// OMG! UBUNTU! — LINUX & OPEN SOURCE
Pine64 launch $50 RISC-V smart speaker for Home Assistant tinkerers
Open-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 Home Assistant setup.
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 and not a full-blown computer hidden in an aroma diffuser1.
PineVoice is still in an early-stage development and early adopters will certainly encounter quirks and performance issues. Future firmware updates should resolve issues in time, but like all of Pine64’s products, don’t buy-in expecting a fuss-free ride.
Slick industrial design isn’t Pine64’s calling card, nor is fully-furnished software. The company focuses on price. They aim to provide cheap, open-friendly hardware which, in the hands of developers and tinkerers, can blossom into viable, if niche, products.
PinePhone, PineNote, PineBook and PineBook Pro, PineTab, PineTime and even its Pinecil soldering iron all follow the same model.
Interested? You can buy the PineVoice for $49.99 on the Pine64 store. It comes with a USB cable, quick start guide and a 30 day warranty – plus weekends’ worth of fun you’ll have trying to get it to do something.