Anyone tried OHF’s ”Linux Voice Assistant” (experimental project) for Home Assistant by the Open Home Foundation?

[Hedda]

Anyone tried OHF’s ”Linux Voice Assistant” (experimental project) for Home Assistant started by Open Home Foundation’s lead voice developer?

• https://github.com/OHF-Voice/linux-voice-assistant

It is meant to run on Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W and similar hardware it is being developed as a replacement for his Wyoming Satellite project with this new project using the native ESPHome protocol on Linux instead to integrate with Home Assistant voice pipeline:

• Replace Wyoming satellite with Linux Voice Assistant OHF-Voice/backlog-issues#45

Reddit discussion including replies from synesthesiam (Michael Hansen) who is the lead "voice" developer at the Open Home Foundation:

• https://www.reddit.com/r/homeassistant/comments/1na1chk/new_wyoming_satellite_successor/

As I understand; it uses ESPHome’s API/protocol as a new cross-platform standard instead of the Wyoming API/protocol, and if also compare to ESPHome devices based on ESP32 this Linux derivitive allows for the use of much more powerful hardware will ”fully local assistant” with on-device TTS (Piper Text-To-Speach) and STT (Whisper Speach-To-Text), also will give you the option to use OpenWakeWord instead of MicroWakeWord, as well as run other heavier processes and services on-device, (such as maybe a Resonate server to capture and encode analog audio input from a Vinyl-turntable to stream to other Music Assistent clients). As long as they use the ESPHome API support it then more features could be added to this experimental OHF Linux Voice Assistent project without having to add changes in Home Assistant.

• https://github.com/esphome/aioesphomeapi

  • https://github.com/dscripka/openWakeWord

Note! To have a good experince with using wake words I also understand that really want a great far-field microphone array, such as the Seeed Studio’s ReSpeaker series which will provide a clean voice even in a noisy room far away from the microphones:

• https://www.seeedstudio.com/ReSpeaker-Lite-p-5928.html

• https://www.seeedstudio.com/ReSpeaker-XVF3800-USB-Mic-Array-p-6488.html

PS: FutureProofHomes also sells a dev kit where you can raplace their ESP32-based ”core board” with a pinned Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W for a nicer package:

• https://futureproofhomes.net/products/satellite1-pcb-dev-kit

  • https://github.com/orgs/FutureProofHomes

[jimrkerry]

Just started with Linux Voice Assistant.

Tried the Pi Zero 2W with the Seeed Respeaker Lite and had an issue with the USB.
Replaced the Pi Zero 2W with a Pi 3A+ and that worked.

I have a Satellite1 on order and will try that when it comes in.

So far, the Linux Voice Assistant has worked well for me and I am happy with it.
Hope they keep going with it.

EDIT:
I want to repeat that I have been impressed by how well the LVA and PiCompose software work and the integration with ESPHome in Home Assistant. I keep them running on my Pi 3 A+.

Plan to use LVA to replace my ESP32-S3-Box-3 satellites when I find a reliable hardware platform. That may be the Satellite1.

Had some trouble with broken links in the documentation and I have resolved that.
Have ordered the recommended hardware and it will take a couple of weeks to arrive.

[jimrkerry]

An update. The Raspberry Pi 3 A+ fails to respond after a day or so when running LVA so some success using the Seeed Respeaker Lite USB board.

Tried the Satellite1 HAT with a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W board and it appeared to be in a boot loop. No way to connect a monitor to see what's going on because the HAT is in the way of the HDMI port. The Pi boots fine without the HAT.

[jimrkerry]

Got the Satellite1.1 HAT with a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W board working.

Was using the recommended Amazon Basics 30W PD power supply with an Apple USB-C to USB-C cable. Tried an Anker Powerline III USB-C to USB-C cable. Didn't help.

Tried an Anker PowerPort-4 2.4A USB-A power supply with an Anker USB-A to USB-C power supply cable. Didn't expect that to work but it did.

Seems to be working very well at the moment. I'll follow-up after it has been connected and working for a while.

[jimrkerry]

The Amazon Basics power supply is being returned. The Anker PowerPort-4 power supply (sat1 pd = 5.0V @ 0.0A) is being replaced by an Anker Nano 30W PPS power supply (sat1 pd = 9.0V @ 2.0A) with an Anker 60W USB-C Cable.

[jimrkerry]

Have made no progress with the Seeed Respeaker Lite USB as to why it quits responding after a short time.

There seems to be a problem with the Linux Voice Assistant documented in this issue:

Doesn't respond to wake word after a few hours #6

This causes the Satellite1 to stop responding to the Wake Word after a short time. Can't use the Satellite1.1 HAT with the Raspberry Pi Zero 2W until this gets resolved.

[jimrkerry]

Found a solution to the problem I was having and now the Satellite1 with Raspberry Pi Zero 2W satellite is working great.

Thanks to @florian-asche; and Brad Davis and Martin Löwe from FutureProofHomes for great customer support.