What is it

ESP Audio Docks is a range of extension boards (i.e. docks) that allow you to develop Audio solutions based on ESP8266 and ESP32 chips. These were created to make Audio development entry as easy and inexpensive as possible.

Deprecation notice

I'm working on a v2 design of the Docks. New boards are improving some of the aspects of the Docks, while also trying to push the price down.

• HiFi ESP is superceeded by HiFi-ESP32 and no longer produced. Mostly due to the unavailability of the PSRAM chips.
• ESP Audio Duo will be superseded by Loud-ESP32 following similar changes that HiFi-ESP32 introduced.
• Louder-ESP replaced by Louder-ESP32
• ESP Audio Solo will no longer be produced due to fading interest in the ESP8266 platform.

All v2 designs are adding a few new features on top

• Using PSRAM-equipped chips, since external PSRAM become too expensive
• Available with both ESP32 and ESP32-S3
• Built-in or external antenna, or optional Ethernet module
• All fit Raspberry Pi 4 case making it very easy and inexpensive to deploy

Motivation

I spent the last few years developing different solutions based on ESP devices. It all started with ESP8266, where CPU power is not really sufficient to do real-time decoding, so you're limited to rather simple ding-dong business. Then ESP32 came, bringing two much more capable cores, so you have powerhouse to handle communication and decoding at the same time. Perhaps most importantly it also came with 4MB of PSRAM, so you can do decent buffering (essential for streamed content).

Now new ESP32 C-Series and S-Series chips are entering the market, and their potential is mostly unrealized as of today.

I created those docks, to be able quick prototype for whole range of ESP8266 and ESP32 chips, starting with the simplest finger-sized toys and going all the way up to full-sized speakers.

Features

	ESP Audio Solo	ESP Audio Duo	Hifi ESP (superseded by HiFi-ESP32)	Louder ESP (superseded by HiFi-ESP32)
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Docks with	ESP8266, ESP32C3, ESP32S2 Mini modules	ESP32 Mini Module	ESP32 Mini Module	ESP32 Mini Module
DAC	Single I2S DAC (MAX98357) with built in D-Class amp	Dual I2S DAC (MAX98357) with built in D-Class amp	PCM5100A 32bit Stereo DAC -100 dB typical noise level	Stereo I2S DAC (TAS5805M) with built in D-Class amp
Output (4Ω)	3W	2x 3W	Non-amplified stereo output	2x 15W at 12V Vin
Output (8Ω)	1.5W	2x 1.5W	Non-amplified stereo output	2x 23W at 22V Vin
Adds		8MB PSRAM (4MB usable)	8MB PSRAM (4MB usable)	8MB PSRAM (4MB usable)

Onboard PSRAM

Audio streaming require proper buffering to work, even with ESP32 500K of RAM it is a challenging task. For that reason most of the projects will require WROVER modules that have onboard PSRAM chip.

All ESP32 Docks has 8MB PSRAM chip onboard, connected via high-speed SDIO interface. This effectively turns your regular WROOM module into WROVER module with no effort required. Any code using PSRAM with just work out-of-the box.

Boards Pinout

ESP Audio Solo

ESP Audio Duo

HiFi-ESP (discontinued, superseded by Esparagus HiFi MediaLink)

Software samples

In the software section two firmware examples provided.

• esp32-i2s-bare is base I2S implementation based on ESP-IDF implementation directly.
• esp32-i2s-esp8266audio is based on excellent ESP8266Audio library (it works with the whole ESP range, don't get fooled by the name), providing minimum code implementation.
• esp32-i2s-web-radio is based on the same library, providing minimum web-readio stream player. It expects playlist as an input in 'data' folder.

Platformio IDE

All samples are provided as Plarformio IDE projects. After installing it, open sample project. Select proper environment based on your dock. Run Build and Upload commands to install necessary tools and libraries, build and upload prject to the board. Communication and proper upload method selection will be handled by IDE automatically.

Arduino IDE

Follow the ESP8266Audio library guide. Default settings will work out of the box with ESP8266 and ESP32 boards. For ESP32C3 and ESP32S2 board please adjust pinout according to the above section

ESPHome and Home Assistant

Being an ESP32-based device, you can easily integrate it into your Home Assistant using ESPHome. Start with esphome web installer, which will give you ESPHome base install and WiFi configuration in minutes. Some S2/S3 boards have issues with we-installer, you may need to use Adafruit flasher instead with binaries pulled from the HA.

Next, navigate to your Home Assistant (assuming you have your ESPHome integration installed), and adopt the newly created node

ESPHome will give you ESPHome configs for Solo board running with ESP32-S2/S3, as well as Duo/HiFi-ESP and Louder ESP working with ESP32.

Few words of explanation.

• media_player publishes the media player into the Home assistant, so you can use it together with the native player or Music Assistant. You have a volume knob in the HA as well.
• 
• Volume set up to 50% on player start. Especially for Louder-ESP32, this is helpful :)

Bonus - automation example

The true power of the native speaker in the eHA is the use of automation. One example that I find useful. This simple automation will be pronounced every hour between 8 AM and 9 PM. Another one is used to pronounce bedtime, you get the point...

Squeezelite-ESP32

Squeezelite-ESP32 is a multimedia software suite, that started as renderer (or player) of LMS (Logitech Media Server). Now it is extended with - Spotify over-the-air player using SpotifyConnect (thanks to cspot) - AirPlay controller (iPhone, iTunes ...) and enjoy synchronization multiroom as well (although it's AirPlay 1 only) - Traditional Bluetooth device (iPhone, Android)

And LMS itself - Streams your local music and connect to all major on-line music providers (Spotify, Deezer, Tidal, Qobuz) using Logitech Media Server - a.k.a LMS with multi-room audio synchronization. - LMS can be extended by numerous plugins and can be controlled using a Web browser or dedicated applications (iPhone, Android). - It can also send audio to UPnP, Sonos, ChromeCast and AirPlay speakers/devices.

All ESP32 based boards are tested with Squeezelite-ESP32 software, that can be flashed using nothing but web-browser. You can use Squeezelite-ESP32 installer for that purpose.

How to flash and configure ("ESP Audio Duo", "HiFi-ESP" and "Louder ESP")

Use Installer for ESP Audio Dock to flash firmware first. It has been preconfigured to work with ESP Audio boards and will configure all hardware automatically.

Select the correct device first
Connect the device to USB port and select it from the list
Press Flash and wait around 2 minutes
(Optional) You may enter the serial console to get more information
Device is in recovery mode. Connect to squeezelite-299fac wifi network with squeezelite password (your network name suffix will be different)
When redirected to captive portal let device scan wifi network and provide valid credentials
You can use provided IP address (http://192.168.1.99/ on the screenshot) to access settings page
(Optional) You may change device names to something close to you heart
Exit recovery

You can use it now

Bluetooth	Spotify Connect	AirPlay	LMS Renderer

Hardware

Please visit hardware section for board schematics and PCB designs. Note that PCB are shared as multi-layer PDFs.

ESP Audio Solo

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	MAX98357 DAC Speaker Terminal

ESP Audio Duo

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	MAX98357 DAC Speaker Terminals 8MB PSRAM IC

HiFi-ESP (discontinued, superseded by Esparagus HiFi MediaLink)

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	PCM5100A DAC Speaker Terminals 8MB PSRAM IC Ultra-Low noise LDO 3V3 Voltage regulator