Level Up Your Smart Home: Ditch Alexa for a Local Voice Assistant! 💡

In this video series, I am going to show you how you can use use ESPHome and Home Assistant to replace Alexa with local voice assistant.
Part I will show you how to build a first rough prototype of the solution.
Full details with all explanations can be found on my blog:
the-smart-home-maker.com/tuto...
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[@the_smart_home_maker]

Here is the link to the detailed tutorial on my blog: the-smart-home-maker.com/tutorials/level-up-your-smart-home-ditch-alexa-for-a-local-voice-assistant/

[@johnnynobels]

Nice video. Would appreciatie to get a step-to-step guide on how to build an assistant with build-in wake word detectie

[@the_smart_home_maker]

Does this help you? medium.com/@the_smart_home_maker/use-esphome-and-home-assistant-to-replace-alexa-with-local-voice-assistant-part-i-prototype-1ff9f55602c0

[@simonsayshomeassistant]

I have just ordered these parts Daniel :)

[@the_smart_home_maker]

Awesome! Have fun building it and let me know how it worked out!

[@simonsayshomeassistant]

@@the_smart_home_maker Oh yes for sure!

[@HousewerkRecords]

@the_smart_home_maker what an excellent video. I’m going to get this going once the components arrive. I’m very interested in potential speaker and mic upgrades and where I can get a suitable housing for everything. Do you think the esp32 with touchscreen would do a good job for this project?

[@the_smart_home_maker]

Happy that you like it 😊👍🏻 yeah - a touchscreen would for sure add even more value to the solution 😀

[@Nick_Bo]

Super Video! Endlich ein Weg aus der kommerziellen Cloud

[@the_smart_home_maker]

Freut mich, dass es Dir gefällt 😊👍🏻

[@VioletKitten1990]

Love the idea but need more details on how to set up and build 👍

[@the_smart_home_maker]

Yes 👍🏻 I will soon post the more detailed description on my blog medium.com/@the_smart_home_maker. Will let you know as soon as it will be online.

[@fmleal]

​@@the_smart_home_makerthanks mate.

[@the_smart_home_maker]

medium.com/@the_smart_home_maker/use-esphome-and-home-assistant-to-replace-alexa-with-local-voice-assistant-part-i-prototype-1ff9f55602c0

[@hojo7258]

Great Vid.. did you also make the Smart Clock Message display?

[@the_smart_home_maker]

Yes, I did 😊 I have a short showing it (th-cam.com/users/shortsAw6uaSxNag0?si=AyHnJkl_rVSUmKc0) but if you are interested, I can also create a video tutorial as well

[@kontoname]

Why do you build an alternative but still call it alexa in the demonstration part - or was that the "original" alexa in your house? Rather confusing. Why not just call it assistant in the demo part if it was that?

[@the_smart_home_maker]

Hi! Totally understand your comment 😊👍🏻 Well in my case, it is all about the household acceptance factor. If they do not have to change their behavior, then it is fine for them. For example my small daughter already uses „Alexa“ heavily, so I decided for a first start, sticking with Alexa would be fine. But as you might have seen, this is part I of a video series and in one of the next steps, I plan to customize the name to something different, more individual.

[@mrkeshin88]

this works great, only problem i have is my speaker screeches loudly and i can barely understand whats being said,

[@the_smart_home_maker]

But you do understand some words? If this is the case, I would propose to play with the attributes „volume_multiplier“ and „auto_gain“ in the voice_assistant section of the ESPHome YAML file. Might help.

[@joeking5211]

Why oh why oh why are a lot of great esp projects are not given generic setup, not everyone uses that obfuscated pile of cryptic mess called homeassistant. What if we want to use this with say node-red as one example, how do we interface that ?. Or are you saying that this can ONLY be used with HA ??. Kind Rgds.

[@the_smart_home_maker]

Hi @joeking5211, well this specific solution is centered around Home Assistant as the voice pipeline processing the voice commands is provided by Home Assistant. But I can totally understand that you would like to have a more generic solution!

[@joeking5211]

So sorry for my mistake here. yes i see it is only for this HA nightmare. Thks for the reply.

[@jmorris644]

@@the_smart_home_maker I second a vote for a non HA solution.

[@dfgdfg_]

Would be great if you could move your microphone closer to you mouth, please. I am not native English speaker

[@the_smart_home_maker]

Thank you for the feedback 👍🏻 will improve this for future videos!

[@VernGraner]

Nice Work! I like the fact that you give details on the components as well as the wiring. 👍🙂 That said two minor things 1) PLEASE don't use the word "Alexa" in your demos. You set off my amazon echo units over and over! 🤦‍ 2) You video quality is really excellent but your audio quality is TERRIBLE! 🤢Please get a decent mic to match the great quality video!

[@the_smart_home_maker]

Thank you very much for your very helpful feedback! 😊👍🏻

[@VernGraner]

@@the_smart_home_maker Thanks for being OPEN to feedback! 👍🙂 If you are interested, I would be happy to assist in some of the specifics of audio recording for video if you like. I have spent decades working sound in various systems (live performance for stage bands, recording studios, small venue PA work, video studio audio etc). :)