README
¶
TECHO5
Tech Echo 5 — an open, local-only firmware project for the Amazon Echo Show 5
(2nd generation, 2021, codename cronos).
The goal is a leaner and more capable replacement for the stock Alexa software:
a Home Assistant voice satellite with an on-device wake word, a native
media_player, and a dashboard display, with nothing leaving the house.
Why
The Echo Show 5 is a 5.5-inch touchscreen, a far-field microphone array, a speaker and a MediaTek MT8163 in a nice enclosure. Once the bootloader is unlocked it is a small Linux computer that only needs three jobs done well:
- hear a wake word and stream audio to Home Assistant Assist,
- play speech and music,
- show a dashboard.
Android is a lot of machinery for that. TECHO5 aims to do those jobs with a small daemon and a kiosk, keep the hardware fully local, and stay easy to update.
Status
Early, but talking. The ported daemon (echod/) runs on a Show as an init service beside
LineageOS, appears in Home Assistant as an ESPHome voice satellite, and completes voice turns:
wake word on the device, transcription and reply through Home Assistant, speech from the
speaker. The next step is a Linux-only image where the daemon also owns the screen; see
docs/porting-plan.md.
For daily use the working path on this hardware is still:
- bootloader unlock with amonet-cronos,
- LineageOS 18.1 (unofficial),
- the ShowAssist Android app as the satellite and display.
That works, but it is Android underneath. The plan in docs/porting-plan.md is to replace the Android layers step by step, starting with the voice path.
Installing on a Show
On a cronos unit already running LineageOS 18.1 with USB debugging and rooted debugging enabled:
cd echod
$env:GOOS='linux'; $env:GOARCH='arm'; $env:GOARM='7'; $env:CGO_ENABLED='0'
go build -trimpath -ldflags '-s -w' -o ../bin/echod-arm ./cmd/echod
cd ..
.\tools\install-cronos.ps1 -Serial <adb serial> -Name "Kitchen" -KeyFile .\kitchen.psk
The installer puts the daemon in place as an init service, switches Android to its null audio HAL (the daemon owns the microphone and speaker), provisions the name, API key and wake word models, and reboots. Home Assistant then discovers the device as an ESPHome node; paste the key when asked. Android and any app on the screen keep running, silently.
Approach
EchoLocal (MIT) already turns the
Echo Dot 2 (biscuit, the same MT8163 family) into an ESPHome-native Home
Assistant satellite with a single static Go daemon that drives the hardware
directly. TECHO5 intends to bring that daemon to cronos and add the display
layer it does not have, rather than port a whole Linux distribution first.
See:
- docs/hardware.md — what is known about the
cronoshardware and the unlock path - docs/porting-plan.md — milestones and open questions
Name
TECHO5 reads as "Tech Echo 5": the Echo hardware lineage and the 5.5-inch form
factor. Style it TECHO5 or tEcho5.
License
MIT. See LICENSE.
TECHO5 is not affiliated with Amazon. Echo and Alexa are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc.
Directories
¶
| Path | Synopsis |
|---|---|
|
cmd
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|
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audioprobe
command
audioprobe proves raw capture and playback on the Echo Show 5 (cronos) without the vendor audio HAL: it records from the TLV320AIC3101 capture device, reports per-channel levels, writes a WAV, and plays a tone (or the recording) through the MAX98396 playback device.
|
audioprobe proves raw capture and playback on the Echo Show 5 (cronos) without the vendor audio HAL: it records from the TLV320AIC3101 capture device, reports per-channel levels, writes a WAV, and plays a tone (or the recording) through the MAX98396 playback device. |
|
btbridge
command
btbridge makes the MediaTek Bluetooth driver's raw H4 channel (/dev/stpbt, from the vendor mt76x8_bt module) look like a Linux HCI device by copying packets both ways through the kernel's virtual HCI driver (/dev/vhci, CONFIG_BT_HCIVHCI).
|
btbridge makes the MediaTek Bluetooth driver's raw H4 channel (/dev/stpbt, from the vendor mt76x8_bt module) look like a Linux HCI device by copying packets both ways through the kernel's virtual HCI driver (/dev/vhci, CONFIG_BT_HCIVHCI). |
|
dispprobe
command
dispprobe paints a test picture on the Echo Show 5's panel through the MediaTek display controller (see internal/mtkdisp).
|
dispprobe paints a test picture on the Echo Show 5's panel through the MediaTek display controller (see internal/mtkdisp). |
|
fbprobe
command
fbprobe draws straight to the Echo Show 5's framebuffer: a background, colour bars and large text, rotated for the landscape orientation the device is used in.
|
fbprobe draws straight to the Echo Show 5's framebuffer: a background, colour bars and large text, rotated for the landscape orientation the device is used in. |
|
rebootto
command
rebootto reboots with a MediaTek boot-mode argument, the way Android's `reboot bootloader` / `reboot recovery` do: the kernel's arch_reset marks the target mode in the RTC spare register so LK boots into it.
|
rebootto reboots with a MediaTek boot-mode argument, the way Android's `reboot bootloader` / `reboot recovery` do: the kernel's arch_reset marks the target mode in the RTC spare register so LK boots into it. |
|
echod
module
|
|
|
internal
|
|
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alsa
Package alsa captures PCM audio by driving the /dev/snd ioctl interface directly.
|
Package alsa captures PCM audio by driving the /dev/snd ioctl interface directly. |
|
mtkdisp
Package mtkdisp drives the MediaTek display controller on the Echo Show 5 (MT8163, "cronos") the way Android's hardware composer does: a display session on /dev/mtk_disp_mgr, pixel buffers from the ION multimedia heap, and one overlay layer pointed at a buffer per frame.
|
Package mtkdisp drives the MediaTek display controller on the Echo Show 5 (MT8163, "cronos") the way Android's hardware composer does: a display session on /dev/mtk_disp_mgr, pixel buffers from the ION multimedia heap, and one overlay layer pointed at a buffer per frame. |
|
tools
|
|
|
wavstats
command
wavstats reports per-channel levels and how alike channels are, for the multichannel WAVs that audioprobe writes.
|
wavstats reports per-channel levels and how alike channels are, for the multichannel WAVs that audioprobe writes. |