Someone used Claude to turn an Amazon Echo Dot into a Home Assistant satellite

Summary

• Andy's Tech Lab turned an Echo Dot 3 (2018) into a local Home Assistant voice satellite by replacing Amazon firmware.

• They soldered a USB to a Dot's board, then rooted it and used Claude to make the Echo Dot Assist software.

• This allows Andy to keep the microphone processing and wake-word engine but stop data from going to Amazon.

We've seen people use Claude to break into all kinds of devices lately. The biggest news pieces include smart TVs, such as when someone got into Samsung's Tizen OS using Claude.

But why stop at TVs? Someone used Claude to figure out how to turn their 2018 Amazon Echo Dot 3 into a Home Assistant voice satellite, and so can you.

Echo Dot Assist makes the Dot's hardware work only for you

It takes Amazon out of the equation

This cool little project comes to us via Andy's Tech Lab (via Hackaday), who wanted to use the power of the Amazon Echo Dot 3, but without the Amazon part. To do that, he soldered a USB connector to the board, connected to it, rooted it, then used Claude to create the Echo Dot Assist software. The end result was an Echo Dot 3 that kept the microphone processing and wake word engine, but didn't send any data back to Amazon.

The cool thing is, the project page claims that it works on more than just an Echo Dot 3. The setup is a little different for each model, but it can work with the following:

• Echo Dot 3rd gen (2018)

• Echo Dot 2nd gen (2016)

• Echo 2nd gen (2017)

• Echo Show 5 1st gen (2019)

• Echo Show 8 1st gen (2019)

• Echo Show 5 2nd gen (2021)

• Echo Show 8 2nd gen (2021)

• Echo Input (2018)

Unfortunately, neither the Echo Dot 3rd gen (2019 — 2020) nor the Echo Dot 3rd gen with clock works with the firmware, so make sure your own device fits the bill. If it does, head over to the Echo Dot Assist GitHub page for the code and instructions on how to make your own.