this post was submitted on 10 Sep 2024
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Arduino

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Arduino is an open-source electronic prototyping platform enabling users to create interactive electronic objects.

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Question about Arduino's…

I'm working on a small project involving an Arduino-powered box. I'm curious if it's possible to integrate a Python-based virtual assistant into this project. The idea is to create a compact, Arduino-powered device that includes a virtual assistant capable of performing various tasks. Is this something that can be achieved?

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Most Arduinos don't have enough horsepower to run a full assistant stack. They're designed as limited resource microcontrollers.

Basically, here are some choices, depending on what your priority is:

Depending on what you want to do, I'd suggest the easiest is #2, as a frontend to HomeAssistant, with the assistant running either on a beefy server or on the cloud.

Edit: "Arduino" actually can reference three different things:

  • the branded boards from arduino.cc
  • the software stack with C/C++ bindings running on top of a range of microcontrollers, or
  • the company called Arduino.

If you have a classic Arduino board, they usually have very limited power and run on a basic Atmel processor. An ESP-32 processor is a bit beefier and can run Arduino software (as well as FreeRTOS). And to make things even more confusing, Arduino the company sells an Arduino-branded board that runs the Arduino software stack, but on top of different processors, including an ESP-32: https://docs.arduino.cc/hardware/nano-esp32/

You may want to watch out which version of "Arduino" you want to work with.