Ekho
Ekho is a compact, hexagon-shaped device that came from the idea of me having ideas. People have ideas all the time, but since short-term memory isn't too reliable, I decided to build something that can record your own ideas in your own voice that I can carry anywhere I go. Plus, it's probably going to end up being purple ;)
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Nina_Teck
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Nina_Teck
added to the journal ago
Planned out the PCB
Soo... yesterday, being 13th of November, I figured out what the PCB inside Ekho is actually going to do, since Ekho is just basically a memo box, it just has to handle recording, storing, and playing back short audio clips. So I decided that the PCB will carry the mic, the tiny speaker amp, the microcontroller, a small flash chip, and the LiPo charging circuit.
There will also be button control on the surface, but what I didn't understand was the spacing I'd have to do. I've never really done many hardware projects before, so I still had to understand that the PCB wouldn't fit as easily as I pictured in my head( I also kind of mixed up dimensions and accidentally measured the flat to flat of the hex wrong the first time, so I had to do a recheck🥲🥲) the sketch I had in my book is not really good, so I'm not really going to show it here.
The USB-C exit was on the wrong side, so basically just PCB planning out.
It took me like an hour and a half to figure out the PCB layout and what it needs to do. And honestly after I fixed those little mistakes, I guess I learned not to do that next time✨✨
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Like I said this is one of mt first major hardware projects so it's really more of research, trial, error and all over again.
Nina_Teck
added to the journal ago
I started to think about Dimensions...
So in my previous journal I used some dimension that I have come to realize are not realistic so in accord to that discovery i decided to do some research. Since i want to make ekho more or less portable, i concluded on some dimensions for the case of Ekho that will end up having to be 3d printed. I also decided to give Ekho an OLED screen on one side just to make handling files stored easier.
Like I said before, the overall shape is a hexagonal cube. The ### flat-to-flat width is 7.5cm, height 6.5cm, and the walls would probably be about 2.5mm thick to avoid it being too bulky while still letting all the internal parts fit in.
It took me about 45 minutes of going through my ideas and comparing them to realistic dimensioning (lol If it were up to me it would be half it's size and weight but I ain't got the budget for that XD).
I then realised I would also have to make provisions for things like speaker vents, button holes, indicator holes and of course a charging port so it took me about 20 minutes to figure out where I would be placing them.
These are basically the dimensions for the case i'll be 3d printing (like i said before) for ekho.<!-- Upload failed: JOURNAL 2.png -->
Nina_Teck
added to the journal ago
I came up with the Idea.
"Hi! I'm a relatively creative person who enjoys journaling her ideas. I thought, "Why not create something to help with that?" That's why I decided to build Ekho. It's basically a hexagonal cube that records voice notes of random ideas you may have at any point in time and also allows you to reflect and hear the ideas in your own voice.
Ekho is actually part of a 3-part project for journaling ideas, but let's call it the first phase. Another phase is my other project, Auxi, which records ideas in text form.
It took me a while to plan it all out, but I still would like to do some polishing up first.
My original idea for Ekho was a regular cube, but that was kind of boring, so I decided to switch to something a little more geometrically appealing.
It would basically be an ESP32 + mic + SD card + speaker combo capable of Audio capture and playback logic.
Ekho is gonna be like an idea capsule you can carry around like a friend! 
I attached a sample of my blueprint for now, but it might change later on.
Nina_Teck
started Ekho ago