My name is Leonardo, I am attending Williamsburg Charter High School and I am going to be a Senior this year. The starter project that I worked on was the Mintyboost which is a USB charger and my main projects that I worked on were all using the Raspberry Pi. What i made was a camera, a voice controlled application known as Jasper, and a video game emulator. I choose these projects because I wanted to get more experience with programming, and I like working more online than with my hands so i thought that these projects would be perfect for me to do. I thought that these projects were fun to do and they helped me learn more about Linux, soldering, and how to check for mistakes on many different locations in the raspberry pi. Doing these project was my first time ever even working with these different aspects of engineering and programming and they really showed me a lot.
My main project was Jasper which is a voice controlled application for the raspberry pi. The Raspberry Pi is basically a mini computer that has its own operating system. To start working on the Raspberry Pi I first had to connect my Ethernet cable from the Raspberry Pi to the Ethernet port that was in the room because the Raspberry Pi needs to have an internet connection in order to get online and download the files that are needed. I also needed to download the Jasper image which I image onto the SD card after the SD card has been formatted. Then the USB keyboard must be inserted so that I would be able to type in the commands that I need to have so that I can download everything that jasper and the Raspberry Pi needed in order to work properly. Once you have to you must connect an HDMI cable from your pi to a T.V in order to start working on the Pi properly. With the Jasper project after the image is on the SD card and you have to card in the Pi and it is turned on you must then use the commands sudo apt-get update and sudo apt-get upgrade to get the files on the Raspberry pi up to date so that you can work on everything properly.
After that I had everything that was needed for the Pi to work and for me to start install jasper onto it. To get Jasper’s source code you must enter the command [git clone https://github.com/jasperproject/jasper-client.git jasper]. The Raspberry Pi then goes to that website and downloads all the files that Jasper needs in order to work. After this I followed the instructions on the website to get the rest of the files I needed onto the Raspberry Pi.
Once I did this to get Jasper to work I had to connect my microphone to the Pi and connect the speakers as well. Then I had to SSH into the Pi using putty so that I could see how Jasper is working by running python main.py. Once I did this I start using Jasper by saying his name then saying the command from the ones he comes with after he gives a high beep.
Some problems I had with jasper was when I was trying to get him to start I had errors that were in his files which made it so that Jasper wouldn’t be able to start fully but instead just stay quiet after saying his first line. To fix this I SSH into the Raspberry Pi and started the GUI of the Pi and went to these files and changed the lines that were making jasper not work properly to the right ones and then saving all of the files. I also had a problem with the microphone because with the first microphone I had the file that the Pi uses to hear you couldn’t detect the microphone so I had to get a new one that they used to test with jasper and after plugging the new one in jasper works properly.
If you would like to make a jasper of your own just follow the directions on this website: http://jasperproject.github.io/documentation/software/
Bill of Materials:https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VufL0G6eHMNyUHpa7fDHgrXq6gkjkfw02DzM49HXerw/edit#gid=0
Build plan:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RW_gUQ2poxG8E1Y251zVq3hUwCixHMiZpIISAzpt0Mo/edit
My name is Leonardo and for my first milestone I was able to configure the Raspberry Pi to be a video game emulator. What I was able to do was turn the Raspberry Pi into a video game emulator for many different consoles, which is called the Pimame, so that it can be used as a device that could be plugged into a T.V or HD monitor so that I am able to play old video games even try out some that I never played before in my life with this emulator. I ran into many problems while I was trying to configure the Pimame onto my raspberry pi such as I didn’t expand the space on my SD card when I first started because I thought that I had enough space to install everything on it, but I noticed that I wasn’t able to go on because after the installation was complete I saw that I was missing many files and folders that weren’t able to be installed by the Pi because I didn’t have enough space on the SD card to install it. To fix this problem I had to format and image my SD card so that I was able to go to configure the system and expand the SD cards space. I also had the issue of not being able to get the Raspberry Pi connected to the internet because I had it connected straight to my computer by the Ethernet cable, so it wasn’t able to get an IP address that would allow it to connect to the internet. To fix this I connected the Ethernet cable from my computer and the Pi to the Ethernet port in the room and this way my Pi was able to acquire its own ip address.The Pi was now connected to the internet and thus was able to install all of my files properly. The way that the Pimame works is by after putting in the commands needed to have the emulators on your Raspberry Pi it will start connecting to websites that the command has it so that it is able to download all of the files so that every emulator on the Raspberry Pi works properly and I am able to load the games. To play the games I use a wireless Xbox 360 controller that I am able to connect to the pi by installing Xboxdrv on the Pi and then using a Xbox 360 receiver to connect the controller to the Pi
My next step is to work on Jasper the voice controlled application for the raspberry pi
Bill of Materials : https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1kZVox6TCgpHjKTkOHbYh3VSwvND_qoSpsRCnC278DTo/edit#gid=0
Build plan: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tCbd4wUntdFEr54O505B-NI2s8S4KX18ZTrlrCD6_Jw/edit
My project is a Camera that is made by using the Raspberry Pi model B, PiTFT kit which contains a Thin Film Transistor (TFT) and the touchscreen that goes onto the PCB. It also needs a camera board that would be attached onto the Raspberry pi right behind the Ethernet port. The camera works by me having to take a SD card and installing the image that they give on the website onto the SD card. Then the Board which contains the screen must be soldered onto the raspberry pi so that you could connect the Pi to that screen and use the camera. Afterwards I would have to download the commands that are needed to have the touchscreen on the camera work properly for how the camera is rotated. After the commands are input and everything is downloaded and configured properly the camera is done and you would decide where the pictures go.
Bill of Materials: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-rsNRGStEWhVl54Ylc7CZlUsdisUCyJQSFfJOEDI1u8/edit#gid=0
Build Plan: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KoIiXw6V6xvAux_3N6xZVCJscDq6G1KdamLGUGC55to/edit
Hello, my name is Leonardo A and my starter project was the MintyBoost, which is a USB charger for most devices. The MintyBoost is powered by two AA batteries which are sending in three volts to the device which is boosted to five volts using a converter to raise the voltage.
The MintyBoost is made up of many components such as resistors that lower the voltage from the input of three volts to two volts. There is also the boost converter which is there to boost the input voltage to five volts for the output that is needed to charge the phone. The boost converter is a converter whose output value is greater than the input value of the device. Some of the other parts are the capacitors which are there to store the electrical charge to maintain the voltage to stay at five volts. There is also the diode which is what makes the current flow in one direction to the USB port. The part that would be the most important is the IC chip that is in the middle of the PCB(Printed Circuit Board). This chip is what helps boost the voltage to five volts from the input value of three volts given from the batteries.
You can start making this project as well by going tohttp://learn.adafruit.com/minty-boostand purchasing a kit of your own. Now that I am done with my starter project I am able to start working on Jasper, a voice-controlled computer application.