Einstein Remote

A WiFi-based remote control for the Salesforce Einstein Smart Speaker. Runs on a TTGO LoRa32 ESP32 board wired inside the speaker via serial. Any phone can connect and control the speaker's hair LEDs, belly display, and microphone — no app install required.

How It Works

Captive Portal (First Boot / No WiFi)

On first boot (or when saved WiFi is unavailable), the ESP32 creates an open WiFi access point named Einstein-XXXX (where XXXX is derived from the device MAC address). When a phone connects to this network, the captive portal automatically opens the control page in the phone's browser.

The captive portal works by:

1. Running a DNS server that redirects all domain lookups to the ESP32
2. Responding to OS-specific captive portal detection URLs (/generate_204, /hotspot-detect.html, etc.)
3. Redirecting any unknown request to the main control page

WiFi (Station Mode)

Once WiFi credentials are configured via the web UI, the ESP32 will:

1. Attempt to connect to the saved network on boot (10-second timeout)
2. If successful, serve the same control page on its local IP address
3. Display its IP address on Einstein's belly every 10 minutes so users can find it
4. If the network becomes unavailable, fall back to AP/captive portal mode

To configure WiFi: expand the "WiFi Setup" accordion at the bottom of the page, enter your network name and password, and tap "Save & Reboot." To clear saved credentials, tap "Forget WiFi."

OTA (Over-the-Air Updates)

Since the ESP32 is sealed inside the speaker, firmware updates are done over WiFi:

1. Build the project with pio run
2. Open the control page in a browser
3. Expand the "Firmware Update" accordion at the bottom
4. Select the .bin file (located at .pio/build/ttgo-lora32-v1/firmware.bin)
5. Tap "Upload & Reboot"
6. The upload progress is displayed; the device reboots automatically on success

OTA works in both AP mode and station mode.

Control UI

The web interface is a mobile-first touch-optimized page served directly from the ESP32's flash memory. It communicates with the device via WebSocket for low-latency button response.

A green dot in the header indicates an active WebSocket connection. If it turns red, the page will automatically reconnect.

Button Sections

Einstein (White) — Listen and Speak buttons with white hair LEDs. Press and hold to activate; release to turn off.

Alexa (Blue) — Listen and Speak buttons with blue color LEDs. Press and hold to activate; release to turn off.

Speak with Color — A 3x3 grid of colored buttons plus a rainbow button. Each activates the hair LEDs in that color along with the belly speak animation. Press and hold; release to turn off.

Colors (arranged warm to cool, then soft pastels):

• Coral, Amber, Lime
• Cyan, Turquoise, Purple
• Magenta, Pink, Lavender
• Rainbow (animated crazy hair mode)

Microphone — Mic On and Mic Off are click-to-enable buttons (not hold). Clicking one deactivates the other. These control the belly mute/unmute indicator.

All Off — Click to turn off all LEDs, animations, and the microphone indicator. Clears both mic buttons.

Button Behavior

Type	Interaction	Examples
Hold	Press and hold to activate, release to deactivate	Einstein, Alexa, Speak with Color
Radio	Click to enable, click again to disable. Mutually exclusive within group	Mic On, Mic Off
Tap	Single click to fire	All Off

Hardware

• Board: TTGO LoRa32 v1 (ESP32)
• Serial TX to speaker MCU: GPIO 0
• Serial RX from speaker MCU: GPIO 4
• Baud rate: 115200 (8N1)
• GPIO 34/35: Button port available on the board (original remote lost, unused in this project)

The speaker's internal MCU accepts commands in the format DEMO+<number>\r over serial. This project translates web UI interactions into those serial commands.

Building & Flashing

Requires PlatformIO.

cd einstein_remote

# Build
pio run

# Flash via USB (first time only)
pio run -t upload

# Subsequent updates via OTA from the web UI

Serial Command Protocol

The Einstein speaker's internal MCU (firmware v31) accepts commands over serial at 115200 baud (8N1). All commands follow the format:

DEMO+<command>\r

Where \r is a carriage return (0x0D). Type DEMO in a serial terminal to display the full menu.

Command Reference

Command	Function
DEMO+1	Hair off
DEMO+2	Hair listen (white)
DEMO+3	Hair think (white)
DEMO+4	Hair speak (white)
DEMO+5	Crazy hair animation
DEMO+6	Hair green (confirm)
DEMO+7	Hair red (deny)
DEMO+8	Hair listen (color — uses last set color)
DEMO+9	Hair think (color)
DEMO+10	Hair speak (color)
DEMO+11	Belly off
DEMO+12	Belly percentage display
DEMO+13	Belly speak animation
DEMO+14	Belly "Yes" text
DEMO+15	Belly "No" text
DEMO+16	Belly unmute (mic on) indicator
DEMO+17	Belly mute (mic off) indicator
DEMO+20-RRGGBB	Set color (hex RGB, e.g. DEMO+20-FF69B4)
DEMO+21	All off
DEMO+22-text	Display text on belly marquee
DEMO+99	Reboot device

Hex Format (for microcontrollers)

When sending from a microcontroller, encode the ASCII string as hex bytes:

"DEMO+" in hex = 0x44 0x45 0x4D 0x4F 0x2B

Then append the command number as ASCII digits:

• 0 = 0x30, 1 = 0x31, 2 = 0x32, ... 9 = 0x39

Always terminate with 0x0D (carriage return).

Example: DEMO+5\r (crazy hair) in hex:

0x44 0x45 0x4D 0x4F 0x2B 0x35 0x0D

Example: DEMO+20-FF0000\r (set color to red) in hex:

0x44 0x45 0x4D 0x4F 0x2B 0x32 0x30 0x2D 0x46 0x46 0x30 0x30 0x30 0x30 0x0D

Typical Command Sequences

Speak with color (e.g. pink):

DEMO+20-FF69B4\r   → set color
DEMO+10\r          → hair speak (color)
DEMO+13\r          → belly speak animation

Listen (white):

DEMO+2\r           → hair listen (white)
DEMO+11\r          → belly off

Mute microphone:

DEMO+17\r          → belly mute indicator
DEMO+1\r           → hair off

Project Structure

einstein_remote/
├── platformio.ini          # Board config and library dependencies
├── src/
│   └── main.cpp            # WiFi, WebSocket, OTA, and command routing
└── include/
    ├── EinsteinSerial.h    # Serial command interface to speaker MCU
    └── WebUI.h             # Complete web page as PROGMEM string