ReSpeaker Lite Voice Assistant Kit

Powered by XMOS XU316 AI Sound and Audio chipset, it is a high-performance open source voice assistant development kit. The kit integrates the ReSpeaker Lite dual-microphone array and a powerful XIAO ESP32S3 processor, offering exceptional voice recognition, noise reduction, and voice processing capabilities. This kit provides firmware integration with Home Assistant via ESPHome, making it ideal for smart voice assistants and home automation applications.

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Features

• Pre-Soldered ESP32 Controller: A powerful XIAO ESP32S3 is pre-soldered via the I2S pins, offering a solderless experience for further development and integration.
• Dual Microphone Array for Far-Field Voice Capture: The 2 high performance digital microphones capture and extract far-field speech and voice (up to 3 meters) even in noisy environments as it cancells point noise using two microphone input.
• Onboard AI ASR Algorithms: Powered by XMOS XU-316 AI sound and audio chip, the kit includes Natural Language Understanding algorithms for Interference Cancellation (IC)​, Acoustic Echo Cancellation, Noise Suppression, and Automatic Gain Control (AGC), enabling high quality voice capture.
• Embracing Open Source: As an open source hardware, it's compatible with Arduino, PlatformIO, MicroPython, CircuitPython for furthur developement.
• Compatible with Popular Voice Assistants: This kit allows you to build your own natural language processor and connect it to Home Assitant via ESPHome, Amazon Alexa Voice Service, Google Assistant, or Cloud Speech-to-Text service, enabling you to ask questions and issue voice commands to your programs.
• Onboard RGB LED: The kit features a programmable WS2812 RGB LED, supporting custom effects and offering a visual interface for your applications.

Specification

Dual Microphone Array	Provides high-quality audio input.
Power Indicator Light	Illuminates when powered on.
RGB Light	Programmable WS2812, provides visual feedback.
Mute Indicator Light	Lights up red when the mute button is pressed.
USR Button	User-defined button.
Mute Button	Mutes audio input when pressed.
XIAO ESP32S3	For further development and integration.
XU316 Core Processor	Responsible for audio processing and transmission.
External Power Supply Solder Pad	Supports external 5V power supply.
USB Type-C Port	Used for power and data transmission.
Speaker Connector	For audio output. Supports 5W amplifier speakers.
3.5mm Headphone jack	Output audio, We can plug active speakers or Headphones into this port.
External power pad 1	Unused IO pins on the XU316.
External power pad 2	Unused IO pins on the XIAO ESP32.
JTAG	For debugging and programming the XU316.

Hardware Overview

Schematic

Pin Out

1	Dual Microphone Array	Provides high-quality audio input.
2	Power Indicator Light	Illuminates when powered on.
3	RGB Light	Programmable WS2812, provides visual interface
4	Mute Indicator Light	Lights up red when the mute button is pressed.
5	USR Button	User-defined button.
6	Mute Button	Mutes audio input when pressed.
7	XIAO ESP32S3 (optional)	For further development and integration.
8	XU316 Core Processor	Responsible for audio processing and transmission.
9	External Power Supply Solder Pad	Supports external 5V power supply.
10	USB Type-C Port	Used for power and data transmission.
11	Speaker Connector	For audio output. Supports 5W amplifier speakers.
12	3.5mm Headphone jack	Output audio, We can plug active speakers or Headphones into this port.
13	External power pad 1	Unused IO pins on the XIAO ESP32.
14	External power pad 2	Unused IO pins on the XU316.
15	JTAG	For debugging and programming the XU316.

Flash the I2S firmware

To use the ReSpeaker Lite with XIAO ESP32S3, please make sure the ReSpeaker Lite's firmware is the I2S version.

Check Firmware Flash to flash the latest I2S firmware.

Software Preparation

Install Arduino IDE

Download and Install the stable version of Arduino IDE according to your operating system.

Download Arduino IDE

Install Arduino-ESP32

To start the installation process using the Boards Manager, follow these steps:

• Install the current upstream Arduino IDE at the 1.8 level or later. The current version is at the arduino.cc website.

• Start Arduino and open the Settings window.

• Enter one of the release links above into Additional Board Manager URLs field. You can add multiple URLs, separating them with commas.

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/espressif/arduino-esp32/gh-pages/package_esp32_index.json

• Open Boards Manager from the sidebar, search ESP32 and click INSTALL.

• Restart Arduino IDE.

Install ReSpeaker Lite Library

We provide a library for users to quickly start:

Clone this project into the Arduino libraries folder e.g. with the following command:

cd  ~/Documents/Arduino/libraries
git clone https://github.com/limengdu/reSpeaker_Lite-Arduino-Library.git

Or download the library as zip file and add it to the library in Arduino IDE.

FAQ

• Can't detect ReSpeaker Lite USB sound device on Windows after flashing USB firmware?

• Open the start menu and type Device manager. Press the enter key. Find ReSpeaker Lite device, right click it and select Uninstall device. Select Delete the driver software for this device and click Uninstall. After that, restart the device and Windows will re-install the right sound card driver for it.

  

Resource

ReSpeaker Lite XMOS Firmware

ReSpeaker Lite Github