{"id":6136,"date":"2026-05-06T20:43:35","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T03:43:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/?p=6136"},"modified":"2026-05-06T20:43:35","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T03:43:35","slug":"this-85-pcb-is-giving-old-google-home-mini-devices-a-second-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/?p=6136","title":{"rendered":"This $85 PCB is Giving Old Google Home Mini Devices a Second Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Google Home Mini<\/a> launched in 2017 as Google’s smallest, cheapest smart speaker. Millions were sold, handed out, and given away as promotional gifts.<\/p>\n

Many of them still work, but it being in the last phase of its lifecycle means that while it still functions for basic tasks, it doesn’t have any kind of customizability or local processing capabilities.<\/p>\n

The hardware was fine for the time but has become less relevant in Google’s lineup over time, with the Nest Mini<\/a>, its successor, also discontinued. And more recently, there’s been talk of new Gemini-powered smart speakers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But what if you could bring your Home Mini (1st Generation<\/em>) device up to 2026 standards with local processing<\/strong> by paying only $85?<\/p>\n

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\ud83d\udcdd MiciMike Home Mini PCB: Key Specifications<\/h2>\n
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Two chips do the heavy lifting on this board. You get an Espressif ESP32-S3<\/a> as the main processor, paired with an <\/strong>XMOS XU316<\/a> chip dedicated entirely to audio. The Espressif unit brings 8 MB of PSRAM and 16 MB of flash to the table, while the XMOS one carries 4 MB of its own.<\/p>\n

The ESP32-S3 covers Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and wake word detection via microWakeWord<\/a>, with none of the voice data leaving your device. Audio cleanup falls to the XU316, which runs through two on-board microphones to scrub out noise and echo before anything gets processed.<\/p>\n

And the Home Mini’s original speaker still works<\/strong>, which can be plugged back in via the included FPC cable.<\/p>\n

For software, ESPHome<\/a> is already preinstalled, ready to work with Home Assistant’s Assist<\/a>, Music Assistant<\/a>, and Snapcast<\/a>. A cloud LLM can also be dropped in as the conversation agent if you want one, but the whole thing runs fine without it.<\/p>\n

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Both sides of the MiciMike Home Mini PCB.<\/em><\/i><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Plus, the mute button on the device makes a physical disconnection at the hardware level, following what the original Home Mini did. You will likewise find four SK6812 RGB LEDs<\/a> (for reference<\/em>) sitting in the same positions, acting as status indicators.<\/p>\n

Here are the full specs<\/strong> for you to go through:<\/p>\n