“Yes, only two stars.
I spent one month buying cables and accessories, trying to connect the box. Sometimes I bought wrong ones because it was not clear what you should buy and why. For example, I had to buy keyboard just to enter password and never used it again. This is wasteful.
It would be beneficial if connectors to a laptop or PC were included. They only cost 5 GBP, but would make a lot of difference to a user.
The box is made of the cheapest materials. It costs 46 GBP, pi zero costs 11 GBP, speaker costs 5, sd card - 2. What is the rest of the price for? Cardboard box?
I had to etch programming 3 times, it was giving me the error.
python voice_recorder.py gave me an error. Lots of unnecessary issues at every step.
Overall a nice product, but overpriced and underthought. Surprised to see Google name on this.”
“This I a great kit for all ages but you would need an adult to help with the software. I like the fact that it gives you easy access to the spare GPIO pins that the hat doesn't use so that you can easily integrate it into a project.”
“Not being one of the lucky few to receive this free with the MagPi, I finally bought one.
I was impressed with the design and ease of assembly, obviously a lot of thought went into it.
With regard to the software side of things- the included MagPi excerpt is a little lacking. There are changes to the software since original publication so you MUST check the website for the updated procedure. A few places it’s not made clear where the AIY files are stored.. best to use file browser and check yourself.
While it leads you through the set up procedure, I felt that it could have done with more explanation of some of the modules, rather that expecting to follow by rote.
All in all a nice little unit, I haven’t explored it in depth but have a few ideas of apps/skills to write for the platform.
I look forward to the Vision unit being released in the UK.”
“I would class this as an intermediate project.
The hardware assembly is straight forward and downloading the Google version of Raspbian and installing on a SD card is well documented. There are some test scripts to make sure everything is working and also some demo scripts, so you will have a working Google Home by the end of chapter five.
It becomes more of a challenge when you want to take the next steps.
The excellent guide has many more advanced examples, but a knowledge of Python programming would be an advantage, so you could start modifying the examples for you own ends.
I would recommend working through a beginner’s guide and learn some python first. Once you have that under your belt then it would be a great first real project.
The main thing is to have fun!”
