent edge Apr 22, 2025, 7:28 AM

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Hello everybody, the last couple days I have been playing around d with the HA VA PE a lot. I am using the Nabu Casa Cloud and the built-in wakewords (Okay Nabu, Hey Jarvis) with German language.

I am pretty shocked that the wakewords rarely work. I now often press the button instead to give commands… which ruins the whole experience for me. Even if there is absolute silence and I am standing next to the device my wakeword will not be picked up most of the time.

Any ideas what I could do to improve the experience?

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I noticed it picks me up a lot better if I talk extremely fast.. which is annoying

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I didn’t do any modifications to the device. The device is standing in a position where it is not obstructed and should easily be able to pick up my voice

fervent edge Apr 22, 2025, 11:13 AM

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Okay, extremely frustrated with this. It’s borderline unusable. While changing babies diapers I tried it about 30 (!) times and it only picked up twice (!). Doesn’t matter if I use „okay Nabu“ or „hey Jarvis“… is it normal to be this bad?

river hound Apr 22, 2025, 12:41 PM

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Might be a defective unit, mine hears just fine even when I have music playing through it. Might want to turn on the debug settings and listen to recordings of your request to see if it has any noise. If it does, something might be wrong with the hardware.

fervent edge Apr 22, 2025, 12:41 PM

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Oh, alright. Will have to try that

river hound Apr 22, 2025, 12:43 PM

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think you just add this to your configuration.yaml file:

assist_pipeline:
   debug_recording_dir: /share/assist_pipeline

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after adding and saving, have to restart home assistant for it to take effect.

fervent edge Apr 22, 2025, 1:06 PM

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Thx a lot. Will try to debug once I am at home again

fervent edge Apr 22, 2025, 4:01 PM

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Not getting any wav outputs… dammit

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Followed the guide on adopting it in esphome, adjusting the config… but nothing is showing up

sweet siren Apr 22, 2025, 4:03 PM

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It 100% works, if configured correctly.

fervent edge Apr 22, 2025, 4:04 PM

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Alright. Will check all steps again

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It’s not even creating the /share/ folder on restart

sweet siren Apr 22, 2025, 4:13 PM

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You may try directory, related to your config dir.

fervent edge Apr 22, 2025, 5:59 PM

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Okay, got the directory showing up and can now listen to the voice samples. Will try debugging... with noise supression level 3 it still way too noisy.. switching to 4

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it sounds pretty cler IF it picks up the wake word... it seems not to be the audio quality

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messing around with the values now... volume gain might be too high with 31

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So, volume is not too low and sound ist not too noisy... its just that it doesnt pick up the wake word

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https://community.home-assistant.io/t/home-assistant-voice-preview-edition-weak-mic/814551/11 seems to be a common issue… must be the hardware. This is pretty frustrating

Home Assistant Community

Home assistant voice preview edition weak mic?

I have been experiencing this. At times it’s OK, then at times I have to either yell, repeat, or just press the button. 5 out of 6 times it just doesn’t respond. I have been searching for a way to add something via the jack perhaps to hear better. So far no cigar.

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Okay… I am giving up. This device seems to have big problems picking up the wake word. No fun using it like this if it only works 1 out of 10 times. I hope things will improve over time

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Wonder if the Sattelite 1 works better… I really want voice assistants in HA

fervent edge Apr 22, 2025, 6:20 PM

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sweet siren You may try directory, related to your config dir.

How would I go about getting the device out of ESPHome again so it can update automatically through HA? I am done debugging I think

sweet siren Apr 22, 2025, 6:21 PM

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You need to flash it with factory firmware

fervent edge Apr 22, 2025, 6:21 PM

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yikes. Okay, will try to find a guide on that. Thank you

trail wedge Apr 22, 2025, 6:23 PM

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You can follow the instructions provided here for reinstalling the firmware from the bootloader. https://voice-pe.home-assistant.io/guides/firmware-reinstall-from-bootloader/

fervent edge Apr 22, 2025, 6:24 PM

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thx a lot

trail wedge Apr 22, 2025, 6:25 PM

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Have you tried setting the finished speaking detection to "relaxed" and turning off the wake sound? Those can both change the speed or need to pause after saying the wake word

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You might try playing with those settings after resetting it and adding it back (make sure to remove it from ESPHome builder and the ESPhome integration before adding back)

fervent edge Apr 22, 2025, 6:27 PM

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I'll give that a try once I am done resetting

fervent edge Apr 22, 2025, 6:46 PM

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Okay, once I connected the HA VPE to my wifi it is stuck with blue ring. it shows a prompt where it wants a ESPHome host ...no documentation lists hat... something is not right. I did reset to original firmware two times now

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not getting this

trail wedge Apr 22, 2025, 6:51 PM

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Leave the VPE connected to wifi as is, and restart HA?

fervent edge Apr 22, 2025, 6:53 PM

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yeah, restarting it reight now

trail wedge Apr 22, 2025, 6:54 PM

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skip any offers to add it to esphome etc

fervent edge Apr 22, 2025, 6:54 PM

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nope, that didnt help either...

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yeah, I only conneced it to wifi, then said "cancel" when it wanted to configure ESPHome

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and now its stuck with blue LED... whcih seems to be "waiting for connection to home assistant"

trail wedge Apr 22, 2025, 6:55 PM

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Are the VPE and HA on the same network? not different subnets or vlan?

fervent edge Apr 22, 2025, 6:55 PM

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same network. its the same way I connected it before I resetted the firmware

trail wedge Apr 22, 2025, 6:56 PM

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ok might just wait a little more, refresh the devices and services page. Then if still nothing try disconnecting power from VPE and add it back

fervent edge Apr 22, 2025, 6:56 PM

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wait, the old one is still shown in ESPHome under devices... but not in ESPHome itself. trying to remove that entry

trail wedge Apr 22, 2025, 6:56 PM

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It is no longer

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was just going to confirm, you removed the old one right?

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yes that needs to be removed

fervent edge Apr 22, 2025, 6:57 PM

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okay, that was it

trail wedge Apr 22, 2025, 6:57 PM

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To HA, it is already present and added

fervent edge Apr 22, 2025, 6:57 PM

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and wake word with okay nabu worked 2 out of 2 times now...

trail wedge Apr 22, 2025, 6:58 PM

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none of the other choices have as much training as ok nabu, I wouldn't bother switching

fervent edge Apr 22, 2025, 6:59 PM

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so... wake word only works reliably if I am sitting next to it

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walking about 2 meters away breaks it

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oh god... if I speak REALLY awkward "okaaaaiii (pause) Nah-Booooo" then its picked up

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even from across the room...

trail wedge Apr 22, 2025, 7:01 PM

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you can try all kinds of things. ok babu, ok la la, ok neebuu

fervent edge Apr 22, 2025, 7:02 PM

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definetly works a lot better with the "Nah-booo" ..which is really awkward

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and its still rather unreliable

trail wedge Apr 22, 2025, 7:12 PM

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It’s one of those things that's seen in Google Home and Alexa communities forever: “Is it getting dumber?”, “Why does it no longer understand me?” I think there’s just such a wide range in how things are said and under what conditions that only an actual video or audio clip could really convey what’s happening.

fervent edge Apr 22, 2025, 7:15 PM

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"Hey Mycroft" works best by far for me

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hope more built-in wake words will be added over time

glossy junco Apr 22, 2025, 7:20 PM

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there are a few more, in the repo but you have to take control of your device with esphome to use them

fervent edge Apr 22, 2025, 7:27 PM

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okay, not gonna bother then. waiting until they are available directly through HA

#Home Assistant Voice PE - Wake-Words rarely working