Mycroft Mark II

body / case

The original mark2 body at ​https://github.com/MycroftAI/hardware-mycroft-mark-II-rpi was not printable on my FDM printer. So I used this: ​https://community.mycroft.ai/t/simplified-mark-ii-body-for-fdm-printing/8248/12 or ​https://github.com/guhl/hardware-mycroft-mark-II-rpi

Software basis

I used the picroft image Picroft_Buster-Keaton_2020-01-10.img as the software basis

Audio

I had two problems related to audio.

First the volume of the Adafruit MAX9744 Amplifier was very high and resulted in a general cracking and static noise when switched on.

Adafruit Volume control

I am controlling the volume of the MAX9744 using the CircuitPython Libraries (see ​https://learn.adafruit.com/circuitpython-on-raspberrypi-linux/installing-circuitpython-on-raspberry-pi ). The things that I had to do:

Install the library

while in (.venv)

• pip3 install RPI.GPIO
• pip3 install adafruit-blinka

Enable I2C ===

I2C is not enabled by default so run and enable I2C in the Interfacing Options

Python script

Use this script to set the initial volume to about the half (the range is 0 to 63). Create ~/bin/ada_volume.py with the following content

• nano ~/bin/ada_volume.py

  import board
  import busio
  import adafruit_max9744
  i2c = busio.I2C(board.SCL, board.SDA)
  amp = adafruit_max9744.MAX9744(i2c)
  amp.volume = 30
  

Start using systems

Place a service file in the user directory:

• nano ~/.config/systemd/user/myadavolume.service

with the content

[Unit]
Description=set adafruit volume
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/home/pi/mycroft-core/.venv/bin/python /home/pi/bin/ada_volume.py

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

Enable and start it:

• systemctl --user daemon-reload
• systemctl --user enable myadavolume
• systemctl --user start myadavolume