This kit turns your Google Home Mini into an offline smart speaker

The first-generation Google Home Mini is almost a decade old at this point, and with so many in circulation, there’s a good chance you may have one lying around unused. If you’re looking for something extra, an upcoming crowdfunded kit will let you swap out the Home Mini to make it a completely local smart speaker that can control your gadgets without any data leaving your home.

micmicike home mini drop-in pcb Designed to install inside your existing first-generation Google Home Mini without much technical know-how: there’s no soldering involved, and the kit comes with step-by-step instructions that even include photos. The project has crushed its funding goal on Crowd Supply, raising almost $20,000 (up from its initial goal of $8,000), with shipment of units expected this year.

With the MickyMic board installed, your Google Home Mini will work with the Home Assistant so you can do basic smart home things with “no cloud, no vendor accounts, no subscriptions.” For added privacy, the kit protects the Home Mini’s mic control switch that physically disconnects the speaker’s microphone from power. You can see detailed information about the project here GitHub.

If you’re not so concerned about keeping things local and private, MickyMic’s crowdsourced page also makes it clear that you have the option to “use a cloud-based conversation agent like ChatGPT or another LLM.”

Fundraising for the project will end in June. You can now support the project on Crowd Supply; $85 gets you a drop-in PCB replacement kit, which is expected to ship in October. If you have a new Nest Mini, MickyMic’s website says there is a similar board swap kit for that speaker “coming soon“