ygelfand/echolocal

EchoLocal

Turn an Amazon Echo Dot or Echo Show into a local Home Assistant voice satellite, speaker and display.

A pure-Go replacement for Amazon's services. It speaks the ESPHome native API, so Home Assistant discovers it the way it discovers any ESPHome device.

Devices

| Device | Codename | Screen | Camera | | --------------------- | -------- | --------------- | ------ | | Echo Dot (2nd gen) | biscuit | LED ring | No | | Echo Show 5 (1st gen) | checkers | 5.5", 960 × 480 | Yes | | Echo Show 5 (2nd gen) | cronos | 5.5", 960 × 480 | Yes | | Echo Show 8 (1st gen) | crown | 8", 1280 × 800 | Yes |

Features

Every device

• Wake words on the device with microWakeWord and

openWakeWord. Two assistants, each with its own wake word and Assist pipeline. "Stop" works without a wake word.

• Speaker: a Home Assistant media_player for announcements, TTS and music, ducking under the

wake word. A Sendspin player for Music Assistant. Chromecast receiver (audio only on the Dot).

• White noise: two layers from white, pink, brown, rain, ocean, fan, fire, brook, cabin,

crickets and wind.

• Intercom: calls between devices on your network. Audio on the Dot, audio and video on the Shows.
• Timers and alerts, with custom tones for chimes, timers and wake sounds.
• Bluetooth proxy for Home Assistant, so the device extends your Bluetooth for integrations

like Bermuda. While the proxy is on, the device also advertises an iBeacon with UUID 9c5fa6f1-91c4-4f56-bb9f-d92acfd9d40b, major 1, and a minor from the last two bytes of its factory MAC, for tools like BLE Positioning System.

• Light sensor, reported to Home Assistant.
• Updates from Home Assistant, stable or development channel.

Echo Dot

LED ring. Twelve individually addressable segments, effects for ambient, motion, alerts and room-reactive behavior, and a color per segment. The ring can follow the room's volume.

Echo Show

• A native dashboard with a clock in one of eight faces, the weather, and your Home Assistant

lights and switches control

• Tessera dashboards
• 33 audio visuals on the GPU, for the screen saver or for each assistant while it listens and

answers

• Nine styles and eighteen color themes
• Messages from Home Assistant, timers on screen
• An Immich photo screen saver
• A Chromecast receiver for YouTube, YouTube TV and Prime Video and more
• A Bluetooth speaker
• An RTSP camera on port 8554 with ONVIF discovery, and a snapshot camera in Home Assistant.
• Settings on the screen or from Home Assistant, and config sync between devices

The optional integration

Everything above works with stock Home Assistant. The EchoLocal integration (HACS) adds a dashboard and cards for these devices, turn history with recordings, a wake word library, custom tones, groups and a health view.

Installing

You need the device connected over USB with TWRP as its recovery. Follow the XDA guide for yours:

• Echo Dot (2nd gen), on Fire OS 6
• Echo Show 5 (1st gen)
• Echo Show 5 (2nd gen)
• Echo Show 8 (1st gen)

Download echolocal for your computer from the latest release:

| Computer | File | | ------------------- | ------------------------------ | | Mac (Apple silicon) | echolocal_darwin_arm64 | | Mac (Intel) | echolocal_darwin_x86_64 | | Linux (x86-64) | echolocal_linux_x86_64 | | Linux (ARM64) | echolocal_linux_arm64 | | Windows (x86-64) | echolocal_windows_x86_64.exe | | Windows (ARM64) | echolocal_windows_arm64.exe |

On macOS and Linux:

mv echolocal_darwin_arm64 echolocal
chmod +x echolocal
xattr -d com.apple.quarantine echolocal   # macOS only, if Gatekeeper blocks it
./echolocal install --name living-room

On Windows:

Rename-Item echolocal_windows_x86_64.exe echolocal.exe
.\echolocal.exe install --name living-room

The installer detects the device, flashes its boot image, installs EchoLocal, and asks for your Wi‑Fi if the device isn't on a network yet.

It then shows up in Home Assistant. Add it, and Home Assistant sets its encryption key.

Building it yourself

make build-echod                  # echod for the Echo Dot
make build-echod BOARD=crown      # echod for an Echo Show: checkers, cronos or crown
make install-echod                # build, install and restart it on the attached device (requires prior full installation)

How it fits together

• echod runs on the device: the hardware, the screen, the wake word engines, the conversation,

and an ESPHome native API server.

• echolocal is the host CLI: installing, Wi‑Fi, and offline tools for debugging the device.