Deprecation Notice

NOTE: Work has moved to the wyoming-satellite project. This has better integration with Home Assistant, and is more modular with audio services.

[DEPRECATED] Home Assistant Satellite

Python-based satellite for Assist that streams audio to Home Assistant from a microphone.

You must have the openWakeWord add-on installed.

Requirements

• Python 3.9 or higher
• ffmpeg
• alsa-utils (for arecord and aplay)

Installation

Install Python and the required system dependencies:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install python3 python3-pip python3-venv \
                     alsa-utils git

sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends \
                     ffmpeg

Clone the repository and run the setup script:

git clone https://github.com/synesthesiam/homeassistant-satellite.git
cd homeassistant-satellite
script/setup

This will create a virtual environment and install the package.

Long-Lived Access Token

You must create a long-lived access token in Home Assistant for the satellite to access the websocket API.

1. Go to your profile page in Home Assistant
2. Scroll down to "Long-lived access tokens"
3. Click "Create token"
4. Enter a name and click "OK"
5. Copy the entire token using the copy button provided
6. Save the token somewhere you can paste from later

Running

script/run --host <IP> --token <TOKEN>

where <IP> is the IP address of your Home Assistant server and <TOKEN> is the long-lived access token.

This will stream audio from the default microphone to your preferred pipeline in Home Assistant.

See --help for more options

Feedback Sounds

Use --awake-sound <WAV> and --done-sound <WAV> to play sounds when the wake word is detected and when a voice command is finished.

For example:

script/run ... --awake-sound sounds/awake.wav --done-sound sounds/done.wav

Pipeline Name

The preferred pipeline will be run by default, but you change this with --pipeline <NAME> where <NAME> is the name of the pipeline you'd like to run instead.

Change Microphone/Speaker

Run arecord -L to list available input devices. Pick devices that start with plughw: because they will perform software audio conversions. Use --mic-device plughw:... to use a specific input device.

Run aplay -L to list available output devices. Pick devices that start with plughw: because they will perform software audio conversions. Use --snd-device plughw:... to use a specific output device.

Voice Activity Detection

For fast but inaccurate speech detection:

.venv/bin/pip3 install .[webrtc]

and

script/run ... --vad webrtcvad

For much better (but slower) speech detection, use silero VAD with:

.venv/bin/pip3 install \
  --find-links https://synesthesiam.github.io/prebuilt-apps/ \
  .[silerovad]

and

script/run ... --vad silero

NOTE: The --find-links option is only necessary on 32-bit ARM systems because Microsoft does not build onnxruntime wheels for them.

Audio Enhancements

Make use of webrtc-noise-gain with:

.venv/bin/pip3 install .[webrtc]

Use --noise-suppression <NS> suppress background noise, such as fans (0-4 with 4 being max suppression, default: 0).

Use--auto-gain <AG> to automatically increase the microphone volume (0-31 with 31 being the loudest, default: 0).

Use--volume-multiplier <VM> to multiply volume by <VM> so 2.0 would be twice as loud (default: 1.0).

Wake word detection via a direct wyoming connection

By default wake word detection is performed by forwarding audio to Home Assistant. It is also possible to perform wake word detection using a wyoming server, possibly (but not necessarily) running on the same machine as the satellite.

To enable:

.venv/bin/pip3 install .[wyoming]

script/run ... --wake-word wyoming

Use --wyoming-host <host> to set the host of the wyoming server (default localhost).

Use --wyoming-port <port> to set the port of the wyoming server (default 10400).

Use --wake-word-id <id> to detect a specific wake word instead of the server's default.

HTTPS

If your Home Assistant server uses https, you will need to add --protocol https to your command.

PulseAudio / PipeWire

Enable PulseAudio / PipeWire support with:

sudo apt-get install libpulse0

.venv/bin/pip3 install .[pulseaudio]

Use --pulseaudio to record and play audio via PulseAudio or PipeWire. A socket or hostname can be optionally provided as --pulseaudio=<socket|host>.

When using PulseAudio, ducking and acoustic echo cancelation are available to facilitate cases when the satellite is simultaneously used to play music, movies, etc. Such sounds are captured by the microphone, together with the user's voice, and interfere wake word detection and speech recognition.

--echo-cancel enables PulseAudio's acoustic echo cancelation, which removes playback sounds from the captured audio, making wake word detection easier.

--ducking=<vol> sets the volume of all playback streams to <vol> (e.g., 0.2 for 20%) after the wake word is detected and until the pipeline finishes, making speech recognition easier.

Running as a Service

You can run homeassistant-satellite as a systemd service by first creating a service file:

sudo systemctl edit --force --full homeassistant-satellite.service

Paste in the following template, and change both /home/pi/homeassistant-satellite and the script/run arguments to match your set up:

[Unit]
Description=Home Assistant Satellite
Wants=network-online.target
After=network-online.target

[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/home/pi/homeassistant-satellite/script/run --host <host> --token <token>
WorkingDirectory=/home/pi/homeassistant-satellite
Restart=always
RestartSec=1

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

Save the file and exit your editor. Next, enable the service to start at boot and run it:

sudo systemctl enable --now homeassistant-satellite.service

(you may need to hit CTRL+C to get back to a shell prompt)

With the service running, you can view logs in real-time with:

journalctl -u homeassistant-satellite.service -f

Disable and stop the service with:

sudo systemctl disable --now homeassistant-satellite.service

Running in Docker

On the command-line:

docker run --rm -it \
    --name 'homeassistant-satellite' \
    --device /dev/snd \
    --group-add=audio \
    ghcr.io/synesthesiam/homeassistant-satellite:latest \
    --host <HOST> \
    --token <TOKEN> \
    ...

Using Docker Compose:

version: "3.8"
services:
  homeassistant-satellite:
    image: "ghcr.io/synesthesiam/homeassistant-satellite:latest"
    devices:
      - /dev/snd:/dev/snd
    group_add:
      - audio
    command:
      - --host
      - <HOST>
      - --token
      - <TOKEN>

It may be necessary to manually specify --mic-device plughw:... and --snd-device plughw:... when using Docker.

Troubleshooting

Add --debug to get more information about the messages being exchanged with Home Assistant.

Add --debug-recording-dir <DIR> to save recorded audio to a directory <DIR>.