Hey guys, I'm in the (early stages) of planning my Home Assistant setup for the house I'm building. One of the core tenets of the house will be the Home Assistant Voice setup which will work fully locally with end-to-end Bulgarian (with local Whisper-turbo, Qwen3-14b, etc). The thing that's messing me up the most is the microphone setup and placement. My personal ideal option would be getting a Voice Remote (such as this one by WiiM https://www.wiimhome.com/wiimremote/overview) for every room and talking directly into it. Is such an integration possible with this remote (or any other remote with a microphone for that matter)? If now, how difficult would it be to do it?
#Voice Remote Integration?
hasty flicker
there are also a bunch of other voice remotes, such as the Vontar G10 from AliExpress and the Amazon Echo Dot remote control
wild basin
Hey guys, I'm in the (early stages) of planning my Home Assistant setup for the ...
most people would be going for fixed voice satellites in each room. but there is definitely a demand for remote style control device with voice and buttons. i have seen a few projects but nothing majorly yet.
from what i can tell the 2 devices you suggested use some type of bluetooth connection for data/voice which would probably be hard to take over. and amazon stuff definetly cant be connected directly to HA.
you could definitely build something but off the shelf for this style does not really have any options that I am aware of currently
hasty flicker
most people would be going for fixed voice satellites in each room. but there is...
do you reckon it'd be hard to DIY remotes like that? they wouldn't have to use wakewords (you'd just hold the microphone button and speak into them), they could have buttons on them for specific functions, etc. My main concern is aesthetics, because I really don't have a good way to make them aesthetically pleasing myself
wild basin
do you reckon it'd be hard to DIY remotes like that? they wouldn't have to use w...
from an electronics point of view using esp32 and esphome its not "that hard" but making it look nice... i have seen people 3d printing custom stuff for this kinda thing and it looks reasnable but depends what you have at your disposal
hasty flicker
i guess depending on the size of the final product i can gut an existing good-looking remote and put in my own electronics..
hot drum
hasty flicker
https://community.home-assistant.io/t/homething-s3-ipod-smart-home-remote-with-v...
oh that's SICK
wild basin
yeah stuff like that was what i was thinking of. theres been a few people do simalar things
hasty flicker
that is awesome. i'll look deeper into it
their website (homething.io) is down 😦
they're apparently selling those, i'd instantly buy like 5
wild basin
the stuff is on the github but its going to be hard to market something like that
hasty flicker
i'm absolutely sure there's a market for it
hasty flicker
i guess i'll be DIYing it at some point when time opens up
this is the vision i have in my head:
wild basin
thickness of the remote is going to be your limiting factor on reusing other stuff i guess
hasty flicker
thickness of the remote is going to be your limiting factor on reusing other stu...
what do you mean?
wild basin
alot of small remotes are pretty thin these days, and if your getting an esp32 dev board or something in there you may struggle to fit it in. if you go custom case its not an issue bcause you just make it slightly bigger
hasty flicker
yeah i'll probably just get custom brushed aluminum cases from aliexpress
but i don't know if it's going to be that thick
also i might go with an esp8622 instead of an esp32 so i can get more battery life (tbh it also depends if it's powerful enough for the task)
hasty flicker
but i don't know if it's going to be that thick
bcs realistically, the ESP is 4mm thick(double it for the solders), the buttons, LED, microphone are essentially nothing, the battery and current limiter will be a little thicker but not THAT thick
wild basin
also i might go with an esp8622 instead of an esp32 so i can get more battery li...
i would definetly go with an esp32, specially if you want to do voice on it. getting the voice compnents on something like a 8622 will not be fun
wild basin
older smart plugs are struggling at this point even
hasty flicker
damn is the 8622 THAT terrible?
(in my defence i have no idea what processing power/abilities are needed for voice)
wild basin
you could integrate a wireless charging coil and have a place for it to live when not in use. that auto charges it when its there
hasty flicker
you could integrate a wireless charging coil and have a place for it to live whe...
that increases complexity a TON
also i cant use brushed aluminum then
and i like brushed aluminum >.<
wild basin
if your already butting a battery and charge circuit it probably wouldnt be that much more.
you could have a plastic panel on the back maybe?
just tossing ideas around at this point
wild basin
yeah that would be easier realstically
can have it ping or something when low battery
wild basin
yeah whatever is needed
hot drum
then i'll have to implement pretty aggressive deep sleep
This will be problematic. Power consumption in standby mode is ~70 mA in the minimum configuration (you can save a little more by disabling wakeword), so you will have to charge the device quite often. You'll have to use the docking station if you don't want to mess around with wires.
hasty flicker
This will be problematic. Power consumption in standby mode is ~70 mA in the min...
yeah no it definitely won't be in standby mode. i'll probably implement light sleep with WiFi modem-sleep and the automatic light-sleep features enabled (<1 mA), or if that doesn't work, modem sleep also saves a TON of power (3-15mA)
also wakeword won't be enabled at all
the mic will work via push-to-talk
wild basin
so i have been messing around with this device the last couple off days
it comes with what they claim is a 1000ma battery (which i dont beleive cos cheap china etc...)
wild basin
that running the screen backlight and microphone for wake word had a battery life of about 10 hours
so i imagine without the mic active and the backlight off. it would probably be alot longer
throw in a non-shit battery
you should get a day or 2 out of something without much need for optimisation at least
its not directly relevant itself but more for the example of battery without doing anything special
hasty flicker
oh i'll 100% optimize it
if i get light sleep working with a maintained wifi connection
the thing will draw 0.7-0.8 mA
which, with a 400mAh lipo battery (which are TINY), will last like 20 days on standby
TWENTY DAYS
anyway this whole project is just my ADHD brain trying to run away from studying from my finals which are a month away and rapidly approaching, so we'll see how i feel about after then
wild basin
if its brushed alu then you could attach a touch pin to it internally and is that as a wake up. so when you pick it up it auto wakes ups ready for action
hasty flicker
if its brushed alu then you could attach a touch pin to it internally and is tha...
oh now that's creative af
but tbh idk if it's even needed
waking up from light sleep takes like a milisecond
wild basin
lol 🙂 i have crazy ideas all the time. its just that most of them are bad
hasty flicker
idk i really like this remote idea
i think with a bit of refining and developing it can become really nicely rounded out
and i'm 100% sure there are people in the HA community who would love to have one
wild basin
here's another recent example of a custom remote - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pe_ozZkrRAw
doesn't have voice but concept is nice still
hasty flicker
yeah that's also nice
wild basin
I do imagine someone will try and kickstarter something at some point. but currently its mostly a web of custom stuff that makes me want to buy a 3d printer
hasty flicker
nah i like chinese factories
they're cheap as hell if you know chinese, they ship things cheaply, they're generally very nice people
and also you can get materials like brushed aluminum, stainless steel, nicer plastics, etc
wild basin
yeah maybe for an end "product" but for design iteration and little test projects
hasty flicker
factories nowadays have impressively low MOQs
the main drawback is the time it takes to deliver
3d printing is definitely faster
hasty flicker
okay i...got a little carried away
casually learned how to make PCB schematics and made this for the remote
silk wyvern
Hey guys, I'm in the (early stages) of planning my Home Assistant setup for the ...
Plan for at least two ceiling mounted (POE capable) ethernet cables in every room, so you have the option to use one for an ceiling mounted access point, and the other for a ceiling mounted voice control box/ speaker (possibly using USB over ethernet). Mounted the same way as the fire/smoke alarms on the ceiling.
hasty flicker
Plan for at least two ceiling mounted (POE capable) ethernet cables in every ro...
PoE is dumb
like, uber dumb
i have to spend 5x more money on a switch
to get like MARGINALLY simpler wiring
when it's all in the attic anyway, i have as much wall power as i need
it's smart for houses where it's difficult to get power in places
and i DO have a PoE 4-port switch so i can power my smart dumbbell
but there's literally no point in it
silk wyvern
like, uber dumb
Mr. not so nice guy, I mentioned capable, I did not say to put in the hardware. If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all.