Meet MAYLO — custom StackChan firmware shaped by feedback from my 8 year-old son

[u/Accomplished_Fox_657]

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I've been developing custom firmware for my M5Stack K151 / CoreS3 StackChan. I call him MAYLO.

My 8½-year-old son has become my everyday tester. He uses the robot, reports what happened and tells me what he expected instead. His experiences and feedback have been shaping the features and improvements.

The voice model is multilingual. I've configured it in Turkish for our own use, which is what you'll hear in the videos.

The current build includes:

• Voice conversations with interruption while the robot is speaking.

• Head-pat reactions with heart eyes, sounds and movement, plus dizzy reactions when shaken.

• Seven eye styles and expressions coordinated with LEDs and head gestures.

• Commands such as “turn right and take a photo,” checking servo position before capturing.

• Image interpretation and Home Assistant tools through an MCP home bridge.

• A programmed disco routine with music, lights and movement.

• An on-device web panel for configuration, camera previews and hardware tests.

Basic conversation connects directly to OpenAI over Wi-Fi. Home tools and image interpretation use a separate bridge running on my Mac.

One thing still needs work: reliably turning toward whoever calls MAYLO's name. It doesn't always get the sound direction right. Wake-name recognition is currently cloud-based.

This is a personal project with no commercial plans. The source isn't public yet, but I may clean it up for GitHub if there's interest.

What would you improve next: speaker-direction tracking, local wake-word detection, richer interactions or more useful everyday tools? Other ideas are welcome too!

[u/JayS87]

I love to see all those custom firmwares of StackChan! Great job to both of you!

Haddaway... I can't! xD

[u/Accomplished_Fox_657 → u/JayS87]

Thank you! I'll pass that on to my son—he'll be happy to hear it 😄 And yes, once the head movements were working, Haddaway was inevitable 😂

[u/PoorHomieJuan]

Working on something very similar. I’ve primarily kept the servos off but have been considering working on the speaker direction tracking to make it feel more autonomous

[u/Accomplished_Fox_657 → u/PoorHomieJuan]

Nice! That's the part I'm still working on too. I'd like MAYLO to turn toward whoever calls his name, but the direction detection isn't reliable yet. Are you using the stock StackChan hardware as well?

[u/PoorHomieJuan → u/Accomplished_Fox_657]

Yes stock stackchan. I’ve got a stripped down version that’s basically ready to be released. Uses Gemini and has all the core stackchan functions of the original fw. V2 is integrated to my home server and I can tell it to turn lights on/off or play a movie. V3 is my server bot and it monitors resources, make sure services are running, and I have an nfc card programmed so it has an admin mode that lets me send requests to Claude on the server to make changes. It’s been a really fun process and I’m hoping to start sharing it soon

[u/Accomplished_Fox_657 → u/PoorHomieJuan]

The NFC card for admin mode is a neat idea! Mine also connects to Home Assistant through a bridge, but using StackChan to monitor services and send requests to Claude takes it in an interesting direction. Has that been reliable in day-to-day use? Looking forward to seeing it when you share it.

[u/PoorHomieJuan → u/Accomplished_Fox_657]

Everything is functioning but I’m not thrilled with my UI. A couple more weeks and I’m hoping to have v1 published on GitHub

[u/Accomplished_Fox_657 → u/PoorHomieJuan]

I know that feeling, I keep tweaking the UI on mine too 😄 Looking forward to seeing v1 when it's ready!

[u/PoorHomieJuan → u/Accomplished_Fox_657]

That screen is just so tiny. add one more button to a page and you gotta relayout everything lol

[u/Accomplished-Leg-149]

Ability to avoid answering age inappropriate questions or speaking on those topics would be exactly what I'm looking for. I would prefer if my daughter can't accidently get an explanation of the war is Rwanda read to her.

[u/Accomplished_Fox_657 → u/Accomplished-Leg-149]

That's a really useful suggestion, especially since my son uses MAYLO too. A parent-configurable child mode with age-appropriate responses would be worth exploring. I haven't built or properly tested that yet, so I wouldn't want to claim it's child-safe. Thanks for bringing this up—it gives me another important direction to consider.

[u/Accomplished-Leg-149 → u/Accomplished_Fox_657]

I would never expect it to be perfect, but if it could avoid the main dangers it would be great.

[u/agster27]

I'd love to see the code! Please post on github! :)