Voice alerts test build

Ok, I've just uploaded a test build that has a first pass at implementing voice alerts. At this stage, all it does is let you use audio files for (most of) the existing alerts. You'll need extra hardware, but potentially no hardware mods, as it communicates with the audio player via the trainer port. Being able to pick audio files and the like will require hardware mods of some kind, details to follow when I get them worked out.

The channel beep facility is included in this. It's what I wrote that for anyway. For now, see deviationtx.com/forum/builds/4953-channel-beep-facility#39255 for information on how to use it. This is another thing that will probably change when sounds can be picked.

The test builds are in deviationtx.com/downloads-new/category/253-mwm-voice-alerts . While there are f7 and 7e builds there, they are for testing only: they do not include this extra functionality.

Each transmitter zip file should have a VoiceAlerts.md file that talks about how to configure this, audio modules, etc. The should also have a hardware.ini file that has the commented out lines and the two settings for the audio modules I'm planning on supporting. Only audiofx works at this time.

The voicealerts.zip download includes the ogg files I put on the audiofx board for testing. It also includes an img file of my audiofx board disk. Those appear to be out of stock, probably because of the black friday sale. I hope to have dfplayer mini support done soon, though.

Serial, connection details are missing because - well, I haven't looked at everything. If you have a plug that works for dev builds to log data to a serial line, that will work: you just need to plug the tx line from it into the rx line on the audiofx board, along with ground, etc. Mounting it internally will depend on your Tx. If you're lucky, the trainer port pins are labelled, and you can just connect to those. If not, you'll have to experiment to find them.

Finally, I haven't found a good internal speaker for this yet. The one built into my 10 isn't suitable. I'm not sure what characteristics I'm looking for. If someone can recommend a speaker that will fit in the 10 and work off the dfplayer mini, please do!

You ROCK!

I have been using the Radio Shack 8Ohm Mini-speaker, 2730092 with a dfplayer Mini for some Arduino projects; it's not a great speaker but it is pretty good for voices and noise -- I used it in a "scary pumpkin" for Halloween. I just repurposed it and gathered some mp3 files for Devo alerts, but I hadn't quite worked out the triggers. I like where you're going with this!

I don't know how quickly I can do this what with holiday Honey-dos but I'll get it loaded ASAP. I also need to get a logger cable but I'm pretty sure I can work it out.

Thanks for your continued efforts.

This is exactly what deviation needs to truly make it superior !!
Thank you so much for your hard work and time you are putting into this and also sharing it with us..

Maybe you guys can tell me what i am doing wrong..I been playing around with the text to speech files i created from mybluemix.net and when i play them back with audacity all i get is static, i changed the sample rate to 16000 but still only get static..it plays the speech files perfect included with the the test build i just can't figure out what i am doing wrong...

Figured it out actually i was not doing anything wrong it was the crappy satallite internet i have messing up the file, i used my phone as a hot spot and downloaded the same file and it works perfect...

I don't have an Adafruit board at this point, so I'm tinkering. First, is the Adafruit board set up for a serial connection? If that's the case, then I would plug in my cable to the DSC port, and the tip is signal, is that right? The Adafruit examples use serial comm at 9600, but my serial board is not seeing anything. I loaded the DFU and set up the Hardware.ini, but no joy.

I also messed around with my DFPlayer board. I I hope you can use it, although I wasn't able to get it to work sending the data to just the RX port without the TX plugged it (more below). I hope my notes are helpful.

The DFPlayer board pretty simple to use, it works well with a small speaker and it's cheap. Between the board, speaker, a couple of resistors and power connection, it costs less than $15. The board is a bit picky about power -- it's a 3.3v, 5v tolerant board, which shouldn't be a problem for the Devos. The RX and TX lines need a 100Ohm resistor (the docs say 1kOhm, but the manufacturer's notes say 100Ohm) from the 5v Arduino Uno... we may not need that from a 3.3v processor. The board works very well in the Arduino world; there is a library that uses "SoftwareSerial.h" to control the board, so it's very easy to get going. Without the library it's a bit trickier because I had to write my own checksum calculator. Once that was done, the DFPlayer works great and the code can be small.

The thing I couldn't get around was needing to have both the TX and RX plugged into my Uno, even though my serial writes went only went to the RX. It simply did not ever play. I could see the data going out, and track it using another serial port, but if both TX and RX weren't connected the board's blue light never lit. II'm thinking this may be a power thing, but I don't have any other boards available right now. I hope it isn't a problem.

Yes, the adafruit board is set up for seial. I'm using my debug serial cable plugged into the Tx, and the lines from it plugged into the adafruit board. I don't remember which one is the signal. These builds work with that. I borrowed one from another project while I waited on the dfplayer module, but will have to return it soon.

There are lots of reasons to prefer the dfplayer, but I'm not convinced price is one of them. The cost of the board + SD card + parts isn't that far below the cost of the adafruit board, but their shipping costs suck. I'm not sure how well the dfplayer will work as an external headphone box, and the adafruit board rocks for that.

I appreciate the notes on your dfplayer experiments. I've been tied up with other things, and haven't gotten it to work with my stm32 dev board. You gave me some other things to look at before going back to an arduino test.

Very nice work, mwm! This feature can really make Deviation standout. I don't have adafruit board, but I do have a couple DFMini Players. I've hooked up a DFMini Player to Arduino Nano and ran the DFRobot's sample test program. It works even without connecting the TX pin on DFMini Player. This contradicts with Deal57's test result.

phantom8 wrote: Very nice work, mwm! This feature can really make Deviation standout. I don't have adafruit board, but I do have a couple DFMini Players. I've hooked up a DFMini Player to Arduino Nano and ran the DFRobot's sample test program. It works even without connecting the TX pin on DFMini Player. This contradicts with Deal57's test result.

Glad to hear that! I was thinking it may be something about my board and I have a new one slowly winding it's way here.

Really want to try this is this the items i need ?
www.banggood.com/ATmega328P-Nano-V3-Cont...rduino-p-940937.html
www.banggood.com/DFPlayer-Mini-MP3-Playe...rduino-p-969191.html

That looks like the less expensive option, alright. Except the current test build doesn't support it, and I'm probably not going to be able to add that this month.

However, adding it should be straightforward if someone else wants to try. It's the extended-audio branch of bitbucket.org/mwm/deviation.

mwm wrote: That looks like the less expensive option, alright. Except the current test build doesn't support it, and I'm probably not going to be able to add that this month.

However, adding it should be straightforward if someone else wants to try. It's the extended-audio branch of bitbucket.org/mwm/deviation.

Besides price, the DFMini is also very small and I can easily fit it inside my Devo 7e, together with multimodule. Not sure about Adafruit. Anyway, take your time and thank you for bringing the audio feature to Deviation.

magic_marty wrote: Really want to try this is this the items i need ?
www.banggood.com/ATmega328P-Nano-V3-Cont...rduino-p-940937.html
www.banggood.com/DFPlayer-Mini-MP3-Playe...rduino-p-969191.html

These two are the exact ones that I'm using. Arudino is only needed for testing purposes. However, as mwm has mentioned, the DFPlayer is currently not supported.

I ordered both but have no idea how to use them but willing to learn as much as i can..Looking forward to when the DFMini is supported cause i want to add voice to my 12s for the flight modes on my APM quads ect...

phantom8 wrote: Besides price, the DFMini is also very small and I can easily fit it inside my Devo 7e, together with multimodule.

Well, the DFMini player also needs an SD card. When I looked for one, even cheap ones cost more than twice as much as the DFMini. The AudioFX board is complete as is - no external hardware needed.

But this code won't fit on the stock 7E MCU, as is, so you'll also need to upgrade the MCU, which requires a custom build. Possibly a custom build taking out other features would fit as well.

How about other devo transmitters will code fit or are they also going to require some sort of custom builds and upgraded MCU ?

I am using an old 512 MB micro SD card and there is more than enough room for the voices we we will use. These or maybe 4MB cards will run less than $5, maybe less in bulk. But they are becoming harder to find. Unless you look in my junk drawer

mwm wrote:

phantom8 wrote: Besides price, the DFMini is also very small and I can easily fit it inside my Devo 7e, together with multimodule.

Well, the DFMini player also needs an SD card. When I looked for one, even cheap ones cost more than twice as much as the DFMini. The AudioFX board is complete as is - no external hardware needed.

But this code won't fit on the stock 7E MCU, as is, so you'll also need to upgrade the MCU, which requires a custom build. Possibly a custom build taking out other features would fit as well.

I've a few spare 2G or less cards, so it won't cause me anything.

I don't think I will be able to change the MCU. So far, I have tried twice to replace SMD components with hot air gun. One succeeded, another failed. The failed one was a 5883 Mag on a Naze32. There is no way I can replace the MCU. However, I will try to remove other features from 7e and keep the audio when it becomes available.

I think mcu + memory on the devo 7e is not so really hard to do for average guy..., the naze ismuch smaller more components close thoghether therefore harder.

Just stick of with kapton and on top layer of aluminium tape, leave just nice hole around the mcu and heat hot air and remove it., clean it with copper braid, clean it with thinner, add thin line solder paste from syringe, reflow with air gun and go... the pins of mcu can be easily inspected with a magnifier glass as they are on the outside.

The chips which have solderballs undeneath and cannot inspected, that I would not recommened.

Btw excellent mod this audio, for speakers possibly some iphone or tablet replacement parts? They are small and sound decent.

magic_marty wrote: How about other devo transmitters will code fit or are they also going to require some sort of custom builds and upgraded MCU ?

The 7E, F7 and F4 have the same MCU, so it won't fit on them stock. The 6/8/10 & f12e all have the same CPU, and all have plenty of room. The 12 has an even heftier CPU.

Great!! Really looking forward to adding it to my Devo's..

received my DFmini player today have absolutely no idea how to use it.
It's really small and i believe it fit nicely in the battery compartment on my 12s to allow access to the micro SD card..
Has anybody made any more progress on how to add support for it to the code?
Also is there going to be some sort of diagram on how to hook it up to help the not so tech inclined like myself?