CoreS3 HA Voice Assistant

This chapter describes how to configure CoreS3 as a Home Assistant voice assistant.

1. Preparation

Environment Setup

1. Refer to the official Home Assistant documentation to install Home Assistant.
2. Refer to the official ESPHome documentation to install the ESPHome Device Builder add-on. (Note: This tutorial is based on ESPHome 2025.1.2. If compilation errors occur, switch to this version for verification.)
3. Install and configure the voice recognition add-ons:

• Home Assistant Cloud.
• Assist Pipeline.

Hardware Products

• CoreS3

2. Online Flashing

Click the Online Flashing button below and follow the prompts to flash the firmware and configure Wi-Fi, allowing you to quickly connect CoreS3 to Home Assistant.

For detailed flashing and configuration instructions, refer to Online ESPHome Firmware Flashing and Configuration.

Online Flashing

After using online flashing, you do not need to perform the "Firmware Compilation & Flashing" steps. Proceed directly to 4. Getting Started.

3. Firmware Compilation & Flashing

This section explains how to recompile the project from the yaml configuration file for secondary development, feature modifications, or new functionality.

Create Device

1. Open the ESPHome plug-in page and click NEW DEVICE in the lower right corner to create a new device.

2. Click CONTINUE in the pop-up window.

3. Select New Device Setup to create a new configuration file.

4. Fill in the configuration file name.

5. Select the device type. First, uncheck Use recommended settings, then click ESP32-S3 and select M5Stack CoreS3.

6. Copy the Home Assistant API Encryption Key for backup and click Skip.

Modify Configuration

1. Click EDIT at the bottom left of the device to modify the Wi-Fi connection configuration. (The Wi-Fi configuration defaults to the Wi-Fi configuration of the current HA server, and also supports direct modification to plain text: ssid: "xxxx").

2. Add the resource package configuration link below to add voice assistant functional components to the device.

packages:
  remote_package_files:
    url: https://github.com/m5stack/esphome-yaml
    files: [common/cores3-satellite-base.yaml]
    ref: main
    refresh: 0s

3. Then click SAVE and INSTALL in the upper right corner. In the pop-up installation method, select Manual download.

Flash Firmware

1. After the firmware compilation is completed, click the Download button and select the Modern Format firmware to download to your local machine.

2. Click Open ESPHome Web to use the web burning tool for burning, or use other tools such as esptool for burning. The starting address for firmware burning is 0x00.

3. Connect the CoreS3 device to the computer via a USB-C cable. Long press the reset button until the green light comes on and release it to enter download mode.

4. Click Connect in Open ESPHome Web to connect the device and select the corresponding device port.

5. Click INSTALL and select the *.bin file compiled in the previous steps.

6. Click the INSTALL button again to burn.

7. Wait for the burning to complete.

4. Getting Started

1. After firmware burning is completed, the device will automatically connect to Wi-Fi when turned on. The Home Assistant service in the same local area network will prompt that a new device has been discovered. Select the new device in Notifications and click Check it out -> CONFIGURE, and follow the pop-up steps to add the device to the specified area to complete the configuration. If you do not receive a new device prompt message, click Settings -> Device & services to view the device status.

2. Next, you can continue to set up the Voice Assistant, or skip this step and set it up later.

• Test Wake Word.
  

• Select Area.
  

• Select Pipeline.
  

• Complete Setup.
  

3. After completing the device addition and configuring the Home Assistant Cloud and Assist pipeline plug-ins in the preparation steps, you can use the wake word "ok nabu" to wake up the voice assistant.

5. Video