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Emic Text to Speech Module (Parallax part 30006) - Experience and Questions — Parallax Forums

Emic Text to Speech Module (Parallax part 30006) - Experience and Questions

John KauffmanJohn Kauffman Posts: 653
edited 2004-11-30 03:24 in BASIC Stamp
Nothing shows up on the fora when searching for Parallax's Emic Text to Speech module. Unless I've made a mistake, lets get a thread going here.

I got the module (Parallax part #30006·US$79) and·hooked it up as suggested in the notes:

Emic······················· Stamp
·············
SIN························Pin 0
SOUT·····················Pin 1
Busy······················Pin 2
/RESET···················Pin 4
VCC······················ Vdd
Gnd·······················Vss
+SP······················ Speaker red lead
-SP·······················Speaker black lead
For a speaker I used an 8 ohm 0.5 watt of about·2 inch diameter that was a bit beat up. I ran the program from the Parallax download EasyEmic.BS2 and it worked like a charm first try. Voice was robot-y but clearly understandable with the dozen or so phrases I tested. A couple of tricky sounds were mushy, but there is a way to correct for that by sending special phonetic codes (not tried yet).

Here are·topics for discussion:

RE Reset
I tried changing the string·to be spoken in the EasyEmic.bs2 and hit F9.·Nothing happened. I made a second program with one line to reset the chip: HIGH 4. After running the Reset.BS2 I could run the EasyEmic.BS2 with text changes without problems. Including a hard reset in the EasyEmic.BS2 did not seem to help. This pattern persisted. Has anyone else had reset problems? Perhaps I need to study the materials to a greater depth, particularly the differences between hard and soft resets.

RE Speaker Quality
My speaker is a junker, but the voice was still understandable. I would like to get the quality to be as good as possible. Any suggestions of a supplier and part number of a top-quality speaker (specs =·8 ohm, 300 mW).

RE Output to Audio circuit
To further increase the sound quality I am thinking of hooking up an external audio amplifier to the AOUT pin of EMic. Notes say it supports a
'single-ended analog output for external amplification... minimum load of 5k ohm· up to maximum of 1Vp-p... superimposed on aproximately 1.2VDC bias and must be capacitively coupled to the load."· Sorry, this is beyond my knowledge. I'm particularly confused about having just one output·lead when I expect an audio input to have two leads. Any suggestions for feeding output into:

External Amp & speakers Option 1 -
Computer speakers with their own power. Can I feed the output from the EMic to a female 1/8th inch jack and plug into a pair of powered computer speakers? Which two leads from my Emic connect to the jack and which is barrel and which is tip?

External Amp & speakers Option 2 -
I see audio amplifier kits (like from Vellemann) for US$20. Could I feed into that? Which output would connect to the audio amplifier's input + and which to -?

Comments

  • Chris SavageChris Savage Parallax Engineering Posts: 14,406
    edited 2004-11-28 23:30
    Actually, there are several threads in the search (They just go back a ways...):

    http://forums.parallax.com./forums/default.aspx?f=5&m=5114

    http://forums.parallax.com./forums/default.aspx?f=5&m=163&g=795#m795

    http://forums.parallax.com./forums/default.aspx?f=5&m=265&g=440#m440

    http://forums.parallax.com./forums/default.aspx?f=19&m=52260&g=52291#m52291

    These are the more pertinant ones...But in any event...

    I myself bought several modules, especially when the OEM ones were closing out.· We're integrating one into our current BS2P40 Alarm System at the shop, and I have tried ALL of Jon William's examples.


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    Chris Savage

    Knight Designs
    324 West Main Street
    P.O. Box 97
    Montour Falls, NY 14865
    (607) 535-6777

    Business Page:·· http://www.knightdesigns.com
    Personal Page:··· http://www.lightlink.com/dream/chris
    Designs Page:··· http://www.lightlink.com/dream/designs
    ·
  • John KauffmanJohn Kauffman Posts: 653
    edited 2004-11-29 03:57
    Thanks for the URLs Chris - very generous of your time. I did a search of "all forums" for "Emic" and got zero hits. How did you find these threads? Thanks.

    Do you hae any experience feeding the Emic output into an amplifier?

    My daughter is building a recording spectrophotometer for her high school thesis. While it is monitoring a reaction she works at another area of the lab·setting up the next reaction. The Emic will give her an audio note that the reaction in the instrument is done or if the temperature goes out of acceptable range. I guess we could have done it with a $0.25 piezo buzzer, but the Emic was irresistable.

    Meanwhile, the boy is setting up a microcontroller to manage the whole process of a training regime to get rats to play basketball - nothing like the imagination of a 13 year-old.
  • Jon WilliamsJon Williams Posts: 6,491
    edited 2004-11-29 13:05
    John,

    Take the Aout pin and run into an appropriate amplifier. When I was testing the Emic I used a small (1W) amp and ran the output to a book-shelf speaker -- sounded great.

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    Jon Williams
    Applications Engineer, Parallax
    Dallas Office
  • Chris SavageChris Savage Parallax Engineering Posts: 14,406
    edited 2004-11-29 16:52
    John Kauffman said...(trimmed)
    Thanks for the URLs Chris - very generous of your time. I did a search of "all forums" for "Emic" and got zero hits. How did you find these threads? Thanks.
    Do you hae any experience feeding the Emic output into an amplifier?

    the answer to the first question is probably that I set the time span to last 6 months, and selected 200 matches.

    As for the second question, Jon got that one, but no, I haven't yet done that.· I have been using the speaker outputs from the SIP module for testing purposes...But the OEM Modules will require an amplifier, so I will be doing it in the future.· Do you have the datasheet for the Emic?




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    Chris Savage

    Knight Designs
    324 West Main Street
    P.O. Box 97
    Montour Falls, NY 14865
    (607) 535-6777

    Business Page:·· http://www.knightdesigns.com
    Personal Page:··· http://www.lightlink.com/dream/chris
    Designs Page:··· http://www.lightlink.com/dream/designs
    ·
  • John KauffmanJohn Kauffman Posts: 653
    edited 2004-11-29 17:31
    Chris: I'm working from the 26 page document at

    http://www.parallax.com/dl/docs/prod/audiovis/EmicModules.pdf
  • John KauffmanJohn Kauffman Posts: 653
    edited 2004-11-29 17:41
    Jon:

    Sorry to need such basic help on the analog stuff of EMic speaker....

    I understand that Aout is used, but the input to an amp or powered speakers requires two leads (usually via an 1/8 inch jack or RCA jack.

    Aout is one lead, what is the other? Ground? +5volts?

    Typically does the Aout go to the tip or barrel of the·jack?

    For samll kit amps, if the input is + and - then which is Aout adn what goes to the other?

    For programming questions I can just give it a try and learn by mistakes. But for this external hook-up I really don't want to fry $80 Emic, $60 board, $50 STAMP, etc.

    If you can help me get it going I'll do a detailed write up to add to your literature.

    Much Thanks.
  • Jon WilliamsJon Williams Posts: 6,491
    edited 2004-11-29 17:57
    Yes, Aout (tip) and Ground (Vss) is what you need to provide to your amplifier. Aout will go to the + input,·Vss to the - input.

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    Jon Williams
    Applications Engineer, Parallax
    Dallas Office
  • Chris SavageChris Savage Parallax Engineering Posts: 14,406
    edited 2004-11-29 22:00
    John (And Jon),

    ·· I asked John which datasheet he was looking at, because the Parallax one (Which is the same one)·indicates that·the Aout (and Ain line, I believe) require capacitive coupling, which would nomally require a 1uF capacitor (Usually Tantalum, but Electrolytic would work up to 10uF) between the Emic and the connected device.



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    Chris Savage

    Knight Designs
    324 West Main Street
    P.O. Box 97
    Montour Falls, NY 14865
    (607) 535-6777

    Business Page:·· http://www.knightdesigns.com
    Personal Page:··· http://www.lightlink.com/dream/chris
    Designs Page:··· http://www.lightlink.com/dream/designs
    ·
  • John KauffmanJohn Kauffman Posts: 653
    edited 2004-11-30 00:26
    Chris: would that cap be in parallel across the two lines or serial in one of the two leads (& which one)? Thanks.
  • Chris SavageChris Savage Parallax Engineering Posts: 14,406
    edited 2004-11-30 00:41
    On our amplifiers and pre-amps, the cap goes from the line-level output lead on a given channel to the audio input on the amplifier.· No cap lead goes to ground...On Tantalum caps there is no polarity to worry about, and I would recommend 1uF.· Basically the cap prevents any DC voltage from going in/out of the device.· This can happen when you have a potentiometer for volume control and such, but some circuits use it for safety, such as during power-up/down of the circuit or during a short.



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    Chris Savage

    Knight Designs
    324 West Main Street
    P.O. Box 97
    Montour Falls, NY 14865
    (607) 535-6777

    Business Page:·· http://www.knightdesigns.com
    Personal Page:··· http://www.lightlink.com/dream/chris
    Designs Page:··· http://www.lightlink.com/dream/designs
    ·
  • cyberbiotacyberbiota Posts: 79
    edited 2004-11-30 01:34
    Chris-

    Tantalum caps are, indeed, polarized.· The markings are small due to the size of the cap, but the positive lead is clearly indicated by a bar and a plus sign.

    peter



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    Peter C. Charles

    Director, Research and Technology
    CyberBiota, Incorporated
    Peter.charles@cyberbiota.com
    http://www.cyberbiota.com
  • Chris SavageChris Savage Parallax Engineering Posts: 14,406
    edited 2004-11-30 03:24
    Peter,

    ·· Thanks for catching me on that...Today (Monday) has been a string of screwups on my part (Don't ask).· Ceramic Disc capacitors are non-polarized...Tantalum and Electrolytic (Yes, I know there are a few NP versions)·are, and in fact, since I mentioned Electrolytic as a substitute, I meant to tell him which end goes where, but forgot to add that as well...

    John,

    ·· The positive side of the capacitor goes toward the input end of things...In your case, to Aout, and the negative side would connect to your amplifier.· Of course, here (attached) is a typical amplifier circuit that might drive the Emic, complete with Polarized Electrolytic Capacitor on the input.



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    Chris Savage

    Knight Designs
    324 West Main Street
    P.O. Box 97
    Montour Falls, NY 14865
    (607) 535-6777

    Business Page:·· http://www.knightdesigns.com
    Personal Page:··· http://www.lightlink.com/dream/chris
    Designs Page:··· http://www.lightlink.com/dream/designs
    bmp
    bmp
    untitled.bmp
    83K
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