GoKawiilOpen-hardware manufacturer Pine64 has launched a $50 smart speaker that runs open-source software on a RISC-V chip.
PineVoice (previously known as PineVox) is built around a Bouffalo Lab BL606P RISC-V SoC with integrated Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0 and Zigbee radio interfaces.
It’s equipped with dual microphone array and speaker with support for ‘local wake word detection’, and top-mounted buttons allow you to mute (with LED indicator), start/stop and adjust volume.
The factory-shipped firmware is built on Alibaba’s open-source YoC platform and runs the Wyoming Satellite protocol, which turns the device into a local microphone and speaker for a self-hosted, Linux-based Home Assistant setups.
You can install Home Assistant as a Snap and run it Ubuntu Core.
While Pine64 say this uses the Wyoming protocol it is, per the project, deprecated. The developer recommends using Linux Voice Assistant which uses the ESPHome protocol.
With just 32 MiB of embedded pSRAM memory and 16 MiB of flash, and 128 KiB ROM storage, the specs may sound meagre – although in the current AI climate, generous – but this is an embedded device not a full-blown PC hiding in an aroma diffuser .
PineVoice isn’t an all-singing smart speaker
PineVoice isn’t a rival to Echoes, Nests or HomePods
PineVoice is in an early-stage development and early adopters will encounter quirks and performance issues. Future firmware updates should resolve issues in time, but like all of Pine64’s products, you’re not buying a consumer-grade product.
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