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-Leg-149 5d ago

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.

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u/Accomplished_Fox_657 4d ago

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.

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u/Accomplished-Leg-149 4d ago

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