Telly: All in one Desktop Pet

Telly – Your All in one Desktop Pet 🐾

Telly is a lively, voice- and gesture-controlled desktop companion powered by the UNIHIKER K10.

It listens, reacts, and expresses emotions through animated eyes.

A perfect blend of fun, function, and interactivity — always ready to assist you.

✨ Features

• Expressive Eye Animations: Shows emotions like happy, sad, sleepy, or excited.
• Media Control: Play, pause, volume up/down, next & previous track.
• Gesture Control: Tilt Telly left or right to change tracks.
• Voice Control: Manage music and lights with simple voice commands.
• Desk Light: Say “lights on/off” or “plus/minus” to adjust brightness.
• Temperature Display: Shows current temperature on screen.
• Sleep & Wake: Sleeps when idle and wakes up with a gentle tilt.
• Bluetooth Connectivity: For seamless wireless media control.
• Power Options: Battery or USB cable powered, with built-in charging.

✨ This project is Sponsored by DFRobot! 🤖

Thanks to DFRobot, I was able to bring Telly my smart desktop pet to life. At the heart of it is the UNIHIKER K10 board, which powers all of Telly’s features from media control to voice commands and gestures. To make Telly expressive and fun, I’m also using a 12-LED WS2812 ring light as a voice controlled desk light.

With DFRobot’s hardware, building an interactive, intelligent, and playful companion becomes not just possible, but really enjoyable. Whether it’s tilting to skip tracks, showing emotions with its eyes, or controlling lights with your voice, Telly wouldn’t be the same without this support.

UNIHIKER K10 is a compact and versatile development board powered by the ESP32-S3, designed for interactive and AI-driven projects. It comes with a built-in screen, audio capabilities, sensors, and programmable interfaces, making it ideal for robotics, smart devices, and creative applications.

Key Features

🤖 AI Capabilities: voice recognition, facial detection/Recognition, image classification and many more!

🖥️ Built-in Screen: Display graphics, animations, or project data.

🔊 Audio Support: Play sounds, music, and voice feedback.

📱 Accelerometer: Detect tilts, gestures, and motion for interactive AI behaviors.

🎮 Programmable Buttons & Touch: For user interactions and custom input control.

✨ LED Control: Drive WS2812 LEDs for colorful animations and visual effects.

📶 Connectivity: BLE for wireless control and communication with other devices.

🔌 Expansion-Friendly: Compatible with add-on modules, AI sensors, and peripherals.

🔋 Power Options: Battery or USB-powered, with built-in charging support.

Supplies

Hardware:

1. UNIHIKER K10: https://www.dfrobot.com/product-2904.html

2. Multi Function Expansion Board for UNIHIKER https://www.dfrobot.com/product-2974.html

3. WS2812-12 RGB LED Ring Lamp https://www.dfrobot.com/product-2540.html

4. 18650 Lithium Ion Battery: Any store

Github(for uplaoding the code):

https://github.com/VikVentor/telly_k10_bot

3D printed parts:

https://makerworld.com/en/models/1901293-telly-all-in-one-desktop-pet#profileId-2037759

Step 1: Uploading the Code

This is a simple step

Download the Github code from link shared in supplies

Refer to the below video:

https://youtu.be/FQF9-n-kEjA?si=lkQKLVqiVBQWQu0H&t=333

Step 2: Assembly

You can also watch the video for the assembly:

https://youtu.be/FQF9-n-kEjA?si=ybzhY1T2zphi7Cs_&t=416

Unscrew the given board from the Expansion board from K10 part.

Step 3: Connect the Ring Light

Make sure to connect the Ring Light to pin P0 of the expansion Board

and The cable of the ring Light should be connected to IN of ring light.

Step 4: Fit Base Board With the Telly Base Part

Step 5: Connect the Battery (OPTIONAL)

Step 6: Connect the UNIHIKER K10 to Expansion Board

Step 7: Fit the Telly_container Part

Make sure to insert the ring light part into the telly_container part before fitting.

Step 8: Fit the Ring Light

Slide the light_hold part until it tightly fits the ring. Then fit this part on any side of the container.

Step 9: That's It!

How to use:

The first few minutes of the youtube video shows the usage of the features.

Voice Commands:

WAKEWORD: Telly

Media:

• Play
• Pause
• Volume Up
• Volume Down

Lights:

• Lights on
• Lights off
• Plus (Increase brightness)
• Minus (Decrease brightness)

Bluetooth device name: ESP32 Keyboard/mouse

Gestures:

• Tilt any way: Wakes up
• Tilt left: previous track (Bluetooth)
• Tilt right: next track (Bluetooth)
• Lift up: eyes get scared.

Step 10: Charge/Power

You can switch on/off your device.

You can charge using USB C cable or power it if you are not using the battery.