ADVANCEDPROJECTS
ISSUE 378|COMPUTERSHOPPER|AUGUST 2019 133
POSSIBLYTHETRICKIESTstep in building
your own AI ȸatleast without our help ȸis
where to buy the kit. Since Google launched
its AIY kits, they’ve had ahabit of selling out
within hours and being out of stock for
months. Thankfully,areliable supplier has
emerged in the form of Ûouser Llectronics.
Go towww.mouser.co.ukand search forAIY
Śoice.The kit costs £42 and shipping is free.
Inside the kit is everything you need to
make an AI kit, including aĚaspberry Pi Ƃero
WH and the cutecardboard housing. Better
yet, the build doesn’t require asoldering iron
to connect the fewwires. However,you need
a2.1Apower adaptor (but not the Ûicro l·SB
cable), amicroSD-to-SDadaptor and asmall
flat-head screwdriver,the sort you get in
posh Christmas crackers.
On opening the AIY Śoice box, you’ll see
two pieces of cardboard bundled together
and the layout of components. But the
first job is to download the latest version
of the AIY Śoice operating system (it’s a
pre-loaded and modified version of the
Ěaspberry Pi’s standard Ěaspbian OS) from
tinyurl.com/378projects1.This is alarge file,
roughly 1.2GB, so start this download
before building the hardware.
There are no instructions as to how to
build the hardware in the box, but there is
asubtle message on the inner lid that
points you toaiyprojects.withgoogle.com/
voice.While the instructions are pretty clear,
there are acouple of points that we cannot
stress strongly enough.
The first relates to the inner ͗cage’made
of the complex, flat piece of cardboard.
As the images on these pages show,you
essentially fold this piece of cardboard back
on itself and then pinch in the two wings to
make the curious structure that holds the Pi
and the speaker.However,it’s possible to
fold the cardboard the wrong way.
HELP CENTRE
To avoid an error,and having to dismantle
the cage,notethat the two long slots are
off-centre.One slot is much nearer the edge
of the cardboard than the other,
and this slot must be the left-most
at all times. When this piece of
cardboard is flat, the portion with
the two slots is uppermost, and
you then fold this section
backwards via the two creases.
Then pinch the two sides
forwards, and fold the slotted
section forwards and under,
so that the two tabs slide into
the two slots.
Once the cage is prepared,
you can assemble the Pi and the
AIY Śoice HAT. Holding the Pi
with its GPIO header pins to the
left, push the two standoffs
intothe two holes on the right of the circuit
board. Youneed to be somewhat firm to
make them snap intoplace.Then take the
AIY Śoice HATand slide it on to the GPIO
pins and the standoffs. Youshould end up
with avery solid tech sandwich. Then slide
the Pi-and-HATcombo intothe jaws of the
cage.You’ll find that the cardboard uprights
slide quiteprecisely between some of the
components on the HAT’s circuit board.The next step is to shove the speaker into
the large slot at the ͗back’ of the cage; it’s a
tight fit, so be firm. Put the speaker in with its
two wires facing upward. Once in place,take
your small flathead screwdriver and loosen
the two left-most terminals of the greyblock
(the two furthest from the audio jack). Slide
the red wire intothe terminal furthest from
the audio jack and the black wire in the next
terminal, and then screw both down tightly.
Youcan put your assembled
internals to one side and pick
up the other piece of
cardboard. This is apretty
simple box, but Google has
been clever in how this goes
together,too.Fold flap Ato˰0
degrees, then fold down flaps B
and C, and then fold down flap
D; press the tab of flap Ddown
alittle to slide it home and
you’ll have created asturdy
box bottom very simply.
Take your assembled cage
and slide this intothe box with
the speaker facing towards the
side with seven holes.
The last job is to install and
wire up the big arcade-style
button. Push the button in from
the ͗outside’ofthe lid of theѡThe components are laid out aΞractivelѻ in their boѸѝThe IŴ Śoice Ãit costs ʱust
Δ4ι and includes everѻthing ѻou
need to get started