Adjusting workplace chair top with easy voice instructions
— August eighth, 2024
A month in the past, ElectronicLab modified his workplace chair with an electrical automotive jack, giving it motorized top adjustment. That labored nicely, however required that he push buttons to boost or decrease the seat. Pushing these buttons is a trouble when one’s palms are full, so ElectronicLab went again to the workbench so as to add voice management capabilities.
ElectronicLab was utilizing an Arduino Nano to regulate the electrical jack motor in response to button presses, so he already had a lot of the {hardware} essential to make the system smarter. He simply wanted the Arduino to acknowledge particular voice instructions, which he was in a position to obtain utilizing an ELECHOUSE Voice Recognition Module V3.
That voice recognition modules helps as much as 80 voice instructions, however ElectronicLab solely wanted a number of of them — simply sufficient to inform the chair which route to maneuver and the way far to go. The module got here with a microphone, which ElectronicLab was in a position to connect outdoors of the 3D-printed enclosure the place it might choose up his voice.
However there was nonetheless one downside: the motion was very sluggish. The jack was designed to elevate a automotive, so it makes use of a high-torque motor with a ten:1 planetary gearset to drive a hydraulic pump. ElectronicLab didn’t want that a lot torque, so he welded the planetary gears to provide the motor a direct 1:1 ratio. Sadly, that was a mistake. The hydraulic oil can’t movement quick sufficient to maintain up, so the motor pulls approach an excessive amount of present for the driving force.
Nonetheless, the voice management was successful and so ElectronicLab can merely swap out the motor.
Maybe sooner or later ElectronicLab may even consolidate the elements utilizing the speech recognition-capable Nano 33 BLE Sense Rev2 or Nano RP2040 Join…
