Best Muse Gadget Setups: Which Board for Which Goal

The best Muse gadget setups start with one question: what should your agent do in the room? For most people the answer is a desk companion with a screen and push-to-talk, and the best device for Meta Muse in that role is the Waveshare ESP32-S3-Touch-AMOLED-1.75C at $39.99. Other goals call for other boards. Below are six setups, each with a board, a price, pros, cons and who it suits.

How to pick a Muse gadget setup

Muse Gadgets is Meta's open source project for turning off-the-shelf ESP32 boards and Raspberry Pi or Linux boxes into devices for Muse, Meta's personal AI agent. The ESP32 SDK lists 24 boards, and every option falls into one of three tiers:

Status boards show what Muse is doing on a light, an LED ring, a small screen or e-paper. Several also show images Muse sends.
Full UI boards run an animated avatar, push-to-talk and on-screen settings. Most also show images.
Linux boxes run Meta's Linux Device SDK, which lets Muse run shell commands, read and write files, and check the machine's health.

Pick by goal first, then by budget. Every gadget needs an SDK token from gadgets.muse.ai and pairs with the Muse app on iOS or Android with Developer mode on. For a guided pick, the Muse board picker quiz asks a few questions and suggests a board, and the Muse board guide lists every supported board side by side.

Best Muse gadget setups compared

Seller prices, checked October 5, 2026. The reTerminal prices are sale prices.

Goal	Board	Price	Screen	Voice	Battery
Desk companion	Waveshare ESP32-S3-Touch-AMOLED-1.75C	$39.99 ($41.99 with battery)	1.75" 466×466 round AMOLED, touch	Push-to-talk, speaker, two mics	Optional
Pocket voice	M5Stack StickS3	$21.50	1.14" 135×240 color LCD	Push-to-talk, 1 W speaker, mic	250 mAh
Wall or fridge display	Seeed reTerminal E1002	$99 (regular $109)	7.3" 800×480 six-color e-paper	None	Yes
E-paper calendar	Seeed reTerminal E1001	$69 (regular $79)	7.5" 800×480 black and white e-paper	None	Yes
Camera	Seeed SenseCAP Watcher	$60.99	1.45" 412×412 round touch LCD	Push-to-talk, speaker, mic	Yes
Linux box	Raspberry Pi 5 4GB or Pi Zero 2 W	$110 or $15	None needed	None built in	No

The six setups in detail

1. Desk companion with a screen and voice: Waveshare ESP32-S3-Touch-AMOLED-1.75C

This round board is one of Meta's featured example projects, and it looks like a finished object on a desk. It has a 1.75-inch 466×466 AMOLED touch screen, a dual-mic array, a speaker and a CNC aluminum case. Waveshare sells it for $39.99 without a battery or $41.99 with a 3.7 V lithium battery that fits inside the case.

Pros: a round AMOLED screen with touch settings, push-to-talk, over-the-air updates, and enough memory for images and the home-network tunnel.
Cons: no camera, and a small screen for reading long replies.
Who it's for: anyone who wants one Muse gadget that lives on the desk and looks good doing it.

A cheaper alternative is the AIPI Lite ($35.99), a palm-size buddy with a 128×128 screen and a 450 mAh battery module. Parts and stands for the Waveshare are on its board page.

2. Pocket voice remote: M5Stack StickS3

The StickS3 is a 48×24×15 mm stick that weighs 20 g and costs $21.50 from M5Stack. It has a 1.14-inch color screen, a MEMS mic, a 1 W speaker and a 250 mAh battery. The front button is push-to-talk and the side button steps through the menu.

Pros: the cheapest full UI board here, fits in a pocket, and runs the avatar UI and images.
Cons: a tiny screen, and a fussier first flash, because it ships with UiFlow2, which switches off the chip's USB serial port. On battery alone, M5Stack recommends keeping speaker volume below 75% to avoid unexpected reboots.
Who it's for: people who want to talk to Muse from anywhere in the house.

Skip the older StickC Plus2: the SDK lists it as end of life, and it only has a buzzer. See the StickS3 board page for the flashing workaround.

3. Wall or fridge display: Seeed reTerminal E1002

Meta pitches this board as a color e-ink display where Muse "can show a morning briefing, reminders, shopping list, or anything else you think of." It has a 7.3-inch 800×480 E Ink Spectra 6 panel with six colors and a built-in battery. Seeed has it on sale at $99 (regular $109).

Pros: large and readable, keeps its picture with no power, runs on battery, and shows color images Muse sends.
Cons: each refresh takes about 30 seconds and flashes, so it's for still pictures only. No voice and no touch.
Who it's for: households that want a shared board in the kitchen or hallway.

Prefer a bright live screen and have an outlet nearby? The Seeed SenseCAP Indicator D1 ($49) has a 4-inch 480×480 LCD that shows status and color images, but no battery.

4. E-paper calendar: Seeed reTerminal E1001

The E1001 is the same board as the E1002 with a 7.5-inch 800×480 black and white panel. Each refresh takes "a second or two", and it costs $69 on sale (regular $79).

Pros: quick refresh, lower price, and crisp black and white text for schedules and lists.
Cons: no color, images are dithered to black and white, and there's no voice.
Who it's for: families who want a calendar or chore board that changes several times a day.

The Muse family calendar guide covers both reTerminals.

5. Camera: Seeed SenseCAP Watcher

The Watcher is the only board where the Muse SDK supports a camera. Around its ESP32-S3, Seeed adds a Himax WiseEye2 HX6538 AI chip, a camera, a mic and a speaker, plus a 1.45-inch 412×412 round touch screen and a scroll wheel. It costs $60.99.

Pros: Muse can call camera.capture and get back a JPEG, and you get a live view on the screen.
Cons: the camera is off until you turn on a build option, and photos can't be attached to voice messages. The first flash is the hardest here: you back up its unique factory partition, pick the right one of two USB ports (the one ending in 3), and wait about three minutes while the flash shows nothing.
Who it's for: tinkerers who want Muse to see what's on the desk.

The Watcher build steps walk through the backup and the slow flash.

6. Linux box: Raspberry Pi 5 or Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W

The Linux Device SDK turns a Raspberry Pi with Bluetooth (a 3B+, 4, 5 or Zero 2 W) into a Muse gadget with no firmware flashing. Muse gets four built-in commands: run a shell command, read a file, write a file and report the machine's health. Meta suggests it for sysadmin chores or your Home Assistant setup.

Pros: one install script, room to run real apps, and programs on the Pi can send messages to Muse with musegadget send-user-msg.
Cons: no voice or screen out of the box, and Muse gets the same access as the account you install it for, sudo included. Pi 5 prices also rose twice in 2026: the 4GB now lists at $110 and the 8GB at $175.
Who it's for: people who run a home server, or want Muse to set one up. A Zero 2 W at $15 is enough for shell and file jobs.

The Raspberry Pi 5 build steps list the power supply and card you need.

Other boards worth knowing

Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition ($69 MSRP): push-to-talk, status on an LED ring and a volume dial. Replies show up in the Muse app, not on the device.
Espressif ESP32-C5 DevKitC-1: the SDK's suggested quickest start. It "works as-is with its built-in status light and BOOT button".
ideaspark ESP32 with 1.9" display: a small color status screen that shows images. It has no PSRAM, so it can't run the home-network tunnel.
Waveshare ESP32-C6-Touch-AMOLED-1.8: a larger touch screen, but no PSRAM, so replies scroll past as text and it can't show images.

Already own an ESP32 board or a spare Pi? Check it with Does my board run Muse? before you buy anything.

What every setup can and can't do

Voice is push-to-talk. You press a button and talk, Muse transcribes your voice note and answers in writing.
Spoken replies take extra work. You connect a text-to-speech API at the SDK's start_tts hook.
Memory matters. Boards without PSRAM can't run the home-network tunnel that lets Muse reach other devices on your Wi-Fi.
ESP32 flashing has fixed needs. A USB cable that carries data, a Mac or Linux computer, and ESP-IDF version 6.0.1 exactly. Muse Code, or any coding agent that reads the SDK's AGENTS.md, can do the build and flash.
Pairing isn't verified by a manufacturer. The SDK says it "can't prevent an active man-in-the-middle attack", so set gadgets up on a network you trust.
It's a hobby platform. Meta says the SDK and tokens "are not a supported product and not a developer platform" and may change or stop working. Tokens are for personal, non-commercial use.

Questions people ask

What is the best device for Meta Muse?

For most people, the Waveshare ESP32-S3-Touch-AMOLED-1.75C ($39.99): a round AMOLED touch screen, push-to-talk, a speaker and two mics. Pick the M5Stack StickS3 ($21.50) for a pocket remote, a Seeed reTerminal for a wall display, the SenseCAP Watcher for a camera, or a Raspberry Pi for a Linux box.

Can a Muse gadget speak its replies out loud?

Not out of the box. The SDK README says replies from Muse are text, shown as captions on boards with screens. To hear them, you send each reply to a text-to-speech API of your choice. The SDK points to start_tts in its source as the place to add it.

Do I need to know how to code to build one?

Not much. The SDK ships an AGENTS.md file that coding agents follow to build and flash the firmware, and Meta's Muse Code agent can do it while you approve each command. The Raspberry Pi path is one install script.

How much does a Muse gadget cost?

From $15 for a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W (plus a power supply and microSD card) or $21.50 for an M5Stack StickS3, up to $99 for the color reTerminal E1002 on sale and $110 or more for a Raspberry Pi 5.

Can I sell Muse gadgets I build?

Not with a Muse SDK token inside. Meta's Gadget SDK terms say tokens are for personal, non-commercial use and can't go into a device you sell or list publicly without Meta's written permission. The SDK code itself is Apache 2.0.

Sources

Prices and details checked October 5, 2026.