Gross Models

It’s here! The month I’ve been exited about!

Included in this month are all the components required to make a self contained ai computer. These include a Raspberry pi board with an “ai Hat” that adds specific power for ai tasks, a touchscreen, camera, microphone and more!

It started well, getting the components assembled was very easy, all plug and play. The screen is powered from the board and has touch inputs so no keyboard is needed, although it does make thing easier! After getting the operating system installed on an SD card everything boots up and I have a portable computer!

I know nothing about the Raspberry os, so relied heavily on my personal ai Taisia to help getting it setup.

The downside to getting in on the start of a new course is that things aren’t quite settled. I had trouble with a couple of the lessons this month so resorted to using Taisia to generate code and help me get the camera installed and looking. This took a lot longer than I expected, and it still isn’t quite right, but it works! I now have an icon on my desktop that launches a feed from the camera that the ai “sees” and tries to recognise items on the screen. It seems to find items well but doesn’t get them right all the time. I will persevere and tweet it to get it better, but for now I am happy with my progress!

Next up is voice recognition, and then getting it to respond with its own voice. Taisia 3.0 is on her way!

I have recieved and opened my second month of the Ai/ coding Academy from Crafting Table. And it looks great!

After the first months “repeat” of electronics and components I already had, this month brings much needed improvements to my home setup.

This month we are learning pcb stuff, and have the gear to make our own version of a Uno board: the boards, components, tools and information online.

The first thing in the box is a soldering station.

Now I have a couple of soldering irons, and have done a fair bit of electronics work in the past (I actually have a GCSE in Electronics!) but I have never used a proper station. This is temperature controlled and has easily changeable tips for the iron. I am looking forward to getting to grips with it.

To use it on: prototype boards.

A selection of sizes, all ready for components to be inserted through the holes and soldered in place. With some wires to make connections between them.

To make life easier we also have some “helping hands” to hold the board and components in place while soldering. Because it gets hot and fingers are not a good idea!

And finally, when things don’t go as expected, we have a tester.

Again, I have others, but this one has an oscilloscope function that I will need to learn all about!

All in all I am very pleased with this months pack and will be delving in to make my own circuits!

I expect I will be making a couple of videos about this months progress, you know where to find them when they arrive!

Not long until month 3, where the end result should be a complete ai cube…. See you soon!

I have just signed up to the Crafting Table Academy, a six month course in coding, electronics and AI.

A continuation of the electronics kits I’ve been doing (and have more to do when I get around to them!) each month had several videos and resources to study and hopefully understand as well as a delivery of useful things to build and create.

Month 1 is, for me, the least interesting as I think I’ve covered most of it previously, but revision is always useful!

This month they delivered a toolbox packed with electronic supplies, including several full boards, basically enough to do all of the courses they provide from the 30 days lost in space through to the nebula raiders box, and all the others in between. As I already have them all I wasn’t too bothered by the parts, but having more components is always useful for other projects.

The coursework this month mainly covers the stuff from the 30days course, which I have completed once and am currently working through it again anyway.

Over the coming months I’ll be delving into to prototyping circuit boards, home automation, 3d printing and making an AI cube, and learning some hacking skills!

I don’t think I’ll be making videos about the course, so t doesn’t really lend itself to that sort of cover, but I do plan on continuing posts about it, so make sure you check back for updates!

And the course is still available at the moment, although there are limited spaces available! See if you can still join me at CraftingTable.com

After changing my streaming software and my microphone, I thought “why not?” And took the plunge to change my entire editing suite!

I’ve gone from Pinnacle, which I’ve used in one version or another for about 20 years to DaVici Resolve which is much more powerful, has added features and shouldn’t give me the glitches I’ve been having Ona me off for a while.

I’ve had a play around yesterday and started to convert (well, entirely recreate) my existing projects in the new software.

First thoughts are that it’s nice, not too different in its basic operation, just lots of little muscle memory things I have to unlearn and relearn the new systems.

I’ll keep you updated as to my progress, and how I adapt!

Been having some trouble the last couple of weeks with my microphone. I spent a few hours at the weekend trying to sort it out, playing with noise gates, compression, eq, all the settings I only have a vague understanding of.

No luck. I can have the same settings on my Yeti mic and my headset mic, but still have dropouts on my main Yeti.

As I am unable to be sure I can record any bench stuff with decent audio (apologies in advance for the occasional drop in the videos I’ve recorded while I had the problem!) I’ve bitten the bullet and ordered myself a replacement.

The world of microphones has changed a lot in the last 6 or 7 years since I bought this one, and I spent some time last night researching and watching some reviews.

I’ve gone for a good mid range usb mic, recommend by several YouTube channels that usually know what they are talking about. It should be delivered later today, and I plan on making an upgrade video about it tomorrow. I’ll release it to channel members and Patreons first, then a general release in a week or so.

So stick around to check it out!

I’ve been playing with new streaming software, Meld Studio.

So far it’s been nice, much more streamlined than Obs, my old system.

It’s going to take a while to get used to it and sort everything out to my satisfaction, but I hope it will soon be making my livestreams look a little nicer.

They are still in Beta, and adding new features every few weeks, but so far so good.

Let me know if you notice a difference in the next few streams, and if you think it’s a good change!

I am revamping my Discord server, so if you want to have another place to chat and ask questions head over and join up!

https://discord.gg/B9Pvr98E

If you don’t know Discord, it’s a free site where you can have “rooms” to chat in and post pictures for others to see. I’ve made a few different rooms for different topics, if you’d like any others creating just shout!

Hope to see you in there soon!

I am planning on relaunching the Thursday “Evening with” streams, but will need some help!
If you’d like to drop in for a chat one week, drop me a message and we can work it out.
It will be the old format of general chat about life, the universe and everything (except politics and religion!) for the usual hour or so.
It’d be great to see some old and new faces, even if it’s just for a few minutes at a time.

It’s that, you you just end up with me talking to myself for a while…..

So leave a comment, send me a mail or drop into my DM”s and we will see when we can chat!

I have recently launched a new YouTube channel devoted to my gameplay videos.

If you want to hang out with me while I stream some games, come along and subscribe! You can find me at YouTube.com/@GrossModelsGaming and I’ll be playing more often going forward!

Let me know if you have any requests for games, or more model content on my main channel!