PineVoice smart speaker is now available for $50 (Home Assistant speaker with RISC-V processor and mic kill switch)

More than two years after introducing a hacker-friendly smart speaker, Pine64 is now taking orders for its answer to the Amazon Echo, Google Home, and Apple HomePod line of devices.

The PineVoice* smart speaker has a lot of the features you’d expect from mainstream models. But it’s powered by a RISC-V processor and designed to work with the open source Home Assistant platform rather than proprietary services from Amazon, Google, Apple, or others. The PineVoice is available for $50, although some features aren’t fully supported yet.

For example, Pine64 says wake word detection isn’t working yet and you may need to wait for a future firmware update before you can activate the PineVoice just by talking to it. Until then, it’ll basically function as a push-to-talk smart speaker.

Still, it’s a pretty interesting platform for folks looking for something that’s a little more open than other smart speakers, while giving users more control over their privacy.

The speaker itself features a Bouffalo BL606P processor with one 480 MHz T-Head C906 RISC-V CPU core and one 320 Hz T-Head E907 core, 32 MiB pSRAM and 788KB SRAM memory, 16 MiB flash storage, and support for WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 5 LE. There’s also an optional Zigbee Dongle that sells for $15.

It has dual microphones and hardware buttons for adjusting the volume and cutting off the microphone. Other features include a USB 2.0 Type-C OTG port and 10W USB-C power adapter. The speaker measures 65 x 65 x 66mm (2.56″ x 2.56″ x 2.6″).

While most smart speakers are basically paperweights unless they’re connected to a cloud server, since PineVoice is designed for use with Home Assistant, you can use it with a local, private network. Just set up the open source virtual assistant software on a local machine like a Raspberry Pi, mini PC or virtual machine and use the speaker as an interface. It’s also compatible with Home Assistant’s Cloud service, but that’s entirely optional.

*When Pine64 first introduced its smart speaker in March, 2024, the company called it the PineVox. But it’s been renamed to PineVoice.