As this is all rather new to me – if anyone is interested in collaborating, let me know.
Here is to hoping that this will be more than an announcement of intent. Since Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W are unobtainium and I happen to own this RPi Zero 2 W shaped ESP from FutureProofHomes, I’ll go and try to turn the rpi_mynd_link into an ESphome component so I can add this speaker to my growing zoo of ESPhome native sendspin endpoints …
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Exciting idea… I also do a lot with Home Assistant and ESPHome. One thing I noticed about your idea: why that particular ESP32?
When designing the board, Benjamin had these kinds of options in mind and provided footprints for them. In your picture of the MYNDberry PCB, at the bottom right there are two rows of pins. Using jumpers you can route 3.3 V to the pins wherever it’s needed. The remaining connections have to be wired directly.
The Seeed Studio XIAO ESP32-C6 can be fitted there directly and runs perfectly with ESPHome — I have one in operation with an RS485 interface and Modbus integration. It’s designed specifically for IoT and is very good in terms of power consumption.
I’ve also thought about using a Pi 4 instead of the Pi Zero 2 W — I’d actually prefer that, since you keep running into its limits. But space-wise that’s likely to be difficult.
Two reasons:
A) I have this, and not the other (-:
B) It comes with the antenna that’s tuned for it. I have another esp32 based audio box, and it’s WiFi performance is so terrible that it is basically unusable.
Well, that’s an argument — although you can get the C6 on AliExpress for around USD 5.
It looks like a U.FL / IPEX Generation 1 connector, which will also fit the C6. This board has an onboard ceramic antenna plus the option to connect an external one. Don’t forget to switch to the external antenna in code.
Strange about your WiFi performance — I mostly use ESP32s with the onboard antenna, no issues even in steel housings. But my WiFi coverage throughout the house isn’t bad; I have 5 UniFi APs running in total.
It was just an idea. Wiring up your board and fitting it into the case could be complex and laborious, and longer wires can cause other issues.
The board has the exact dimensions of a pi zero 2W so that part should fit. The antenna, I will find a way.