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Connecting the Board of Education (BS2) to a phone line and sending audio to th — Parallax Forums

Connecting the Board of Education (BS2) to a phone line and sending audio to th

JimmioJimmio Posts: 43
edited 2005-08-30 02:08 in Robotics
How do you connect the Board of Education (BS2) to a phone line?
How can you send audio files to the BS2 for playback?

Comments

  • Paul BakerPaul Baker Posts: 6,351
    edited 2005-04-18 17:02
    The BS2 does not have enough processing power to handle sampled audio with acceptable quality. You would need the SX or other controller to do that.
  • JimmioJimmio Posts: 43
    edited 2005-04-18 18:12
    Thanks for the info, though, it sucks that it is not possible
  • Jon WilliamsJon Williams Posts: 6,491
    edited 2005-04-18 18:26
    Have you considered a Stamp-controlled audio player like the QV306?

    http://www.parallax.com/detail.asp?product_id=27967

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    Jon Williams
    Applications Engineer, Parallax
    Dallas, TX· USA
  • bishopbishop Posts: 82
    edited 2005-04-18 18:27
    hehehe...
    its only a microcontroller.

    it doesnt play xbox games either.
    it also cant swim very well.
    and on re-entry thru the atmosphere, it lacks the proper shielding and tends to burn up quickly.
    what were the guys at parallax thinking?
    :P

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    **************

    daniel woolston
    Teksystems Inc.
    www.danwoolston.com
    **************
  • JimmioJimmio Posts: 43
    edited 2005-04-18 18:34
    I've not yet looked into the QV306. Can the QV306 play audio files(.wav,.mp3 etc.)? How much $ does it cost?
  • Jon WilliamsJon Williams Posts: 6,491
    edited 2005-04-18 18:36
    It can play WAV files (up to 240 of them -- limited to 4 minutes total audio). The cost is on the web page I referenced.

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    Jon Williams
    Applications Engineer, Parallax
    Dallas, TX· USA
  • JimmioJimmio Posts: 43
    edited 2005-04-18 18:40
    WOW! Pretty Cheap! But, is there a way to convert mp3s and WMAs to .wav?
  • JimmioJimmio Posts: 43
    edited 2005-04-18 18:48
    How can I connect a phone line(WITHOUT a chip designed for that purpose) to my Boe-Bot?
  • allanlane5allanlane5 Posts: 3,815
    edited 2005-04-18 19:20
    You wave your magic wand and say "Accio Wire!".

    What kind of question is that, Jimmio? A BOE-Bot does not come with a magical "connect-anything-you-want-to" connector. You could easily add a Modem APP-MOD to the BOE-Bot to implement a phone-dialer.

    And phone lines are almost notorious for the legal (and engineering) hoops you 'should' jump through before you connect a device directly to them. Purchasing a modem is the easiest approach.

    Of course, you can just strip a 4-wire RJ-11 plug -- but the voltages and currents will probably destroy your BS2. This is engineering, not magic. EVERYTHING you do, pretty much, requires some kind of adaptive circuit to connect one thing to another thing. The BS2 is nice in that it tends to minimize that -- but you still need something.
  • Jon WilliamsJon Williams Posts: 6,491
    edited 2005-04-18 19:31
    I use a program called Vegas to do that stuff -- but I'm not sure you're willing to spend $600 (I use it for video too) to do that stuff.· You might also look into SoundForge, or a free program called Audacity (search the web).
    Jimmio said...
    WOW! Pretty Cheap! But, is there a way to convert mp3s and WMAs to .wav?
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    Jon Williams
    Applications Engineer, Parallax
    Dallas, TX· USA
  • Jon WilliamsJon Williams Posts: 6,491
    edited 2005-04-18 19:33
    The easiest legal way to do it is with a modem that will give you let you pump audio onto an open phone line.· The Cermetek modem we use in our Modem AppMod has that feature, though it is not made available on the AppMod.
    Jimmio said...
    How can I connect a phone line(WITHOUT a chip designed for that purpose) to my Boe-Bot?
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    Jon Williams
    Applications Engineer, Parallax
    Dallas, TX· USA
  • Paul BakerPaul Baker Posts: 6,351
    edited 2005-04-18 19:35
    If you only care to have a microphone level interface to the phone line, radio shack sells something called Telephone recording control that is already FCC approved, plugs into a phone jack, has a passthrough jack, and two plugs, one for the audio signal and one for recording control (drives the record control on the old tape recorders) you can choose to ignore the recording control signal if you just want to listen to the line.

    There is actually quite a bit of noise going across your phone line even when the phone is on hook, there are blurts that sound like the baud detection modems do, there is also ocassional caller ID strings that are sent (they sound like the actual data transmission of modems) that are not picked up by a caller ID box (the caller ID code must·immediately follow the first·ringing of your phone for the caller ID to register on the box), there are also clicks pops and ocassional whistles, and you can also sometimes pick up a muted conversion on an adjacent TDM channel of the line (phone lines carry many conversations by quickly switching between them using time division multiplexing but the filters are not perfect and occasionally adjacent channels will bleed into yours). Also if you have DSL, youll want to install the DSL trap filter otherwise you get bleed over from that as well.
  • steve_bsteve_b Posts: 1,563
    edited 2005-04-18 20:30
    Any swap meet will no doubt have some cheap old modems! I've got a stash of 14.4's and some 2400's that work find for playing with the stamp.
    They've already got the RS232 interface which the stamp will interface to quite nicely...AND, they're already certified for use with a phone line!
    You really don't want to engineer your own "MacGyver" setup as you'll end up having to buy a new stamp after you toast yours!

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    ·

    Steve
    http://ca.geocities.com/steve.brady@rogers.com/index.html
    "Inside each and every one of us is our one, true authentic swing. Something we was born with. Something that's ours and ours alone. Something that can't be learned... something that's got to be remembered."
  • Paul BakerPaul Baker Posts: 6,351
    edited 2005-04-18 20:47
    What is it exactly are your trying to do Jimmio? Do you want to connect to the phone to transmit data or to have audio access to the phone line? If its the former, get a modem like the ones described above. If its the latter then get something like I described.
  • JimmioJimmio Posts: 43
    edited 2005-04-18 21:19
    I want to use the Boe-Bot to call people.
  • Paul BakerPaul Baker Posts: 6,351
    edited 2005-04-18 21:38
    And communicate via voice?
  • steve_bsteve_b Posts: 1,563
    edited 2005-04-19 12:33
    get an old push button phone and put IR LEDs on the buttons.
    On the Boe Bot, have an IR opto that will read an IR flash.
    Flash the button you want pressed and have the Bot move and push it.

    (there are issues with flourescents/sunlight causing false IR detection...so use bright LEDs or have a static docking station built in to the phone and have the BOT memorize where the buttons are!

    Just a different spin!

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    ·

    Steve
    http://ca.geocities.com/steve.brady@rogers.com/index.html
    "Inside each and every one of us is our one, true authentic swing. Something we was born with. Something that's ours and ours alone. Something that can't be learned... something that's got to be remembered."
  • HiTekGizmosHiTekGizmos Posts: 14
    edited 2005-08-30 02:08
    Do a seach for ham radio phone patch...
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