enclosure-picroft-touch7

This repoistory is to keep track of my efforts to build a Mycroft platform using a Raspberry Pi4 and 7" Touchscreen.

Hardware

I had a goal to try and keep this project under $150. Here is a list of suggested hardware items needed to build a picroft-touch7.

• Raspberry Pi4 (4G) - $50 - microcenter

• 7" Touchscreen - $60 - microcenter

• Fan Case - $17 - microcenter

  Note: Any case will do, but a fan is really needed to avoid overheating, especially when playing videos. Note: When you connect the fan to a 3v supply, it tends to be very quiet and is good enough to keep the temperature under 60degC

• Microphone - $30 - TONOR G11

  Note: Any microphone should work. I like this one because of the multidirectional capability, but I've tried others and they work too.

• SD Card - $8 - 16G is fine. walmart

• Stand - $0 - I just 3d printed a simple set of legs.

• Speaker - ?? - I love the Ultimate Ears Boom speakers for playing music. I already had a few of these around the house, so I am using these.

  Note: Any speaker will work, it just depends on the quality you want. The Pi4 analog output is not very good, so I'd recommend a BT speaker or add a DAC hat.

Software

I tried many distributions (Lubuntu, Kubuntu, Ubuntu, Majaro, Plasma bigscreen, etc). All caused issues with overheating and package issues. Finally, I ended up using a Picroft/Rasbian base. The problem was the older versions of Qt in buster. In my case, I went ahead and added the bullseye distros from debian (armhf) to get to the versions needed for all the skills and for mycroft-gui-app.

• Rasbian install - Raspios - armhf

• Debian Bullseye - /etc/apt/sources.list - deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye main contrib non-free

• Then I just did a standard mycroft-core and mycroft-gui download and install (git clone, bash dev_setup.sh)

• I added two files in the .config/autostart directory to start the core and gui on boot (pi user autologin)

• Make sure QT_FILE_SELECTORS is set to picroft_touch7

  .bashrc: export QT_FILE_SELECTORS=picroft_touch7 In desktop files: Exec=env QT_FILE_SELECTORS=picroft_touch7 mycroft-gui-app --hideTextInput --maximize This is so that the skills will use the picroft_touch7 versions of screen layouts.

• Added a lxde-pci-rc.xml file to the ~/.config/openbox directory (/etc/xdg/openbox/lxde-pi-rc.xml), then add lines to the "applications" secton:

   <application title="mycroft.gui">
      <skip_taskbar>yes</skip_taskbar>
      <decor>no</decor>
      <shade>no</shade>
      <layer>normal</layer>
      <fullscreen>yes</fullscreen>
    </application>

• Modified /etc/mycroft/mycroft.conf to use this enclosure

{
  "enclosure": {
     "platform": "picroft_touch7"
  }
}

• Added skills as needed.

Skills

Here is a list of skills and capabilities I wanted to make sure worked on this platform. Hey Mycroft

• What's the weather forcast?
• What’s the weather?
• Play positive encouraging K-Love on IHeartRadio
• Play contemporary on Spotify
• Set a timer for ??? Minutes
• Announce – Dinner is ready
• Add milk to list Safeway
• Turn on den light
• Turn off basement stairs light
• Youtube Nobody by casting crowns

These are the main skills I use and have modified to support the 7" screen

• mycroft-picroft_touch7.mycroftai - a copy of mycroft-mark-2.mycroftai with modifications for display and sound/volume.
• mycroft-playback-control.mycroftai (Modified to use picroft_touch7 UI)
• todoist-skill - Personally developed skill to interact with Todoist
• homeassistant.mycroftai - Added UI capabilities
• mycroft-skill-iheartradio.johnbartkiw - Added UI capabilities
• youtube-skill.aiix - Used as is, but I needed to install several packages and use QtMultimedia 12 instead of 13
• mycroft-spotify.forslund - Used as is To Do I want to modify these skills to use the 7" screen.
• mycroft-alarm.mycroftai
• mycroft-timer.mycroftai