Communication Board

We created a communication board for those who are nonverbal or have trouble speaking. Using the Circuit Playground Bluefruit, this board allows one to tell a joke, tell someone they love them, greet someone, play music, etc.

• Alligator Clips
• Aluminum
• Baltic Birchwood (⅛”)
• Battery Pack
• Cardboard
• Circuit Playground Bluefruit
• Electrical Tape
• Hot Glue & Hot Glue Gun
• Paint
• Paper
• Speaker

• Use a laser cutter to cut the baltic wood to your desired dimension.
• Engrave 7 (or however many speech options you want) squares on the board and laser a hole in the middle of each square.
• Laser an extra circle on the side for the cords of the battery and speaker.

• Paint the front and back of your board whatever color you’d like.
• We painted the front of our board gold and the back black. 

• Print the images which will represent the buttons on the board. Each image should correspond to a specific message you’d like the speaker to play.
• We painted over our images to make them more textured and colorful.

• Use the app Audacity to convert the audios to the acceptable CPB standards 
• You can use a voice filter if you’d like

• Glue aluminum foil to the back of every picture
• You can use any conductive material as a substitute (ex: copper tape)

• Tape CPB down on the back of the board
• Glue the pictures on the board
• Attach alligator clips/wires
• One end attaches to the aluminum foil through the circle and one end goes to the corresponding CPB touchpad (view code)

• Glue the speaker and the battery pack to the board (where the circle is that does not have a square)
• Feed the wires through the circle and attach the wires of the battery pack and the speaker to the CPB

• Turn to the back of the board
• Use electrical tape to attach the alligator clips on the back and to prevent them from getting tangled and ensure they stay in place.

• Hot glue cardboard or paper on the back of the board to hide the wires and shield the user from the wiring.

Now, let's code! Add the sounds in your CPB folder and download this code. Customize to your liking!

(Note: we used the Mu Editor)

We're finished! Try your board out.