Sonocotta's Espressif ESP32-Powered Esparagus Audio Streamers Can Now Listen, Too, with the Echoes

Polish open-hardware specialist Sonocotta's Andriy Malyshenko has designed another pair of entries in the Esparagus family of Espressif ESP32-powered audio gadgets, but these are a little different from previous models: rather than streaming audio, they're made to act as a voice assistant for Home Assistant installations.

"Esparagus Echo is a series of two ESP32-S3-based voice control edge devices," Malyshenko explains of his creations. "They are designed to work with ESPHome as an edge part of the voice control pipeline. Both devices are enclosed in a neat-looking aluminum case and expose feedback LEDs on the front panel where it is easy to spot them, leaving power and speaker connectors on the backside."

"I'm a big fan of [Amazon] Alexa," Malyshenko continues. "I'm using it around the house, and my family is using it all the time, including [one at] two years old. However, I do not need to mention privacy concerns, these are quite common. My biggest pain point is the inability to integrate Alexa into the Home Assistant setup that I have at home. I'm a big fan of automation around the house and want to trigger complex flows based on the specific sensors and devices that I have. I think the freedom of the implementation is a bit like the magic of the Home Assistant. Why not have voice control, since everyone around the house is used to it already?"

That's where the two new Esparagus Echoes come in. The first, and most compact, is the Esparagus Solo, which couples an Espressif ESP32-S3 microcontroller with a single TDK InvenSense ICS-43434 MEMS microphone and an Analog Devices MAX98357 I2S digital-to-analog converter (DAC) with monoaural 4Ω 3W and 8Ω 5W outputs. There's Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) connectivity courtesy of the ESP32's integrated radio, while two RGB LEDs at the front provide visual feedback.

The Esparagus Duo is, unsurprisingly, much the same — but includes two microphones and two amps, delivering a stereo output to the Esparagus Solo's monaural output. The only other differences, bar a larger case: a connector for an external antenna and a wired Ethernet port, the latter powered by a WIZnet W5500 SPI Ethernet controller. Both are designed to run ESPHome, with Malyshenko having developed two variants: one acts as a media player, while the second — still a work-in-progress — provides voice assistant functionality, complete with always-on wake-word detection.

This is not the first audio device Malyshenko has designed: late last year he unveiled the Esparagus HiFi MediaLink, an Espressif ESP32-powered gadget designed to add Wi-Fi streaming capabilities to existing hi-fi equipment. Back in March the maker showed off an alternative, dubbed the Raspberry Pi Media Center and powered by a Raspberry Pi Zero W connected to a custom carrier board with digital-to-analog converter and Ethernet port.

Design files and software for the project are available on GitHub under the reciprocal GNU General Public License 3; Malyshenko plans to sell assembled versions via the Sonocotta Tindie store in the future, though at the time of writing the devices had yet to be listed.