Talking Dog Project by eliasw

Last crawled date: 2 years, 10 months ago

Teach your dog to talk!
Watch the device in action (a dog should press the button, but our dog hasn't yet learned it).
Inspired by dogs that talk by pressing buttons that make a sound, I thought that there must be a better way than buying expensive buttons each with each own sound electronics and battery. One small computer with many buttons would be a better choice. Adding a new button would then come at a very small cost. With a computer powerful enough other features can be added, like logging each button press and view the log on a web page.
This is by far my biggest 3D printing FreeCAD project, consisting of 17 different printed parts (bodies in FreeCAD language).
Also needed are:
1 Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+ with GPIO ribbon cable and power supply
2 small speakers 1.5" 4Ω 3W
1 amplifier card DROK 5W+5W PAM8406 DC 5V
Some push buttons PCB 12x12x8.5 mm, one for every dog paw button
Some thin cables for connecting everything
Tiny screws for attaching paw buttons, computer case and speakers
The idea is to make the thing modular, so new buttons can be easily added. There is a base module where three buttons can be attached. The base modules can be put together to form a bigger base with as many buttons as you like. The computer and speakers can also be fastened in the same holes. Cables are hidden in channels under the base.
Buttons and other parts should be printed in various colors for the dog to orient himself/herself and learn which button has which sound.
The SD card image can be downloaded on DropBox.
The software can be found on GitHub (not needed if you use the card image).
Login credentials for ssh when using the card image is pi/dogsp3ak1ng
Please read the README file on ~pi/talkingdog
To view the button press log page, type the ip address of the device in your web browser.
Of course this project is open source. Contribute if you like.
Ideas for the future:
Send the words to some messaging service like SMS or chat app or Twitter. Your dog will text you! Imagine getting a message on your phone from your dog that he/she needs to pee! Nice if you are not in vicinity. Of course the dog needs to learn that it is possible to communicate with you even if it cannot see you.
Larger buttons for bigger dogs.
Smaller computer, because Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+ is really overkill for this application.
Battery power to make it more portable.
Camera activated by movement sensor or button press.
There is also a facebook group for discussions about this project.