S3 BOX 3 for Local Voice Control in Home Assistant

A summary of my experience with the Home Assistant local voice on the S3 Box 3 - s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DeFDAYn
Some of the items in my smart home:
Raspberry Pi (to run Home Assistant)
s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DE84LeT
Kingston SSD RAM (to upgrade the memory for your Pi)
s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DFqCwIj
Ice Tower Cooling Fan
s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DmIV3Cx
Zigbee USB stick (to add zigbee radio to Home Assistant)
s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DnOtuNV
ESP 32 (To run as Bluetooth Proxy or create your own projects)
s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DBR2xSx
Broadlink Pro for controlling IR devices like TVs
s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DEEmRhV
Shelly 1PM (Used to automate my lights)
s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DBJzhjN
Zigbee smart bulb
s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DnqrPnD
Some of the links above are affiliate links, where I earn a small commission if you click on the link and purchase an item. You are not obligated to do so, but it does help fund these videos in hopes of bringing value to you!

[@michaelsleen]

Seems like the software still needs to be worked out. Thanks for this preview!

[@simonsayshomeassistant]

Yes, I can just imagine how much work goes into developing something like this!

[@major_west]

Thanks for the honest review. I'll continue using my reliable Echo until HA has improved local voice control.

[@simonsayshomeassistant]

Yes, good choice at this stage! Thank you for your feedback!

[@Jasonhartley31]

The speakers too quiet on mine. Manage to do some hacky work arounds to get some form of volume control. I also have one in my living room and I’ve set the output to a seperate media player. That works, but it’s hacky as well. It’s also almost impossible to customize. I have a self built S3 device and I can setup a virtual switch that starts the assistant device listing again. Managed to use that in an automation to have it start listing again if the AI ends its text with a question. (Video examples on my page). I’ve tried so hard to get that to work on the S3 box and it breaks it every time.

[@simonsayshomeassistant]

Yes, mine is very quiet too! Thank you I will check out your page!

[@MacDork]

i just found one in stock -- i fan't wait to try it, especially with the impending changes to alexa on the very near horizon

[@simonsayshomeassistant]

Great, please let me know how it works for you. I The voice is working for me now but the wake word detection is still not working every time

[@MacDork]

@@simonsayshomeassistant To get on-device wake word working. I had to compile from scratch instead of using the pre-built binary available on the Home Assistant site. I had some trouble with my setup, which is in Docker, but that's because I also use pihole. Is your Piper text-to-speech working when you use the web-ui to enter commands?

[@wapphigh5250]

It's real buggy Nabu Casa needs to produce a piece of voice hardware and support it! Just MO!

[@simonsayshomeassistant]

The latest software release has improved the wake word recognition. I am using my apple homepod for voice at the moment.

[@peejayw]

Received mine today, pretty disappointing all round. In setup, getting Wi-fi enabled took many attempts. Never had this issue with other ESP32 devices. Wake-word detection is very hit-or-miss. Takes multiple attempts before it responds. It takes about 5secs to turn on a light, Google Assistant is basically instant. Speaker is almost inaudible.

[@simonsayshomeassistant]

Yes I must agree, I have ended up using my apple home hub mini!

[@peejayw]

Have you made any progress with this device? I have just ordered one but expect it will take a while to arrive, they seem to be out of stock often.

[@simonsayshomeassistant]

Yes it started working better, ie voice was responding and the wake word recognition had improved but the last update killed it now nothing is working some hopefully another update soon!

[@roberts.3712]

I give up. I did get one working but I can't remember how I did it. Second one doesn't install.

[@simonsayshomeassistant]

Yes, they are a real pain to get working. Mine has finally started speaking too after the latest update!

[@simonsayshomeassistant]

Where is your second one failing? I had to try many many times before I got it working like maybe 100 times

[@mice3d]

I like the pi zero 2w - with respeaker better. but nothing is perfect yet :)

[@simonsayshomeassistant]

Yes they still have a way to go but at least it is local!

[@74357175]

I found the speaker worked when I had the stock 2024.4.x firmware. When I upgraded to a custom 2024.5.x firmware, the speaker stopped working. What firmware version are you using, and is it custom?

[@74357175]

As per the issue, the following fix gets the voice back: esp32: framework: type: esp-idf version: 4.4.6

[@simonsayshomeassistant]

Thank you for your feedback! Version 2024.5.4 oh well it's good to hear the speaker worked with out of the box firmware. Let's hope that ha gets it working soon

[@simonsayshomeassistant]

@@74357175 Thank you, do I just paste this into the esp home page for the device and then install?

[@74357175]

@@simonsayshomeassistant yes, you can paste it below everything -- it cascades and overrides what's in the imported package. I tried it and it works. Sound again!

[@74357175]

Ps: if the esphome build system freaks out that you changed the framework version, I found that I just copy pasted into a new device and it worked.