I want to build a robot that's compatible with the raspberry pi 3, and I'm considering buying the GoPiGo3. However, I really want to be able to use a microphone and preferably a set of speakers with the GoPiGo3.
Question: Can you use the raspberry pi 3 microphone and speaker ports, while it's in the GoPiGo 3?
Thanks in advance!
While the GoPiGo3 is designed to leave the Pi's side-mounted ports exposed and functional, the Pi 3 (like other Pis) lacks a microphone port. If you wish to sample environmental audio, you will need a compatible input device that provides this functionality. The GoPiGo3 ties up the GPIO pins, so a hat sound card is likely out of the question, but you do have USB at your disposal.
I have had success using a USB webcam (Logitech C910) as a microphone for consumption by Minim in a Processing sketch running on a Pi 3. If you similarly have an extra webcam on-hand, you may want to try using it as over-featured microphone rather than acquiring new parts.
I have found that the tiny Kinobo - USB 2.0 Mini Microphone Makio Mic works surprisingly well in a quiet room, with the bot not moving, for speech recognition. There is a larger Kinobo USB mic that works very well but the cord is very long...
Speakers are a bit tougher - I am currently using "Mini Rechargeable BOMB Speaker with 3.5mm Jack Line in.
You might also consider a bluetooth earpiece which gives the best speech reco, but bluetooth connectivity was too flakey for me to rely on so went with direct connects.
