wire-prod-pod

Custom Vector escape pod designed for regular production Vectors. No OSKR required.

This version is designed to be easy to setup by consumers and by people with little technical experience. If you would like a version that is more dev-friendly and customizable, check out wire-pod.

Installation

Some general notices for production Vectors:

This will require you to put your Vector on 1.8. You cannot keep him on 1.6 if you want to use these instructions.
While it is recommended to clear user data, it is not required.
It is recommended you use a Raspberry Pi 4, though you can use any Linux computer
For this; you do not need to pay for the voice subscription, Escape Pod, or any DDL service.
Please note that the phone apps (Android and iOS) will no longer be able to connect to a Vector tethered to Wire-Prod-Pod
- wire-prod-pod contains a fully-featured Vector mobile app replacement

Prerequisites

One of the following to use as a host:
- Raspberry Pi 4
- Any device running Linux
- Modern desktop running Windows 10 or 11
A production Vector 1.0
- Vector 2.0 is not supported yet
A computer with Google Chrome (or the new Microsoft Edge) and Bluetooth
- If you are using Linux, go to chrome://flags and enable Experimental web platform features, then relaunch Chrome

Set up the bot

Put your Vector on the charger and hold the button for 15 seconds. The light will turn off after ~5 seconds, that is normal. Just keep holding until he turns back on (This is not the same as clearing user data. Do NOT clear user data).
He should be at a screen that shows anki.com/v. On a computer with Bluetooth support (preferably Windows or macOS), go to https://keriganc.com/vector-epod-setup in Chrome or Edge and follow the instructions. The download may take a few minutes to start.
Wait for that to finish. Once he has rebooted, continue on to the next set of instructions.

Set up wire-pod

wire-pod can be setup either on a Raspberry Pi, pretty much any Linux desktop, or on Windows 10/11 via WSL.

Only do one of the following sets of instructions.

After you have followed one of the installation instructions, continue on to "Finish setting up the bot".

Option one: Raspberry Pi 4

Download and install Raspberry Pi Imager, insert a micro-SD card into your computer/into a reader
Follow along with this video. This is an example of how I would set it up for my network/liking. The only things you should change are the user password (located under pi, change it to anything you want and make sure you remember it) and the network information (you should put your network name instead of AnkiRobits, your network password instead of KlaatuBaradaNikto!)
Insert the SD card into your Pi, wait a few minutes for it to boot up
On your computer, open up a Terminal (or Powershell on Windows) and run the following command:

ssh pi@escapepod

If it gives you a prompt, enter yes. Then enter in the user password you chose in Raspberry Pi Imager (under pi)
The terminal should show pi@escapepod ~ $. If you are there, run the following command:

wget -O - https://keriganc.com/setup-wire-pod.sh | bash

After that completes, open a browser and go to http://escapepod:8080. From there, click on "Set up wire-pod" and do as it says. You do not need to do the part at the bottom where it says Choose file, that is reserved for OSKR/dev bots.
Voice commands should now work!

Option two: (almost) Any Linux system

(Your distribution must have either pacman, dnf, or apt, make sure you have ports 443 and 8080 open)

Open a terminal and run this command:

wget -O - https://keriganc.com/setup-wire-pod.sh | bash

(if it asks for a password, enter it)

Once that has completed, go to http://escapepod:8080 in a browser and click on Set up wire-pod (API keys, STT service, etc). From there, follow the instructions. It should then be set up.

Option three: Windows 10/11 via WSL

TODO: tutorial video

Open up Powershell as administrator
- Open the start menu, type in Powershell, right click, click "Run as administrator"
Enter the following commands (this will change your computer's name to escapepod):

Rename-Computer -NewName "escapepod"
wsl --install

Reboot your computer.
After the reboot, Ubuntu should install. Wait for it to finish.
The Ubuntu installer should ask for a UNIX username. Enter one. example: wire
It should then ask for a UNIX password. Make sure you remember this! It will not show any indication that you are typing anything, that is normal.
You should now be at an Ubuntu terminal. In that terminal, run the following command:

sudo apt install net-tools

Open up Powershell as administrator
- Open the start menu, type in Powershell, right click, click "Run as administrator"
In Powershell, run the following command. When it asks for a confirmation, enter Y.

Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass

In Powershell, the the following commands:

cd ~
curl -o wsl-firewall.ps1 https://keriganc.com/wsl-firewall.ps1
.\wsl-firewall.ps1

Return to the Ubuntu terminal and enter the following command:

wget -O - https://keriganc.com/setup-wire-pod.sh | bash

(if it asks for a password, enter what you entered for the UNIX password earlier)

Once that is finished, run the following command to start the server:

cd ~/wire-prod-pod
sudo ./chipper/start.sh

Go to http://escapepod:8080 in a browser and click on Set up wire-pod (API keys, STT service, etc). From there, follow the instructions. It should then be set up and voice commands should now work on Vector.

(NOTE: You have to keep the Ubuntu terminal open. If you ever reboot, you will have to open Ubuntu again and enter the following commands to start the voice server, because it does not start on system startup:)

cd ~/wire-prod-pod
sudo ./chipper/start.sh

Finish setting up the bot

It is recommended to clear user data before performing this, but it is not required.

On a device with Bluetooth (can be the same machine as what wire-prod-pod is running on), go to vector-epod-setup and follow the instructions.
When it gets to a button showing "ACTIVATE", click it. If it shows up again, click on it again.
Enter user settings and press "SUBMIT". Vector should then be fully set up!

Updating

Wire-pod auto-updates once a day. To force an update, run the following commands:

cd ~/wire-prod-pod
sudo ./update.sh

Web interface

Chipper hosts a web interface at port 8080. This can be used to create custom intents and to configure specific bots.

To get to it, open a browser and go to http://serverip:8080, replacing serverip with the IP address of the machine running the chipper server. If you are running the browser on the machine running chipper, you can go to http://localhost:8080

Set up wire-pod
- This is where you would enter your API keys for Houndify and WeatherAPI if you want to set those up.
Configure user settings
- Custom intents
  - Example: You want to create a custom intent that allows Vector to turn the lights off. The transcribed text that matches to this intent should include "lights off" and other variations like "lid off" for better detection. It will execute a python script located in your user directory called vlight.py. It should be launched with the off variable because the lights are being turned off. This script turns the lights off and connects to Vector so he says "The lights are off!". You have multiple bots registered with the SDK so a serial number must be specified. After the SDK program is complete, chipper should send intent_greeting_goodnight. The following screenshot is a correct configuration for this case. The Add intent button would be pressed after everything is put in.
  - (If !botSerial is put into the program arguments, chipper will substitute it for the serial number of the bot that is making a request to it.)
- Bot configurations
  - Example: You have a bot on 1.6 with a serial number of 0060059b; located in Des Moines, Iowa; and you would like to use Fahrenheit for the temperature unit in the weather command. The following screenshot is a correct configuration for that bot. Once that is input, you would press "Add bot". It would then be registered with chipper.
See logs
- This shows the logs produced by wire-pod. Updates every 200ms, shows the last 30 lines.

Status

OS Support:

Arch
Debian/Ubuntu/other APT distros
Fedora/openSUSE
Windows 10/11 under WSL

Architecture support:

amd64/x86_64
arm64/aarch64
armv7l/arm32

Things wire-prod-pod has worked on:

Raspberry Pi 4B+ 4GB RAM with Raspberry Pi OS
Raspberry Pi 4B+ 4GB RAM with Manjaro 22.04
Nintendo Switch with L4T Ubuntu
Desktop with Ryzen 5 3600, 16 GB RAM with Ubuntu 22.04
Laptop with mobile i7
Desktop with Xeon X5650

General notes:

If you get this error when running chipper, you are using a port that is being taken up by a program already: panic: runtime error: invalid memory address or nil pointer dereference
You have to speak a little slower than normal for Coqui STT to understand you.

Current implemented actions:

Good robot
Bad robot
Change your eye color
Change your eye color to
- blue, purple, teal, green, yellow
How old are you
Start exploring ("deploring" works better)
Go home (or "go to your charger")
Go to sleep
Good morning
Good night
What time is it
Goodbye
Happy new year
Happy holidays
Hello
Sign in alexa
Sign out alexa
I love you
Move forward
Turn left
Turn right
Roll your cube
Pop a wheelie
Fistbump
Blackjack (say yes/no instead of hit/stand)
Yes (affirmative)
No (negative)
What's my name
Take a photo
Take a photo of me
What's the weather
- Requires API setup
What's the weather in
- Requires API setup
Im sorry
Back up
Come here
Volume down
Be quiet
Volume up
Look at me
Set the volume to
- High, medium high, medium, medium low, low
Shut up
My name is
I have a question
- Requires API setup
Set a timer for seconds
Set a timer for minutes
Check the timer
Stop the timer
Dance
Pick up the cube
Fetch the cube
Find the cube
Do a trick
Record a message for
- Enable Messaging feature in webViz Features tab
Play a message for
- Enable Messaging feature in webViz Features tab

Credits

Digital Dream Labs for saving Vector and for open sourcing chipper which made this possible
dietb for rewriting chipper and giving tips
GitHub Copilot for being awesome
xanathon for making the web interface look nice and for the publicity

hik29/wire-prod-pod