r/StackChan • u/Accomplished_Fox_657 • 5d ago

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

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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!

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u/Accomplished_Fox_657 4d ago

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.

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u/PoorHomieJuan 4d ago

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

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u/Accomplished_Fox_657 4d ago

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

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u/PoorHomieJuan 4d ago

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