Over the past few weeks, I’ve been jailbreaking and updating the firmware on old Amazon Echo Shows that have been collecting dust because I put off selling them on eBay. Two efforts combined have enabled users of specific devices to remove Amazon entirely, make them fully local, and connect them to Home Assistant!
First, there is echolocal
And then there is techo5
Multiple Amazon Echo devices are supported (but mostly the older shows and dots). If you are interested in getting started, I suggest the links above but you can also check out this getting started for techo5, which is my preferred use case for my setup here at home.
I’ve been testing with 3 Show 5s, 1 Show 8, a Dot, and a Spot. These devices work great, and you can even get local voice responses! If you are like me and enjoy bringing older devices back to life to keep them out of landfills, and want to be able to run local AI and voice assistants, this is a great project to look into!
