I would like to use Almond with Home Assistant. While I was able to hack together some hardware (RPi with Matrix Voice and a cable connected speaker), I wish there was a more elegant hardware I could use instead that would not make my kitchen look like a lab. I have something like an “OpenSource/OpenHardware” Alexa type of device in mind which should be able to run Almond.
Do you have any recommendations?
At this stage, I think plugging a USB microphone into a Pi with a case or a Home Assistant Blue is the “cleanest” way to make a smart speaker with Almond. This is the microphone I personally used, and then I connected the Pi to a pair of bookshelf speakers.
I also have a Matrix Voice, and I’ve been looking for a long time for a case for it, but I never find anything satisfactory. The designs I found keep the circuitry exposed, which defeats the point. Maybe it’s because you can’t 3D print a microphone grill? I don’t know!
Thanks a lot for sharing your setup and experience. Just to clarify, you are using this microphone with a Pi, right? I am asking because they explicitly list it as not compatible:
Regarding a case for the Matrix Voice: I am in the same boat not finding anything suitable so far. I will stay on the look-out though…
Oh that’s a fun one, they didn’t have that picture when I bought it a few months ago. And yeah it’s a mistake, it works perfectly on Linux with standard drivers.
hehe, thanks for clarifying 
