Popcorn: Time of Day announcer on Propeller
Nick McClick
Posts: 1,003
Just finished this on Sunday, thought I'd put it up and share it. I did a little project I call Popcorn as a tribute to the time-of-day announcement service. Here's a demo video;
BACKGROUND
Starting around 1950, you could dial 'POPCORN' anywhere in Northern California and you'd get an automated time-of-day announcement. In 2007, AT&T stopped offering the service because of decreased usage and because the equipment was no longer serviceable. I always thought it would be fun to do my own version of popcorn using different voice samples, and finally got around to putting it together. If you're curious what the original popcorn sounded like, here's a sample mp3.
THEORY OF OPERATION
Popcorn uses an LCD UI module and Propeller Platform SD. The only hardware I added was a headphone jack that goes out to a computer speaker. Everything else is stock.
The microSD card holds the code and voice samples as 16-bit mono wav's. Each number has its own wav (00.wav - 19.wav, 20.wav, 30.wav, etc) and so do the supporting phrases (morn.wav = "Good Morning", pst.wav = "At the tone, Pacific Standard Time Will be", and so on). You can switch out the samples by changing the files on the SD card.
One cog manages the screen, updating it continuously, and checking to see if the 5-way d-pad has been center-pushed. Pushing center will enter a time update mode to let you change the time and date. A second cog manages the audio announcement. It checks to see if the big red button has been pushed. If so, it asks the RTC for the time and plays the appropriate wav files. I'm using the wav and DS1307 objects in the Object Exchange and the LCD UI code that came with Jon's Nuts and Volts column (article, code)
If you've got a Propeller Platform SD and LCD UI, you can try it out by downloading the code + samples. Just copy to a microSD and turn it on and it will start up. With a Protoboard or demoboard, you'll probably want to change the pin assignments and you'll need to add a DS1307 Real-time clock.
DOWNLOADS
code archive
Code + samples
Here are the schematics for the Propeller Platform SD and LCD UI.
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
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BACKGROUND
Starting around 1950, you could dial 'POPCORN' anywhere in Northern California and you'd get an automated time-of-day announcement. In 2007, AT&T stopped offering the service because of decreased usage and because the equipment was no longer serviceable. I always thought it would be fun to do my own version of popcorn using different voice samples, and finally got around to putting it together. If you're curious what the original popcorn sounded like, here's a sample mp3.
THEORY OF OPERATION
Popcorn uses an LCD UI module and Propeller Platform SD. The only hardware I added was a headphone jack that goes out to a computer speaker. Everything else is stock.
The microSD card holds the code and voice samples as 16-bit mono wav's. Each number has its own wav (00.wav - 19.wav, 20.wav, 30.wav, etc) and so do the supporting phrases (morn.wav = "Good Morning", pst.wav = "At the tone, Pacific Standard Time Will be", and so on). You can switch out the samples by changing the files on the SD card.
One cog manages the screen, updating it continuously, and checking to see if the 5-way d-pad has been center-pushed. Pushing center will enter a time update mode to let you change the time and date. A second cog manages the audio announcement. It checks to see if the big red button has been pushed. If so, it asks the RTC for the time and plays the appropriate wav files. I'm using the wav and DS1307 objects in the Object Exchange and the LCD UI code that came with Jon's Nuts and Volts column (article, code)
If you've got a Propeller Platform SD and LCD UI, you can try it out by downloading the code + samples. Just copy to a microSD and turn it on and it will start up. With a Protoboard or demoboard, you'll probably want to change the pin assignments and you'll need to add a DS1307 Real-time clock.
DOWNLOADS
code archive
Code + samples
Here are the schematics for the Propeller Platform SD and LCD UI.
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
Propeller Forums RSS Feed!
Gadget Gangster - Share your Electronic Projects
Comments
It was a fun little project and I picked up a few new spin tricks. the hard code was already done for me. Jon's LCD object is really easy to use, too.
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Propeller Forums RSS Feed!
Gadget Gangster - Share your Electronic Projects
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
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