Picroft: A Raspberry Pi voice assistant named Mycroft

00:00 Intro
00:41 Mycroft Pre-built
01:16 Parts List
02:09 Downloading the Software
03:31 Copying Picroft to the MicroSD Card
04:34 Setting Up Picroft
08:52 Linking Picroft to a Mycroft Account
11:25 Getting Picroft's IP Address
12:01 Using Picroft as a Standalone Device
12:14 Remotely Access Picroft
13:46 Conversing With Mycroft
20:21 Mycroft's Got Skills
21:49 Install a New Skill
23:53 Removing a Skill
25:14 Updates
25:53 End
Do you like the idea of creating a digital assistant to do your bidding? Well that's exactly what we'll be doing in this video, using a version of the free and open source Mycroft software called Picroft, which (you guessed it) is specifically designed for the Raspberry Pi.
Unfortunately it doesn't make coffee, but for many other day to day tasks, the voice assistant can be extremely useful. You may soon be wondering how you ever got by without one.
So dust off that spare Pi you've got stashed in the back of a drawer somewhere (a few cheap accessories will also be required) and get ready to build your very own personal assistant.
Website links:
Mycroft shop
mycroft.ai/shop/
Mycroft
mycroft.ai/
Raspberry Pi Imager
www.raspberrypi.org/software/
Wolfram Alpha
www.wolframalpha.com/
Mycroft account
home.mycroft.ai/
Mycroft Skills Marketplace
market.mycroft.ai/skills
Mycroft documentation
mycroft-ai.gitbook.io/docs/
Mycroft AI Chat
chat.mycroft.ai/
Mycroft Community Forum
community.mycroft.ai/
Mycroft blog
mycroft.ai/blog/
Additional credits:
Thanks to www.1001fonts.com/ for the following fonts
Assistant by Ben Nathan
Nulshock by Raymond Larabie
Tom's Handwriting by Divide By Zero
(Original) images sourced from the superb pixabay.com/

[@helios9523]

Outstanding video, sir! Probably the single most helpful video I've seen on KZbin so far. Interesting topic, excellent step-by-step instructions, great pacing, and best of all, enjoyable asides and witticisms.

[@bytemypi2918]

Blimey, that's some fabulous feedback. Such was the level of your praise, I thought you might have been watching a different video! Thanks for your kind words and support, much appreciated :)

[@Uniblab8]

Excellent. I had never heard of Mycroft until now. This should be a fun project. Thanks

[@bytemypi2918]

You're welcome. Enjoy :)

[@willsgrandad]

I have installed this. Had Mycroft connected and it worked from your "Hay Mycroft" commands. Well done. Will be trying out getting it to operate pins with the commands.

[@bytemypi2918]

Good to hear you've got it up and running :)

[@-someone-.]

I subbed. Awesome tutorial! 👍👋

[@CaptZenPetabyte]

I reserved my mark 2 about 2 or 3 yrs ago (or at least it feels like that) and I doubt it will ever come out as a final product as they have changed to format again. But I liked watching this video as it has encouraged me to just make the damn thing myself for my project

[@bytemypi2918]

That's a shame. I didn't realise they'd stopped supplying them. At least with Picroft we can build it ourself - Raspberry Pi to the rescue once more :)

[@yurkshirelad]

Does the Google TTS API send your data to google?

[@ultimatums1]

with the shortage of Pi 4, i have a Pi2, will it work?

[@xertifiedthicc]

Does this still work? I'm interested in replacing my AlexaPi because it's become deprecated for a while now

[@Uniblab8]

One question I have...would this work as a Linux distro on an Atomic Pi with an Intel Atom x5-Z8350 CPU x86. I see there is a Linux version. Thoughts?

[@bytemypi2918]

If you can run a mainstream Linux distro like Ubuntu on that single board computer, I wouldn't have thought you'd have too much trouble installing Mycroft. The download link for Linux takes you to the project's GitHub page, which seems to have pretty comprehensive instructions.

[@borgir8388]

The AI talking with the mycroft AI sounds almost like a real British guy ;) I'm sure in the coming decade we will reach a point where it is no longer possible for a human to distinguish between an AI voice and a human. Fascinating, but also kind of creepy.

[@bytemypi2918]

Definitely. It's the start of the robot uprising!

[@IanSlothieRolfe]

Well I never knew that there was an open source "Alexa" but apparently there is, and its available for the pi too! Seems quite fun, I guess it won't be long before we see people making talking robots using this or similar technology. Its a shame that it needs to be so closely coupled to the internet, but I guess its using all kinds of AI web services that haven't (yet) been open-sourced. Also I hope they make it so you can change the name in the wake phrase. V interesting video.

[@bytemypi2918]

Yes, as you rightly say, it needs web services to function, but as far as I'm aware the traffic is routed through Mycroft's servers, so this should provide a little more anonymity than using something like Alexa. Glad you liked the video :)

[@kennyt3040]

Hello, can i add image recognition?

[@bytemypi2918]

If you can, it's not something I've come across.

[@DnKZone]

will it still listen to sound if I power off the Picroft not the respberry pi? and how can I stop Picroft to not to listen any voices for some minutes

[@bytemypi2918]

Stopping Picroft from running while the Raspberry Pi is on will indeed stop the voice assistant from listening. You should be able to issue the command "mycroft-stop" (without the quotes) to do this, and "mycroft-start all" to resume it again. Obviously you could also just detach the microphone :)

[@DnKZone]

@@bytemypi2918 tnx for the reply ♥️

[@bytemypi2918]

@@DnKZone You're welcome :)

[@genericgorilla]

i thought the thing was going to sing daisy bell for a second there

[@bytemypi2918]

That might be in the Mark III version!

[@HoaiNam9117]

Thank you, how can I contact you?

[@bytemypi2918]

Can I ask what it's regarding?

[@matthewkrekeauthor]

how do you change its wake word?

[@bytemypi2918]

It's done through your Mycroft online account, but in my experience, unfortunately you can't just edit the existing settings. You need to remove the device from your account and then add it as a new device, during which time you'll be able to choose a new wake word. You'll then have to re-pair the Pi. It's easy enough to do though, as Mycroft will prompt you with the new pairing code :)

[@matthewkrekeauthor]

@@bytemypi2918 thanks, but I want to enter a custom wake word.

[@bytemypi2918]

@@matthewkrekeauthor It looks like setting a personal wake word is possible, but the process appears quite a bit more involved, and potentially not as reliable. Take a look at the following support page if you're interested: mycroft-ai.gitbook.io/docs/using-mycroft-ai/customizations/wake-word

[@matthewkrekeauthor]

i added an external speaker, but it only works as a test speaker

[@bytemypi2918]

@@matthewkrekeauthor I'm not sure what you mean by it only works as a test speaker. If it's not working properly you can enter "mycroft-setup-wizard" to rerun the setup wizard. Hope that helps.

[@tenminutetokyo2643]

Want to play a game.

[@David-xt5ob]

How about global thermonuclear war

[@JamesTaylorJTAYLOR13]

Garbage-I spent hours with it. It's like a kids toy that looks exciting on the box. Who cares if google sells your email address. It works 1,000 better and faster than this ever will.