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My Journey to a reliable and enjoyable locally hosted voice assistant (2025)

community.home-assistant.io

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Re: My Journey to a reliable and enjoyable locally hosted voice assistant (2025)

#21

Post by Insanity »

nacs wrote: post #12
gausswho wrote: post #6

This is five months old now. Any substantial changes to the recommended setup?

It looks like the author has kept it updated since then. They mention the "Qwen3.5 (35B)" model for example which was released around 2 weeks ago.

For some anecdata, I've set up Qwen3.5 on a RX 7900XTX last weekend. It runs fine, did some simple coding prompts and got responses in 15-30 seconds. It's my first foray into running models locally just to see what's possible, and I guess I'm happily surprised so far.

Also, the entire setup was done through Codex. I asked Codex to figure out how to run models locally given my architecture (Ubuntu, AMD GPU). It told me which steps to apply and I hit zero snags.

Re: My Journey to a reliable and enjoyable locally hosted voice assistant (2025)

#22

Post by hamdingers »

voidUpdate wrote: post #17
hamdingers wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I consider each time I need to pull out my phone and "do it myself" to be a failure of my smart home system. If a light cannot be automatically on when I need it (like a motion sensor) or controlled with a dedicated button within arms reach (like a remote on my desk) then the third best option is one that lets me control it without interrupting what I'm doing, moving from where I am, using my hands, or possessing any…

Do you not just turn the light on when you go in a room, and turn it off again when you go out? All the rooms in my flat have switches next to the door

Yes, that would be a button within arms reach, something I explicitly prefer over the voice assistant. I use them frequently.

I don't have just one light per room though, some spaces like my workshop or living room have a lot of lighting options, and flitting around the room flipping a bunch of switches is clumsy and unnecessary. The preference is always towards automation (e.g. when I play a movie in Jellyfin, the lights dim) but there are situations where I just need to ask for the workbench light.

Re: My Journey to a reliable and enjoyable locally hosted voice assistant (2025)

#23

Post by pwillia7 »

_spduchamp wrote: post #18
hamdingers wrote: post #10

If you're less concerned about privacy, I use Gemini 2.5 Flash for this and it's exceptionally good and fast as a HA assistant while being much cheaper than the electricity that would be needed to keep a 3090 awake. The thing that kills this for me (and they even mentioned it) is wake word detection. I have both the HA voice preview and FPH Satellite1 devices, plus have experimented with a few other options like a Ra…

How about a button? I'd prefer to physically press a button on an intercom box than having something churning away constantly processing sound.

I'm in if I can embed it into my forearm

Re: My Journey to a reliable and enjoyable locally hosted voice assistant (2025)

#24

Post by senkora »

hamdingers wrote: post #10

If you're less concerned about privacy, I use Gemini 2.5 Flash for this and it's exceptionally good and fast as a HA assistant while being much cheaper than the electricity that would be needed to keep a 3090 awake. The thing that kills this for me (and they even mentioned it) is wake word detection. I have both the HA voice preview and FPH Satellite1 devices, plus have experimented with a few other options like a Ra…

Why not use an easier to detect wake “word”, like two claps in quick succession? Or a couple of notes of a melody?

Re: My Journey to a reliable and enjoyable locally hosted voice assistant (2025)

#25

Post by kortilla »

_spduchamp wrote: post #18
hamdingers wrote: post #10

If you're less concerned about privacy, I use Gemini 2.5 Flash for this and it's exceptionally good and fast as a HA assistant while being much cheaper than the electricity that would be needed to keep a 3090 awake. The thing that kills this for me (and they even mentioned it) is wake word detection. I have both the HA voice preview and FPH Satellite1 devices, plus have experimented with a few other options like a Ra…

How about a button? I'd prefer to physically press a button on an intercom box than having something churning away constantly processing sound.

Rules out a bunch of cases where your hands are busy handling ingredients in the kitchen, etc

Re: My Journey to a reliable and enjoyable locally hosted voice assistant (2025)

#26

Post by hamdingers »

_spduchamp wrote: post #18
hamdingers wrote: post #10

If you're less concerned about privacy, I use Gemini 2.5 Flash for this and it's exceptionally good and fast as a HA assistant while being much cheaper than the electricity that would be needed to keep a 3090 awake. The thing that kills this for me (and they even mentioned it) is wake word detection. I have both the HA voice preview and FPH Satellite1 devices, plus have experimented with a few other options like a Ra…

How about a button? I'd prefer to physically press a button on an intercom box than having something churning away constantly processing sound.

If I have to go to a thing and push a button, I'd rather the button do the thing I wanted in the first place. Voice assistants are for when my hands are full or I don't want to get up. (I wrote more about my home automation philosophy in another comment[1]).

Also I have all my voice assistant devices mounted to the ceiling

1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47399909

Re: My Journey to a reliable and enjoyable locally hosted voice assistant (2025)

#27

Post by hamdingers »

senkora wrote: post #24
hamdingers wrote: post #10

If you're less concerned about privacy, I use Gemini 2.5 Flash for this and it's exceptionally good and fast as a HA assistant while being much cheaper than the electricity that would be needed to keep a 3090 awake. The thing that kills this for me (and they even mentioned it) is wake word detection. I have both the HA voice preview and FPH Satellite1 devices, plus have experimented with a few other options like a Ra…

Why not use an easier to detect wake “word”, like two claps in quick succession? Or a couple of notes of a melody?

Can't clap if your hands are full and I would not subject my family to my attempts at delivering a melody.

I haven't tried training my own wake word though, I'm tempted to see if it improves things.

Re: My Journey to a reliable and enjoyable locally hosted voice assistant (2025)

#28

Post by touristtam »

daveoc64 wrote: post #13

I've recently purchased a couple of the Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition devices, and they leave a lot to be desired. The wake word detection isn't great, and the audio quality is abysmal (for voice responses, not music). Amazon has ruined their Alexa and Echo devices with ads and annoying nag messages. I'd really like an open alternative, but the basics are lacking right now.

Can those devices (Amazon) be _jail broken_? I was just wondering that this morning while taking a shower.

Re: My Journey to a reliable and enjoyable locally hosted voice assistant (2025)

#29

Post by johannes1234321 »

voidUpdate wrote: post #17
hamdingers wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I consider each time I need to pull out my phone and "do it myself" to be a failure of my smart home system. If a light cannot be automatically on when I need it (like a motion sensor) or controlled with a dedicated button within arms reach (like a remote on my desk) then the third best option is one that lets me control it without interrupting what I'm doing, moving from where I am, using my hands, or possessing any…

Do you not just turn the light on when you go in a room, and turn it off again when you go out? All the rooms in my flat have switches next to the door

The Sun moves around, while I am in a room. It might be high up when I enter a room, but after a while there may be clouds or it may have set.

When watching a movie one may dimthe light. Once finished one may need more lights.

When going to bed I may want to switch all lights off. When getting up it may need some extra light.

A switch on the door is nice. More switches is better. Being able to control from anywhere may be even nicer.

Re: My Journey to a reliable and enjoyable locally hosted voice assistant (2025)

#30

Post by hamdingers »

pwillia7 wrote: post #23
_spduchamp wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about a button? I'd prefer to physically press a button on an intercom box than having something churning away constantly processing sound.

I'm in if I can embed it into my forearm

In the mid 2000s I had a setup where some children's walkie talkie "spy watches" could be used to issue commands to a completely DIY, relay based smart home system.

I'm looking forward to whenever my Pebble ships so I can recreate that experience with this: https://github.com/skylord123/pebble-home-assistant-ws

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