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ESP32 Xiaozhi Chatbot: Full Build Log

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A complete build log for an ESP32-based voice chatbot terminal, including parts, wiring, flashing, and setup.

Translation note: This English version was translated by Codex (GPT-5) on 2026-04-20 18:01:46 CST. The source text is the corresponding Chinese post in this repository.

ESP32 Xiaozhi Chatbot: Full Build Log

Project start: 2025-01-26

1. Key Terms

  • ESP32: a low-cost, high-performance Wi-Fi and Bluetooth dual-mode chip from Espressif, widely used for IoT devices.
  • Xiaozhi: the personified name of this AI software/project.
  • Xiaoge: reportedly the current owner of the open-source Xiaozhi project.
  • Breadboard: a solderless prototyping board for quickly building and testing circuits.

2. Features

As of 2025-01-26, the project supports:

  1. Connectivity
    • Wi-Fi and ML307 Cat.1 4G
    • Streaming voice dialog via WebSocket or UDP
  2. Voice interaction
    • Offline wake word via ESP-SR
    • Multilingual recognition: Mandarin, Cantonese, English, Japanese, and Korean
    • Speaker recognition through 3D Speaker
    • TTS via Volcano Engine or CosyVoice
  3. AI core
    • LLM integration with Qwen2.5 72B or Doubao APIs
    • Short-term memory through automatic per-turn summarization
  4. Hardware interaction
    • BOOT key for tap-to-wake and long-press interrupt
    • OLED/LCD support for signal, dialog, or emoji-style visuals

3. Demo Reference

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1XnmFYLEJN/

4. BOM

  1. ESP32-S3-DevKitC-1 (WROOM N16R8)
  2. INMP441 digital microphone
  3. MAX98357A audio amplifier
  4. 8Ω 23W or 4Ω 23W speaker
  5. Two 400-hole breadboards
  6. 1.54-inch 240x240 LCD display
  7. One box of 140 breadboard wires

Total cost: about 68 RMB.

I eventually bought a DIY kit on Taobao instead of sourcing every part separately.

Useful references:

5. Assembly

5.1 Wiring


5.2 Flashing


Use Espressif’s official flashing tool to burn the firmware.

5.3 Networking

Configure the backend in the Xiaozhi console and connect the device to the network.

6. What It Can Do

  1. Conversational chat
  2. ASR wake word support

7. Technical Route

Reference: a Bilibili project video and the architecture diagram around 2:14.

8. References