• Added a quick video demo of project

    Chris Jones • 08/25/2018 at 17:46 • 0 comments

    Created a quick video to demonstrate the voice control functionality.

  • Web Interface

    Chris Jones • 08/16/2018 at 04:54 • 0 comments

    I know, I know why a web interface, well just like any network connected "appliance", I think it will prove to be useful for setup, configuration and control of things that are not voice control friendly..
    I also figured it might be good for diagnosis of issues, and to check status.

    For a web interface I decided to go with a nice and compact minimal web server.
    I figured I try my hand at flask, a simple python based web server that offers pretty nice features and makes it pretty easy to setup a basic web app in no time.

    There is still alot of work but in no time I managed to get a basic login page setup:

    And managed to whip up a basic bootstrap template and a few pages:

    Still alot more work to do with the web interface, alot of custom calls need to be setup for all of the controls and the template is pretty generic so it could use some love, but I think its a good work in progress.

    I want to get all of the config files for all the functionality, and setup like voice command functions config, pianobar setup (pandora script), mqtt configs, wifi config..etc up on the web interface to allow easy web interface setup.

  • Updating Code and adding software

    Chris Jones • 04/19/2018 at 08:22 • 0 comments

    Worked through a number of issues over the past  week or so, mostly trying to increase the consistency of the voice recognition service. By adding SoX filters and options we are able to drastically clean up the audio and improve consistency in the service.

    A simple mqtt client was built in python, this should allow for home automation integration with Home Assistant server. I managed to test it a number of times and it seems to be fairly consistent from cli runs. Voice command functionality could still use more fine tuning, but it appears to be working overall.

    After talking with a few people I have had the opportunity to get alot of great feedback and ideas which I think should be pretty simple to implement over time.

  • Paint Completed and Hardware Assembled​

    Chris Jones • 03/03/2018 at 06:45 • 0 comments

    Finally finished the assembly and managed to cram everything into the case.

    I had to do a few additional mods to try to mitigate some of the noise I was getting from the amplifier. 

    After looking up the PAM 8403 ic I found out that there is a mute pin (active low), so after cutting the trace, soldering a wire and connecting it to a gpio pin, I have mute control on the pi.

    I also threw together a quick stereo ground loop isolator with a couple small 1:1 transformers, some protoboard, and some audio jacks from an old sound card.

    This helps quite a bit with noise, but the amplifier still seems to pick up some emi interference from the Pi, (you can hear when your ssh'd in and sending keystrokes)..

    I also picked up a dedicated microphone amplifier, its much smaller then the original one I built and much more sensitive, so now you can pic up peoples voices from the other room.

    Other then that everything seems to be running good.