Introducing Jarvis!
In Big IDEA, every student is required to make an item of interest as long as it was constructed using 3 machines inside the Innovation Center. Right away I was very interested considering how open-ended this was, and soon after searching online, I found out that you could make your own Amazon Alexa simply by using a Raspberry Pi, a microphone, and a speaker, so thus Jarvis was born! |
Pre-Search
I wasn't really sure what to do at first, there were so many interesting ideas out there online, but eventually I narrowed the list down to my top 3 picks:
Since the Gameboy used too many parts, and the NES would've been too time-consuming, I decided that I should make my own Person AI. My brother said he should be named Jarvis because that was the name of the AI that Iron Man created in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I liked the name and so it stuck.
Gantt Chart
Our teacher made us make a gantt chart so that we could make a timeline of what to do and see if we were on task to finish on time or not
Creation Timeline
Before I Was Able To Start Making The Design For Jarvis, I Had To Test The Hard/Software To See If It Would Work:
Unfortunately, I Found Out That This Modified Version Of The Operating System That Is Used To Run Jarvis Wouldn't Work With USB Speakers, So I Went Through 2 Different Speakers Until I Found One That Worked:
First Step Was To Sketch How I Would Make The Design For Jarvis:
After I Was Done Ironing Out All The Bugs With The Hardware, And After I Was Done Redesigning Jarvis for third time (seriously, I redesigned him 3 times), I Was Now Ready To Begin Making The Case In Inventor. I chose to make the case a cube because I thought a rectangle wouldn't look as good. I also added some holding points inside the case so that the case top can rest on and be glued there.
Once I Had Polished Up The Design, I Was Now Ready To Go Into The Innovation Center To Begin 3D-Printing It Out:
After I 3D-Printed The Case, I Went Onto Illustrator To Begin Designing The Top Of The Case. I Was Inspired By The Amazon Echo Case And How It had Lots Of Tiny Holes Running Along The Edges, So This Is How It Turned Out:
Now That I Had The Case Top Designed, I Could Begin To Lazer-Cut It Onto Some Matteboard. I Knew Eventually I Would Have To Spray Paint It To Match The Color Of The Case, I Just Used The First Matteboard I Could Find.
Once I Was Done Lazer-Cutting The Top, I Went Onto Illustrator To Begin Designing The Case Logo. I Decided To Keep It Nice And Simple Because One: I Suck At Designing Art, And Two: I Wanted To Make Sure I Couldn't Possibly Screw It Up.
Now That I had The Different Layers Isolated, I Was Ready To Begin Using The Vinyl Cutter To Cut Them Out:
Since I Now Had My 3 Pieces Ready To Be Put Together, I First Started By Applying The Vinyl Logo To The Case. In Hindsight I Should Put The Letters On The Background Before Applying Them To The Case, But Now It Adds Some Originality.
Next I Spray-Painted The Case Top Black So That It Would Match The Case:
Then I Applied The Jarvis Logo Text On The Case Top To Make it Look Better:
After That, It Was Finally Time For Me To Insert The Pi, Speaker, And Microphone Into The Case. To Keep All These Parts From Moving Around, I Screwed The Pi Into Place, And Used Some Wire To Keep The Speaker And Microphone Tethered To The Walls And Prevent It From Rattling Around Inside The Case.
Finally I Glued The Top On And Voila! Jarvis Has Been Completed!
Finished Product
Summary
Even though this semester turned out like nothing I was expecting when first signed up for classes back in February of 2020, I did indeed enjoy my decision to take Big IDEA. I learned a lot including how wiring and electricity in Arduino, to learning how to work with a Raspberry Pi. I also learned that Raspberry Pis do not like USB speakers. All-in-all I enjoyed very much working on this project despite the amount of hiccups that occurred along the way. The best part I like about Jarvis, is that his software is open-sourced, which means that you or I could create programs for it, so there is still much more to do with him!