What is it

Loud ESP is an ESP32-powered, rich-audio development board. Available with or without a color touchscreen, Loud ESP has a wealth of peripherals to support a wide range of user interaction. It is compact, portable, battery-powered, and designed to accommodate a variety of enclosures, all of which make it an ideal platform for the development of wearables and other smart devices. To help out with that, we maintain a repository of sample code that you can adapt for your own applications. Wireless, Touchscreen-Enabled Versatility for Audio Applications

Loud ESP is well suited for a number of different applications. To name just a few examples, it can be used as a portable speaker system with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capability, an internet-radio receiver, a framework for developing wearables and talking gadgets, or a smart speaker connected to the platform of your choice, such as Spotify.

Features & Specifications

MCU Core
    ESP32 Dual Core 32-bit LX6 microprocessor running at 240 MHz
    16 MB of flash storage
    8 MB of PSRAM
    CP2102 Serial communication / Flashing chip
Battery management
    Li-Ion battery charging with charge status indication
    Battery overcharge and overdischarge protection
    Battery overcurrent protection
    Battery voltage reading using built-in DAC
    Onboard power switch
    2-pin connector for external battery
    onboard, 14500 battery holder (touchscreen version only)
Audio capabilities
    Dual I2S stereo DAC (Maxim Integrated MAX98537) with built in D-Class amp
    3 W per channel on 4 Ohm load
    Up to 92% efficiency
    Onboard 5.5 V boost converter
Peripherals
    Wi-Fi & Bluetooth
    RGB LED, RGB LED strip header
    2.8", 320 x 240 px TFT Screen with touch sensor (touchscreen version only)
    IR reader (touchscreen version only)
    SD Card slot (touchscreen version only)
    JTAG header (touchscreen version only)
    Rotary encoder/Joystick header (touchscreen version only)
Other
    RESET and GPIO0 (FLASH) buttons
    Software samples for every onboard peripheral
    Mechanical compatibility with Raspberry Pi 4 enclosures (touchscreen version only)

Software samples

Please find more information in the firmware section

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.

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 both the mini and full versions of the board.

Loud ESP Mini and Full version

The loud-esp-mini config enables common board peripheral

• 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. You can change that
• light component exposes onboard RGB LED for use in integrations. In this example, it light a LED depending on the media_player state
• psram enabled for all devices to smooth out playback

Loud ESP Full version only

The loud-esp config enables all the board peripheral

• remote_receiver exposes the IR reader. Example configures SAMSUNG TV remote to control volume using volume buttons.
• display component configures the onboard display
• touchscreen component configures the onboard touchscreen and dumps touches to the console

Project example - Mopidy monitor

The loud-esp-mopidy-monitor config is a project that I did myself for HA Mopidy media center integration

• media_player can be used for voice announcements
• display shows the current Mopidy playing item, Artist, and title.
• three playback buttons allow Play/Pause track and move back and forward along the playlist via touchscreen controls
• on the top of display there is a volume indicator with two buttons to change it
• the progress bar shows the current progress of the track
• display also shows playlist progress on the bottom with the current item highlighted

Currently, there is no component that can display track images, but it seems like it will be added soon

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

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 the 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 your heart
Exit recovery

You can use it now

Bluetooth	Spotify Connect	AirPlay	LMS Renderer

Support & Documentation

You can find documentation such as board schematics, firmware, and sample code in our GitHub repository. You can also follow our progress on Hackaday.io