BarryBox

BarryBox is an MQTT controlled Text-to-Speech speaker. It is connected to a frontend from which you can directly send messages and sounds (from a soundboard) to the speaker. My personal BarryBox is hosted at: https://barrybox.nl/

The BarryBox has the following features:

• You can setup WiFi credentials and a username on the first startup;
• Receive messages (audio stream / TTS message) over MQTT;
• Play a sound at startup;
• Sending its status (online / offline);
• Queueing audio streams that it has to play;
• Stop the currently playing stream if you press the button;
• Clear the queue of streams if you press the button long.

The backend adds the following features:

• Make HTTP endpoints available for sending messages and obtaining the status;
• Save incoming messages into a database;
• Restricting access with an API key;
• Automatically register newly connected BarryBoxes by username.

With the frontend you can easily access any BarryBox over the web.

Demo

Hardware

The BarryBox is based on an ESP32 microcontroller, which controls a PCM5102 DAC.

Quickstart

Flashing the ESP32

1. Install the ESP32 Arduino core from the Arduino Boards Manager.
2. Install the required libraries from the Library Manager:
   • ESP32-audioI2S
   • WiFiManager-ESP32
   • esp8266-google-tts
   • Arduino Client for MQTT
   • ArduinoJson
   • ArduinoQueue
3. Rename config.sample.h to config.h and add your MQTT server and credentials to the file.
4. Open BarryBox.ino using the Arduino software.
5. Select your ESP32 board from the Tools > Boards menu.
6. Flash your board by selecting Sketch > Upload.

Setting up the Node-RED backend

TODO

Setting up the frontend (Docker/Podman)

The included docker-compose.yml file is compatible with Docker and (rootless) Podman.

1. Rename include/config.sample.php to include/config.php, add your API key and API URL and set the default user.
2. Start the container using docker-compose up -d.