Echo Pyramid enables smart voice interaction applications on M5Stack Atom ESP32 IoT controllers

Designed for M5Stack Atom, AtomS3, and AtomS3R series IoT controllers based on ESP32 or ESP32-S3 wireless SoC, the Echo Pyramid base enables smart voice interaction applications such as far-field voice recognition, voice assistants, voice control, and more.

The device features a built-in speaker, a MEMS microphone, an ES8311 HD audio codec for playback and capture, and an STM32 MCU for touch areas and RGB LED management. It’s powered via a USB Type-C port and can be expanded through a 4-pin connector for I2C modules.

Echo Pyramid specifications:

• Supported IoT controllers – M5Stack Atom, AtomS3, and AtomS3R
• Microcontroller –  STMicro STM32G030F6P6 32-bit Arm  Cortex-M0+ CPU @ 64 MHz with 8KB SRAM, 64 KB flash
• Audio
  • HD Codec – ES8311, handles playback and recording
  • Microphone – LMA3729T381-0Y3S MEMS microphone
  • ADC – ES7210 for microphone input
  • Built-in speaker on the bottom of the pyramid
  • Amplifier – AW87559 Class-D speaker driver for the speaker
  • Si5351 programmable clock generator supplying low-jitter, flexibly configurable clock signals to both the audio ADC and DAC for improving voice recognition accuracy and overall audio performance
• USB – USB Type-C port for power and programming
• Expansions – 4-pin HY2.0 connector with I2C
• Misc
  • 28x WS2812 RGB LED (7x LEDs per RGB bar strip)
  • Touch Function – Dual-side touch-slider zones with 4 touch detection points, 2 per side
• Power Supply – 5V DC via USB-C port
• Power Consumption
  • Standby Current – 14.92mA;  standby without controller
  • Operating Current – 578.47mA; using maximum volume output with IoT controller connected
• Dimensions – 83.6 x 83.6 x 56.7 mm
• Weight – 100.7 grams
• Temperature Range – -10°C ~ 60°C

The design reminds me of the M5Stack “AI Pyramid Computer Box” AI mini PC released last month, but besides the form factor, the devices have completely different use cases, and the Pyramid Echo serves as a flexible smart speaker for a range of audio applications. Somebody at M5Stack must be a big fan of pyramids…

M5Stack provides hardware documentation, including PDF schematics and a pinout diagram, as well as an Arduino library, an ESP-IDF-based Bluetooth speaker program, and tutorials for Home Assistant, Xiaozhi Voice Assistant, and making a Bluetooth speaker. You’ll find all that and more on the documentation page.

The Echo Pyramid sells for $24.90 on AliExpress or the M5Stack store. You’ll also need to add a compatible IoT controller if you don’t own one already. You’ll find the full list on AliExpress with prices ranging from $7.50 to $24.50, each with its own features set (display, camera, etc.).

We’ve seen other ESP32-based smart speaker solutions, like the Waveshare ESP32-S3-AUDIO-Board or Espressif Systems EchoEar, but I suspect the audio quality may be better on the Pyramid Echo (TBC). I also like the touch-sensitive slider areas for intuitive controls like next/previous track and volume in the Bluetooth speaker firmware demo shown in the video below.

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