"Voice" outputs

[cgraf]

Hi everybody

I am looking for a solution to output either the value of an analog or a digital value as digitized voice (style: "eighthundretthirtyfeet"or "threepointsevenvolts"
The idea behind this is to "hear" values like altitude or the onboard voltage over a downlink. I would prefer to do it on the ground and not in the onboard electronics (like in the piccolario varios) transmitting just values down and "process" them on the ground would be preferred.
Is there something like a ready to buy Chip/Asic on the market ? Did not find anything suitable by doing g**gle searches. As size matters I would like a single chip solution...
Any links ????

Best regards
Chris

[vintage1]

You need a fair amount of storage for digitized voice. So unless there is a chip out there with megabytes of programmable memory, I think you will be stuck with two chips at least.

The rest is fairly simple I think, depending on how much compression you applied to the audio.

You would be trading off CPU power to decode it versus storage space to store it uncompressed.

At its simplest it is simply a question of reading a byte of audio memory every - say - 100us and showing it into a D->A. Pop a low pass filter on that and apply to audio amp.

[Acetronics]

Hi, Cgraf

I think such a device already exists ...

It is built in germany ... if I'm right.

Search for Pico or piccolo ...

got it !!!

http://www.renschler.de/eng/pages/produkte_e/frmprod1_e.html

Alain

[cgraf]

Merci bien Alain

In fact I know that such a device exists... but my project still is somwhat different :rolleyes: The downlink does more that just altitude and voltage,
the only "piece(s) missing is the conversion to voice. The amount of chips is not really the problem, but I did not find anything suitable...

Christoph

[Acetronics]

Hi, Christoph

Then you could contact LEXTRONIC France ... in a not-so-far-away past they sold a circuit that announced the measuring values and units ...

They also have voice synthetizers circuits available ...

www.lextronic.fr ...

Alain

[fredhs]

...I am looking for a solution to output either the value of an analog or a digital value as digitized voice ...

Hi Chris,

the Winbond ISD25xx series of sound recorders may come in handy for your application: http://www.winbond-usa.com/mambo/content/view/153/283/ , but you will need a microcontroller to search through the chip's memory etc. If you delve into the ISD25xx datasheet, be aware that the address corresponds to time and not to the EOM (end of message) markers -- a fact easily overlooked when you use the ISD25xx for the first time.

Regards,

Fred

[Acetronics]

Hello Chris

A look here ??? : http://www.parallax.com/detail.asp?product_id=30006

Alain

[JimDrew]

You can use a simple PIC chip to output phonetics. You need to build the words to speak phonetically (or get them from a lookup table in your case), but you don't need any external memory to do this. You could also do a simple 1.5 bit speech compression and use an external EEPROM. This gives you good speech, music, or whatever you want to convert from a .wav file. Either of these solutions is far less expensive than a dedicated speech chip.

[nihil]

Seen this one yet?

http://www.textspeak.com/oemtts.htm

[HLGNut]

cgraf - if I understand you correctly, you are looking to downlink the information from the plane to a receiver on the ground, then process the information and output some of the information as audio.

If so, then here is some hardware that might help, at least for the the audio portion.

I'm using it as part of my telemetry system rather than listen to the audio output from a "Picolario".

Go to: http://www.quadravox.com/

Then click on "Audio Products"

On the left side, click on "Products"

Their QV601 or 606 might be what you are looking for.

Their QV430P programming would be needed to program in the phrases. If you are into using Parallax Stamp equipment they have a fine Nuts and Volts article in either book 2 or 3 (I think) that talks about using a Stamp in place of the 430P.

Also, back on the left side again, click on "Downloads"

Then click on "View Files" under "Vocabulary"

Here's a great source of words and phrases that you could use. They would have to be converted to MP3 to be used with their modules.

I'm doing something similar using their older QV306 module.

I hope this helps.

- Bob -

[thanhTran]

I did a similar project. For the voice part, I had a Java program running on my PDA phone which has a wireless connection to one end of the downlink to covert the reading to voices. These voices are pre-recorded and can be from your girl friend, your wife, your kids, etc.

[Peter Seddon]

I started a project some time ago using the ISD25xx series of chips and found them quite easy to use (having never written code for a microcontroller before).

I recorded all the phrases I wanted and then measured the time for each phrase so I could calculate the addresses they would reside at in the ChipCorder. I programmed them into the chip and could then address each one. It all fell apart when I tried to link phrases together to form sentences as there was a nasty plop at the end of each phrase. If you are not fussy about the noises at the end of each phrase then they are easy to use.

It has been suggested that the latest series of chips overcome this problem but the downside is they use an SPI interface which is something I haven't used before and my first stumbling efforts failed.

regards Peter

[GlennS]

Have you seen this website:
http://www.romanblack.com/picsound.htm
The tool on his website creates simple voice files that can be played back on a PIC.
I have a home built telemetry system for my model and found it too hard to refocus close up on the display and then look back at the model, so am considering using this voice synth to read out important data.
Cheers,
Glenn.

[JimDrew]

This is the 1.5 bit compression that I was referring to. This works amazingly well and is the least expensive option I have found.

[cgraf]

Thanks guys!
A lot of new and interesting input! Appreciate your answers!

Best regards from Geneva

Chris

[lazy-b]

Guys, I've been thinking of the same project.....Here is a more simpler solution, instead of using a Voice Response......a simpler Morse Code is more simpler, you just need to memoried 10 number.......its easier to undersand

.---- 1 -.... 6
..--- 2 --... 7
...-- 3 ---.. 8
....- 4 ----. 9
..... 5 ----- 0

I only know SOS code that dit dit dit Dah Dah Dah dit dit dit.

If you look at the About Code its easy to remember assuming its only number code, any thing started with a Short Beep is Number code from 1 to 5, then a number of short Beep is the correspond Number. 6 to 0 is started by Long Beep......I guess, you just need to Practice Hearing a Morse Code.

Or you can just send the Morse Code directly from your Plane/Helicopter thru a Blinking LED light.

[cgraf]

Hehe Morsecode, nice try :D
If you really want it THAT low-tech, you do not even have to remember the 10 numbers:
pip [pause] pip pip [pause] pip pip pip pip would be 124 :p

Was done on small altimeters and now is done to program the brushless esc's...

pip pip pip pip pip pip pip [pause] pip pip pip pip from Geneva

Christoph