Team DIY Champs: Sai Yamanoor, Srihari Yamanoor

Published April 8, 2021 © MIT

Pico Phone

Send text messages using the Raspberry Pi Pico and a cellular Notecard from blues wireless.

BeginnerFull instructions provided2 hours5,523

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Blues Notecard (Cellular)

Raspberry Pi Pico

Carrier PCB

SparkFun Qwiic Keypad - 12 Button

SM04B-SRSS-TB(LF)(SN)

SparkFun Qwiic Cable Kit

MDT420E01001

9774025151R

20PIN FEMALE HEADER RED 5PK

M2.5x4mm screw

FXUB63.07.0150C

Western Electric 2500 Touch Keypad Phone

Software apps and online services

Adafruit CircuitPython

Losant Platform

https://icanhazdadjoke.com/api

Twilio SMS Messaging API

Hand tools and fabrication machines

Multitool, Screwdriver

Story

We all could use a good joke after surviving an insane year with the pandemic. We built the Pico Phone using the Raspberry Pi Pico. Dial a phone number and the Pico texts you a joke!

Pico Phone

How does it work?

The Pico Phone consists of the following basic components (check out the components section):

Whenever someone enters their phone number followed by '#', the Pico transmits the phone number to the notecard. The notecard triggers a webhook. Using Twilio, Losant, and the Dad Jokes API, a joke is texted to your phone number!

In case you are not familiar with the Notecard, we recommend checking out this article.

Building the Hardware

We designed a PCB that houses the Raspberry Pi Pico and the Notecard (as shown in the figure below).

Raspberry Pi Pico Carrier Board

The design files are available from here. We assembled the PCBs using a reflow oven. Then, we plugged in the Pico and the Notecard (as shown in the snapshot below).

Assembled Pico Carrier Board

Firmware

We used CircuitPython to write our code for the PicoPhone and the code sample is available at the end of the article. Installing CircuitPython on to your Pico is quite easy. Check out this video.

We used the Notecard library and the Sparkfun Qwiic Keypad Library in our code.

Cloud Piece

We used Losant's workflow and webhook to set things up. Our Losant workflow looks like something shown below:

Losant Workflow

We got our jokes using the Jokes API. We also had to setup an account on Twilio to send text messages.

That's It!

Now, we took it for a spin by entering the phone number followed by '#'. We got a joke via text!

Jokes via Twilio

All the components needed for the project are listed below.

Schematics

Code

Pico Phone Code

from time import sleep
import board
import busio
import sparkfun_qwiickeypad
import notecard

productUID = ""

# Create bus object using our board's I2C port
i2c = busio.I2C(board.GP17, board.GP16)

# Create relay object
card = notecard.OpenI2C(i2c, 0, 0, debug=True)

print('Enter a phone #')

req = {"req": "hub.set"}
req["product"] = productUID
req["mode"] = "periodic"
req["inbound"] = 120
req["outbound"] = 60
rsp = card.Transaction(req)

phone_no = ""

try:
    while True:
        req = {"req": "note.add"}
        req["file"] = "numbers.qo"
        req["body"] = {"phone": phone_no}
        req["sync"] = True
        res = card.Transaction(req)
        phone_no = ""
        sleep(60)

except KeyboardInterrupt:
    pass

Credits

Sai Yamanoor

11 projects • 10 followers

I am a hardware engineer. I like to design PCBs and build exciting gadgets.

Srihari Yamanoor

2 projects • 0 followers

Mechanical Engineer, DIY Champ!

Thanks to Brandon Satrom and Lady Ada & Phil.

Pico Phone