I am on a mission to create the ultimate voice assistant.

May 29, 2025, 4 PM: Initial planning (1.5 hours)

Today is my first day creating my voice assistant, which I've decided to name Forte! I have been making voice assistants since I began coding (Rip Rico, who I spent dozens of hours hardcoding). Now it's time to level up, and turn it into an Alexa-like assistant that I can keep in my room! I'm going to use Python for this project. Here's a brain dump of my plan for materials:

I'm planning to spend roughly $150 on this project (6 points for Highway). I'll need materials for the core hardware and for the audio equipment. I might have some add-ons, but I haven't decided on that yet.

I want to get a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B to use as the computer. There's different amounts of storage I can choose, but I'm going to go with 4GB for now. It should cost about $60. It has wifi, bluetooth, ethernet, and multiple usb ports, which is great for my assistant, because I want it to have many functions.

I'll need a MicroSD card, but good thing I already have one from Hack Club's Cafe! It has 64GB. That saves me about $10.

As for the power supply, I want to use the Official Pi 4 PSU, which costs about $10.

May 29, 2025, 7 PM: Audio planning (30 minutes)

Now I'm considering audio options. There's so much out there when it comes to microphones. I'm considering the Samson Go Mic, TONOR TC-777 (USB), and Fifine K669B (USB). Samson Go Mic is the best according to my research, though so I'll go with that for now. As for speakers, I'm trying to decide between the Creative Pebble and an Amazon Basics USB Speaker. I've decided I'm going to use Mycroft AI for the software. It's good for this kind of project and it's open source.

May 30, 2025, 4 PM: Specifics (2 hours)

I think I'm almost done choosing the hardware. Here's my plan for the essential features:

Raspberry Pi: Raspberry Pi 4B (4GB) - $60 Power Supply: Official Pi 4 PSU - $10 Case: Basic Pi 4B Case - $8 Microphone: Samson Go Mic - $35 Speaker: Amazon Basics USB - $15

This takes me to $128. There's other hardware I want to get to make this the best it can be:

Light Sensor: TSL2561 - $6 (Used to give light based responses) Camera: Raspberry Pi Camera Module - $15 (I'm really excitrd about this, it will enhance security, and Forte will have eyes!)

This takes me to $148, just enough for the 6 points! I'll buy any other upgrades with my own money, for instance an LED ring/strip to indicated thinking/listening/responding and more. Tomorrow I'm planning to start on some software for this project.

May 31, 2025: Budget/Case planning (1 hour)

I've decided to design my own custom case, and reduce my hardware budget. Here's my new plan:

Raspberry Pi: Raspberry Pi Zero W - $20 Power Supply: Official Pi 4 PSU - $10 Case: Custom - Paid for by me Microphone: Fifine K668 USB Microphone - $20 Speaker: Amazon Basics USB - $15 Light Sensor: TSL2561 - $6 Camera: Raspberry Pi Camera Module - $15 MicroSD Card: Hack Club MicroSD Card - Already have

I reduced my budget by about $64, so this will be an $86 project. I'm going to use TinkerCad to design the case, which I'll hopefully get started on tomorrow, along with software, which I didn't get to today.

June 4, 2025: Learning Leon (30 minutes)

Leon is what I'm using to make this, and today I spent half an hour learning about it. I've decided I'm going to use Python with Leon, because it's easier for me than the alternative: Javascript (And I made a YSWS about JS sob). It seems easy to hardcode commands with it, but what I really want is AI functionality built in. No matter what I use, I have to install a lot of things on my computer, and because I'm moving to a different one soon I'm trying to hold off on that.

June 5, 2025: Working on case (1.5 hours)

Worked on designing most of the case for this project in TinkerCad. I have the whole main case and I also have space where the camera, microphone, and light sensor will go. I learned a ton today, because I had only a little TinkerCad experience before!

June 8, 2025: Finished case (20 minutes)

Finished designing the case! I will need a soldering iron for this project, but thankfully I already have one. My library offers free 3D printing, so I will utilize that.