So when I first started this well a week ago I thought to myself what could I do. I wanted to do something I haven't done before and step away from relying on machines for my project which does happen from time to time. The main goal in this project was to make sure I used the Raspberry Pi in it as the main part of it but soon found myself with the Matrix Voice attached to it.
Well This should be interesting but what could we do....
And that is when B.P.M. was created I wanted to make sure I had the main things covered, bare circuit boards and wires showing a plenty. Making sure the Raspberry Pi and Matrix Voice were the centre of attention when it came to it tho.
Now I knew what I wanted to do it was time to design, now I did draw out everything to explain things better to myself cause what I had in my head and what came out in the project ended up being the same thing but totally different. Which I am glad about, because I think it turned out just right in my books.
The one thing that I know about art is when it comes to our work we are always our own worst critic. With that being said I know that I could have done better and could have spent more time on it.....if I wasn't under a time limit to complete it. I started to build this on a Monday now its Friday and I am coffee injected while writing this and waiting for the final touches to be finish drying so I can take a few more pictures to inject into this project.
So while that is all in the works lets start right from the beginning of my project, so I had a image and a vision and it was time to get things going so first thing first lets have a look at the matrix creator. I thought how in the world am I going to attach everything my first idea was going to be wrap the unit in a ring of wire and then use copper tape around the back side of it and on the inside to seal it all up so I could attach things to it.
But this is as far as I go with that idea.
Now it looks like it was a good idea at the time but in the end it just didn't go with the flow I was looking for and quickly drew my attention to other things like building the case or vase/pot that would house the B.P.M. unit.
So here we go I found some old boards even a xbox 360 board I had hanging on my wall for years back when my electronics shop was open to the public to explain things with visuals for them.
With dremel in hand it was time to start hacking things up and putting things together.
Since I was going to be using the Raspberry Pi with the Matrix Voice it was fitting I needed a standalone audio output right on it so next thing was to get the speakers mounted and audio amplifier board installed which all went pretty smoothly.
How to make it more art like well this part comes next as I was looking at it I wanted to hide as many cables as possible and have it be only one cable that runs to the unit. Similar to that of a smart home device. Now its to get some wire together.
Uh......ya that's not going to be enough but was all I had when I was figuring out that it was the route that I wanted to go. So starting point in had I started pulling wire and lots of it. I had an outdoor extension cord that was going to be scrapped in my wire bin.
And on goes the wrapping of the cables and the case.
Just to add some stability on it I decided a paintbrush would help keep things upright so once I did that things started to come together a bit more and I was starting to see something that was more then just a bunch of wire laying on my workbench.
Now I did add of course sound activated led strip lighting in the base I took a Pringles can and cut it to the right height so that it be easy to remove from the bottom if I needed to at any point.
Lets have a look at them.
Alright so what about the Matrix Voice? Well a few ideas came to mind but the one that made the most sense was to use resin to make the pedals on the unit. I would be able to make them the thickness I wanted and well play around with a bit of colour in it as well.
As you can see I have used some Pringles lids to help with the left over resin.
Next step is probably one of the most important making the pedals for it and then figuring out some leaves.....
Well for the leaves a 3d pen was used to make the shapes and then wrapped with copper foil tape around it to make it all match up nicely.
First thing was first on this there was something in my way so it had to go.
A bit of sanding and there we go on to getting things attached.
who knew a Pringles lid would be so close to the size of the matrix voice....... coincidence?
Finally we have a project that is somewhat together the only thing left to do is get something happening on the Matrix and get some LED Fun happening.
And as promised lets check out that final video.
So with that all being said it was quite the adventure making this, it turned out pretty darn good in my books and it was really time for me to play around with the matrix voice again as whenever I do. I always learn something new.
Now There should be more when it comes to what I did software wise so as you can see on the screens on the left I did have to adjust the volume in alsamixer on the pi and on the right I ssh into the pi to run the services and followed the guide provided here: https://www.hackster.io/matrix-labs/matrix-voice-and-matrix-creator-running-alexa-c-version-9b9d8d
One thing I will note about it tho if you do decide to use the image file and just use something like etcher to put it on a card there was a issue with one of the older ones it really didn't like my sd cards after multiple attempts I did a manual install but then messed some stuff up and found a newer image with everything on it.
matrix-alexa-sdk-guide-060618 <-----use this image
matrix-alexa-sdk-guide-041318 <-----Don't use this image
So thanks everyone for checking out my project I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did, like my PiMassive it's even better in person.
Take care and keep making eh!
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