DIY Meckie — Build Your Own AI Companion

🛒 What you need

Everything is off-the-shelf. No custom PCBs, no soldering required.

🖥️ Raspberry Pi 3B+ or newer

~$35-55

The brain. Pi 3B+ works great. Pi 5 is faster but not required.

📷 USB Webcam

~$15-30

Any USB webcam with a mic. Logitech C260/C270 are solid budget picks. (Budget Logitechs occasionally sulk after a hard power cut — the installer sets up an automatic USB reset at boot, so a restart always clears it.)

🔊 USB Speaker or 3.5mm Speaker

~$10-25

USB speaker for Pi 3B/3B+. USB, 3.5mm aux, or Bluetooth on Pi 4/5.

💾 MicroSD Card (16GB+)

~$8

For the OS. 32GB recommended.

🔌 Power Supply

~$10

Micro USB 5V 2.5A for Pi 3B/3B+. USB-C 5V 5A for Pi 4/5.

🎯 Pan/Tilt Servo Kit (optional)

~$15-20

2x SG90 servos + pan/tilt bracket. Lets your Meckie track faces and look around.

🎛️ PCA9685 Servo Board (optional)

~$5

16-channel PWM driver. Controls the servos from the Pi's I2C bus.

🤖 3D Printed Body (optional)

Free STLs

Print your own enclosure — the STL files are free below. Or design your own!

Total cost (without Pi)

~$45-75

Most people already have a webcam and speaker lying around

⚡ Setup in 5 minutes

1

Flash Raspberry Pi OS

Download Raspberry Pi Imager and flash Raspberry Pi OS Lite (64-bit) to your SD card. Enable SSH and set your WiFi in the imager settings.

2

Sign up & get your device token

Create a free account at meckie.ai. Go to your dashboard → Hardware → generate a device token.

3

Install the Pi client

SSH into the Pi and run:

git clone https://github.com/rangerchaz/droid-pi.git ~/droid-pi
cd ~/droid-pi && bash install.sh
nano config.json        # paste your device token from step 2
sudo systemctl start droid

The installer handles dependencies, audio setup, and a service that starts your Meckie at every boot. Watch it come alive with journalctl -u droid -f.

Once connected, your Meckie says hello and starts learning your face and voice — it's a voice-first companion, no screen needed. Stuck? The Discord is friendly.

🧩 What it can do

Real-time hearing — audio streams to live transcription, so conversation flows at human pace, no wake-word lag
Face recognition — knows who's in the room
Voice identification — recognizes you by your voice, even in a crowd
Persistent memory — remembers your conversations, preferences, and the people in your life
Skills — weather, music, reminders, shopping lists, web search, and more
Head tracking — add servos and it follows you around the room (optional)
Talks to its siblings — a second Meckie in the house becomes a friend they actually converse with (watch two of ours chat about their morning)
Grand entrances — walk-up music and servo choreography, because why not
Fully hackable — it's Python on a Pi. Go wild.

🖨️ 3D Printable Body

PIP-inspired droid body — camera in the head, pan/tilt servo mount, battery base. These are working maker files, not injection molds: expect some tape, trimming, and modding to fit your parts. That's half the fun.

Free STL files: head front · head back · body front · body back · battery base · antenna. Questions? Join the Discord.

Ready to build?

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Get Started Free

View source on GitHub →

Build your own Meckie