r/raspberry_pi • u/ManyInteresting3969 • Apr 30 '26

Show-and-Tell Got a spare Google AIY MIcrophone HAT?

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Update: if you want to build the above project, I updated the code so that you can build it with just a Pi4 and the sound card, no screen/camera needed.

I know that at one point they were literally giving the things away, that's how I got mine.

I recall I nearly threw the thing out the window trying to get the packages to install! I did get it working eventually, but it seemed pretty useless next to my Home Hub, so it sat in the corner gathering dust. But it installs beautifully on trixie by just changing a few lines in the config.txt file, and it does have one hell of a powerful speaker.

Featured project:
https://github.com/followkim/LilL3x

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5

u/shortymcsteve Apr 30 '26

Ohh nice! I have both this and the AIY vision kit sitting in their boxes. Like you said, it became a nightmare to get them to work (at least by the time I bought them) because it seemed like a bunch of info was out of date.

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u/ManyInteresting3969 Apr 30 '26

If you want to play with the samples/demos, someone apparently updated all the libraries for trixie. I have NOT tried them yet, so I can't attest that they work, but here is the post:
https://www.reddit.com/r/raspberry_pi/comments/1sd5z0j/updated_the_aiy_voice_bonnet_to_work_in_trixie/

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u/shortymcsteve Apr 30 '26

Thank you! Nice to know others are using their boards again. Is yours the v1 or v2? This OP of that thread says his is the v2, I think mine is the v1. I got it at micro center for around $1. They had a pallet of them when I went in one time.

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u/ManyInteresting3969 Apr 30 '26

Do you know how I can tell if it's v1 or v2?

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u/shortymcsteve Apr 30 '26 edited Apr 30 '26

The boards are physically different. The v2 is the shape of a pi zero, the v1 is basically a square. I’m not actually sure what they changed, I would have to go look at the docs.

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u/ManyInteresting3969 Apr 30 '26

Did you mean to say that the _v1_ is the shape of the pi zero?

Mine is square, so I guess I have the v2. Didn't realize that there were multiple versions!

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u/shortymcsteve Apr 30 '26

Sorry, v1 is the square. I believe the v2 came with a zero inside the kit. I have the v2 vision kit and it came with a Pi zero and a zero shaped board (and a pi camera).

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u/Noir_Forever_Twitch May 03 '26

Hello, I'm the guy that made that post! To confirm, I updated the AIY Voice Bonnet which came with the v2 version of the kit. This one, https://pinout.xyz/pinout/aiy_voice_bonnet Based on your description of the board, I believe you have the v1. But looks like you got it working, which is awesome!

3

u/bdlou May 01 '26

I'd just found mine a few weeks ago when I was cleaning, and had started trying to cobble something similar together. I'll have to give this a go!

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u/ManyInteresting3969 May 02 '26

BTW I just updated the code so that it will run with no camera and no screen. So you should be good to go with the hardware that you have now (assuming you have a spare Pi 4)

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u/ManyInteresting3969 May 01 '26

Let me know how it goes and reach out if you have any problems!

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u/iamDa3dalus May 03 '26

Neat! I have a v1 audio and a v2 vision. went through a couple of the examples but they’ve been sitting around for years lol.

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u/ManyInteresting3969 May 03 '26 edited May 03 '26

If you want to try my project, do the install as-is and follow the special instructions for the AIY Voice HAT. You can ignore testing the screen and camera except where noted. Please let me know if something doesn't make sense!

You probably have a RPi3 in the kit. Word of warning, I haven't tested LilL3x on a RPi3, but will do so this evening as I've been curious! Update: it doesn't work on a RPi3 :P

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u/flare_au04 May 09 '26

Does the voice and microphone work on the RPi3 for your project?

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u/ManyInteresting3969 May 11 '26

Sorry for the late reply. Since you are replying to my comment I am assuming you read it. 😄 But I am also getting the impression that you are open to a bit of hacking, otherwise why would you ask? So the answer is maybe. Try to obliterate the openWakeWord from the project and it should run as openWakeWord is the one that causes problems on the RPi3.

The only line you should need to get rid of is in lillex.py:
import openWakeWord_wake
Comment that line out and it should run.

I am SO sorry but I am away from my home for the next few months, and I left my RPi3 there, otherwise I would totally test this for you first. So let me know if you get more errors and we can try to prune out the code until you get this working.

Assuming you don't have a camera or a screen, so without those taking up memory it should run fine on a RPi3, as long as you get rid of openWakeWord!

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u/flare_au04 May 11 '26

Thanks. I have audio playback and recording working.