Category: Product updates
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Preview: Esparagus Solo C1, a drop-in Home Assistant board for the IKEA KALLSUP
I’ve been working on something a bit different for the Esparagus Echo line: Solo C1, a replacement PCB for the small IKEA KALLSUP Bluetooth speaker. You open the speaker, swap the original board for this one, and it becomes a Home Assistant voice assistant and multi-room speaker that still looks like the same little cube.…
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Amped-ESP32-Plus: muffled sound on boards shipped 15 Oct – 1 Nov 2026
A batch of Amped-ESP32-Plus boards was assembled with the wrong DAC output filter capacitors, making the sound muffled and quiet. Here is how to check your board, what I will do about it, and how to fix it yourself.
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TPA3128 design errata
Recently, I received a hint from a community member that noises and pops on the TPA3128-based Amped boards that I wrote about a few times can be fixed simply by changing the modulation mode to BD mode. Since every board based on TPA3118/TPA3128 amps has solder jumpers allowing changing the modulation scheme, I went to…
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New Amped Esparagus is here
I’m genuinely excited; I really am. Here is the new Amped Esparagus It doesn’t look that much different from the old one, apart from the TFT screen, which is hard to miss. So what’s so important? I had a mental splinter with ‘old’ Esparagus devices pretty much since I created the first one – I…
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Esparagus Echo available at Elecrow
Due to issues with shipping to the US from the EU introduced by the latest tariff changes, I’m aiming to make all products available from the official partner, Elecrow. Today’s addition is an Esparagus Echo, Duo version only. I’m reviewing the Solo design at the moment, considering the idea of hosting it in the IKEA…
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HiFi Plus Hat for Raspberry
I’m introducing a new Hat in the Raspberry family of devices: HiFi Plus Hat. Compared to the base design, what Plus does is – Upgrades DAC to PCM5122 model (adds digital volume for better performance at low volume; analog gain control; basic DSP with 6x BQs and DRC; better SNR figures) – Added onboard ADC…
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Louder-ESP32-mini launch at Elecrow
The Louder-ESP32-mini is now available at Elecrow, starting with the 42mm version, but the larger 55mm version will be available soon as well. The EU stock will be refilled as well, but it will take some time, as I just finished testing the 55m prototype, and after cosmetic changes, it goes into a larger production…
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Amped ESP32 and Amped ESP32 Plus with TPA3118 amp
I just received the latest revisions of Amped-ESP32 and Amped-ESP32-Plus boards, all based on the new TPA3118 amp schematics, finally finishing the design upgrade for every Amped board. Risking repeating myself, reasons to change to the new amp are noise issues with the TPA3128 design on the Amped-ESP32, and the inability to work with the…
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Audio Brick production progress update
Hey folks, quick update on the production process after a slightly longer-than-usual break. Despite the summer holidays, as soon as we got the funds transferred, we were able to submit the order for production. Thanks to Elecrow’s flexibility, we were able to start with just two board samples, one per board version, and after just…
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Louder-ESP32-Pro launch
Louder-ESP32-Pro has finally passed all tests and is ready for launch. Over the last few weeks, I tested the peripheral, starting with that pretty standard now (DAC, Ethernet, IR, RGB, Mic, USB-PD), and then new ones: TFT and Fan controller. As usual, I made a small mistake, it is around the TFT backlight pin, but…