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The Dot device is the hardware target for OpenDot voice agents. Today it is a firmware-first prototype that runs on a tested reference development board. The longer-term goal is open hardware for a purpose-built Dot device, but the current docs should stay honest about what has actually been tested.
You do not need a physical device to use OpenDot Platform! Start in the web app, make the platform reliable, then bring the same agent to hardware when you are ready.

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Current reference board

OpenDot firmware currently targets the Waveshare ESP32-S3-AUDIO-Board. This is the board tested so far for the local Dot device flow.
Waveshare ESP32-S3-AUDIO-Board reference hardware

Current tested reference device: Waveshare ESP32-S3-AUDIO-Board product view. Image source: Waveshare.

The board is useful for OpenDot because it puts the important voice-device pieces in one small package:
  • ESP32-S3R8 MCU with 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi and Bluetooth LE
  • 8 MB PSRAM and 16 MB external flash
  • dual microphones for voice input
  • ES7210 and ES8311 audio path for microphone input and speaker output
  • speaker header and audio enclosure
  • RGB LED ring, buttons, USB-C, TF card slot, battery support, and expansion connectors
Feature grid for the Waveshare ESP32-S3-AUDIO-Board

The reference board has the core ingredients OpenDot needs for wake, capture, playback, status, power, and expansion. Image source: Waveshare.

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Firmware shape

The firmware lives in dot-device/firmware/ and is an ESP-IDF project, not an Arduino sketch. It currently handles:
  • Wi-Fi provisioning through a temporary opendot-... access point
  • OTA bootstrap through CONFIG_OTA_URL
  • activation code speech and claim flow through the OpenDot runtime and platform API
  • wake-word behavior
  • WebSocket connection to the runtime
  • microphone capture and speaker playback
  • display and LED status
The active board definition is:
The firmware is an OpenDot fork/adaptation of the MIT-licensed 78/xiaozhi-esp32 project. Preserve the upstream notice in dot-device/firmware/LICENSE.xiaozhi when moving or substantially modifying firmware code.

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Runtime relationship

The device does not connect to the browser UI. It connects to the local or hosted OpenDot runtime:
Activation works like this:
  1. Firmware boots and reaches the runtime OTA endpoint.
  2. The runtime proxies activation to the platform API.
  3. The platform API creates or verifies an activation request.
  4. The device speaks a claim code.
  5. The user enters that code in Dot Device.
  6. The platform stores a device credential.
  7. Subsequent /ws sessions authenticate with that credential and load the bound identity configuration.
The firmware protocol does not change when the bound identity uses Speech-to-speech. The device still sends authenticated Opus audio over /ws and plays Opus frames from the runtime. The runtime checks the bound agent architecture: Sandwich routes through Deepgram plus the configured LLM and TTS, while Speech-to-speech opens a server-side OpenAI Realtime WebSocket with the runtime’s OPENAI_API_KEY.

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Hardware interface reference

The reference board exposes more than OpenDot uses today. The important areas for contributors are audio I/O, display, buttons, LEDs, Wi-Fi, power, and runtime network reachability.
Waveshare ESP32-S3-AUDIO-Board interface map

Waveshare interface map for the current reference board. Image source: Waveshare.

Use this map when checking pin assumptions against firmware board files such as config.h, but treat OpenDot’s firmware source as the contract for the current prototype.

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Hardware coming soon

The future open hardware Dot device should keep the same product constraints visible:
  • reliable near-field and practical far-field capture
  • speaker output that makes TTS testing honest
  • physical status through light, display, or both
  • simple power, battery, and USB debugging paths
  • casing and acoustic choices that do not hide microphone or speaker behavior
  • reproducible firmware flashing and serial diagnostics
Until that hardware exists, the Waveshare board is the reference target for firmware bring-up and end-to-end device activation.

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Contributor checklist

When changing device-facing behavior, check both sides of the boundary:
  • Dot Device console for the console pairing and binding workflow
  • Platform architecture for OTA, credential, runtime, and data-model ownership
  • dot-device/firmware/README.md for ESP-IDF setup, flashing, provisioning, and serial monitoring
  • dot-device/firmware/main/boards/waveshare/esp32-s3-audio-board/ for the current board definition