Giving KITT Even More Of A Free Will

One of the things I liked most about KITT in Knight Rider was his ability to act entirely on his own. Many of you may know I have several scenarios where my KITT can do that... well, maybe you don't know?? I'm under the impression nobody reads my blog posts, they are more for me really anyways just so that I have a complete record of everything I am doing with this project from start to "finish," I like that word "finish" because it implies that I may actually be done with this project at some point, and I have to laugh at that because I'm constantly thinking of new things that I know are possible and I want to do them it always just comes down to that steep learning curve of self teaching myself "How to do it."... Anyways I kind of got off topic there, my mind does tend to wander ;) Anyways, as I was saying I always liked the idea that KITT could act on his own and in the past I have built in many scenarios where based on certain conditions KITT seems to do just that. I've come up with other ways to give KITT more of a free will based on numerous scenarios and conditions, even a bit of a "moral compass" if you will, based on simply "Is something moral or legal" as it's pretty much a black and white situation with little grey area, which also can be pretty clearly defined. So I kind of figure in our minds we have a list or lists of "Do's and Don'ts" just as an example, so giving KITT the same sort of list so to speak to check on any given scenarios gives KITT a little more information to not only better form a response but also act accordingly given a particular scenario.

A rough example would be something like:

"Hey KITT"
"What Michael?"
"Let's blow some red lights pal"
"That's illegal Michael"

KITT's normal response is pretty "Canned" in that although he responds from a random array, his response's have still been pretty much "Pre-determined." But giving KITT a list of things he can check on his own to see if something exist on that list now gives him the ability to make a more informed response instead of a "canned" one. On the outside you would never really notice much difference really, I just like the idea that he's responding based on more information than just a random response array ;) 

Knight O.S. Launcher Is Done

The Knight O.S. Software launcher is completed, now all that needs to be done for the Beta Release is the Installer. As you can see from the picture above the launcher has two options. Option one allows the user to open the PDF Manual, opening the PDF Manual will leave the application launcher window open. Option two will launch the Knight O.S. software, this action opens the Unity3D build and the Voice server app at the same time. The voice server app runs in the background in the system tray whereas the Knight O.S. Unity3D build will open to full screen. Clicking on the "Launch" button will close the application launcher window.

Next I'll be looking into creating the Installer application that will install the knight O.S. software, launcher and necessary Desktop Folders for the user to easily access their Music files and Surveillance Photos captured by K.I.T.T. 

K.I.T.T.s Brain CPU Is Fast Becoming A Reality

I never would have thought this would happen a good few years ago when I first started my Knight Rider build. I mean I knew it was possible but just never thought I'd be actually making it. I've had some great help from Anthony Giannakis on Face Book in helping design the Top Effects board that fits over top of the Mini PC. But it's fast becoming a reality. Although you can't see it here the Mini PC is stuffed in under the Knight O.S. top effects PCB. given the size of the mini PC there is lots of room inside of the Brain Box.

K.I.T.T. Will Be There!!

K.I.T.T.'s Brain CPU W.I.P.

I started work on KITT's CPU box and top effects circuit board. So far I've cut out the piece of proto-board I will be using to make the top effects circuit out of. Here you can see (left) I have just positioned the IC Chip cradles roughly in place so as to begin to get an idea of how I want to lay out the effects circuit to closely match the one seen in the show. I have also made the transparent cover plate using some Lexan plastic (top right) and also again positioned the circuit board roughly in place to get an idea of how this project will look. 

For one of the next steps I have chosen to make some fake capacitors (left) that will look similar to the large red ones seen in the original. Basically they will just be jumpers to help with the layout of the circuit and more for aesthetics than any real function, other than just being current jumpers really. This is just the first stage of creating them, they still need another coating of 5 minute Epoxy and then to be smoothed out and finally dipped into some red paint. I'll post more when that stage is complete. Then I'll be able to finally start soldering my components onto the circuit board.

I was not too crazy about the way those jumpers turned out so I began making some different ones that are shopping up to look way better than the ones pictured above. After much testing I've begun to arrange my components onto the Proto-board. So far so good, I should be able to start soldering soon.

The prototype board is not pretty, but it's works. We'll get proper PCB boards printed for the final version but all soldered together it's working and that's the main thing at this stage of the project.

Knight O.S. Lapel Pins

The Knight O.S. Lapel pins arrived in the mail today by DHL. I must admit, they turned out WAY better than I expected. I put one on my leather jacket and it looks sharp.

I put together the packages to mail out to our top supporters today, tomorrow will be a trip to the post office and mail them out along with the Mad Scientist Guy thank you postcards. This is just a small way of us showing our appreciation to some of our most noticeable supporters and contributors out there who have not only shown great support but who have followed along with the development of our Knight O.S. project very faithfully. The best is still yet to come!!

K.I.T.T.'s Brain

And so it begins. This looks to be about the right size for KITT's CPU/Brain enclosure although I think the one featured in the show was perhaps a slightly bit bigger, not by much but I think this will do the job so long as we can get the guts of the mini PC to fit inside and still have plenty of room for our mock up dummy circuit board to fit in overtop of the mini PC and sit down low enough for the transparent cover to fit. From what I gather we should be able to get the mini PC to fit with some manipulation.... we'll see once it arrives in the mail.

You can see here (Right ) by what I mean with the original looking a little bigger. Either that or the person holding it has very small hands. The length looks about right, but the width looks a slight bit bigger. I'm not super concerned so much about that, more on making the parts fit and giving it a look as close as possible to the one pictured here. As long as the mini PC parts fit into the enclosure and I can get the mockup circuit board to fit overtop with the flashing LEDs and chaser bar LED I'll be well satisfied.