NL speakerClient available (and 20+ other languages)

[Chiel]

I would love to give it a try. The WAF with the English voice was not so great.

Chiel.

[richard naninck]

I also use a XAP800 audio mixer for voice control, routing cleanup and gating. This last option is rather neat because with this you know which microphone is active thus knowing in which room this happened.

I also built Voice Control into my setup. Right now for only one room. Hence this XAP800 sounds very nice. It is a discontinued product but therefore very cheap on Ebay. The Gentner G-Ware software seems very old. It needs floppy's to install. I will address the RS232 bus myself to get info about which mic was triggered, but I want to use the standard software for setting up the XAP800.

Can you tell me what you do to setup the XAP?

The replacement models are more expensive, but have much more up2date software. So I am not sure what to buy yet.

Second question is about Dutch TTS and Dutch Reco. What do you use for that? I am still stuck with Microsoft Anna (USA) and I have to use SAPI to get the voice recognition plugin from HouseBot going.

Thnx!

[AshaiRey]

Getting reliable gate info will give you some headache. The device holds the gate info for just a moment. If you try to read it via the serial port then sometimes you are to late and you get gate 0 while the software still show you that for example gate 3 is activated. Measuring this info at the I/O bus (GPIO) at the back isn't also helpfull. As mentioned in the manual this pin will go high for just a moment and goes down again.

So what i did was that i made my own vbscript with callback function in it. There is a good JavaScript function available that can control nearly every function of a AP800, a XAP800 is 95% the same so you just have to change a few settings is you gonna use that functionality. (i have the change AP800lib.js if you need it)
But back to gating. I took a db25 plug that will fit the back and wired the gate pins to programmable control pins. I have 4 mics so i connected pin 1 to 17, 3 to 18, 5 to 19 and 7 to 20. After that i opened up the G-Ware software and configured the GPIO in such way that when it sense a high on pin 17 then it sends out string no. 1 for pin 18 string 2 and so on.
Now when the gate becomes active the callback function of the vbscript recives the string no and it will process it and places the value in a device.

I am in the process of writtng up a more detailed document for the XAP800. It's a great device.
I use it for distrubuted audio(music) to 9 rooms through out the house, doing announcements to single rooms or everywhere, telephone calls (single and multi rooms), babyphone, intercom, and VR

About Dutch TTS.
I didn't find any good Dutch voice but i found a Blgium voice that sounds really good and is nice to listen too.
For Dutch reco i was so much limited due the fact that i use Win7 which doesn't support Dutch VR. To overcome this i wrote my own software to do it.

[richard naninck]

Thanks.

Which Belgium Voice is that? Free?

I guess I can fix those gate issues since that's part of the hobby But does the XAP push the Gate messages itself, or do I have to request the Gate state myself?

How did you install the G-Ware software? The software I downloaded from ClearOne, doesn't install. It wants to build floppy's first.. and not having G-Ware on the same system the XAP is connected to (W7 64 bit) is not an option.

I see different revisions of the XAP. Which make year and revision do you have?
Where did you get the XAP from?

[AshaiRey]

Which Belgium Voice is that? Free?

Yes, a bit of googling, clicking and patience
'NextUp-ScanSoft Ellen Belgian Dutch Voice"

I guess I can fix those gate issues since that's part of the hobby

That i whis you good luck and not to much fustrations. And if you find a better solution then please, please let me know.

But does the XAP push the Gate messages itself, or do I have to request the Gate state myself?

No push, you have to request the gate yourself. That's why you are sometimes to late.
My solution provides a message push as soon as the mic gate.

How did you install the G-Ware software? The software I downloaded from ClearOne, doesn't install. It wants to build floppy's first.. and not having G-Ware on the same system the XAP is connected to (W7 64 bit) is not an option.

I got it just from the ClearOne site under obselete or something like that. G-War 5.0.6 (build 7)
It's just a msi to install. Can be done from the HD

I see different revisions of the XAP. Which make year and revision do you have?

No idea, however with the G-Ware software you can install the latest firmware too. It's included in the msi

Where did you get the XAP from?

From eBay, i just ordered 2 extra. just for backup

[richard naninck]

Thanks again! Very helpfull. I guess your fix with the DB25 GPIO is a good one knowing that the serial Gate messages aren't pushed. I don't want to poll the serial port continuously just for getting that Gate message.

I will search for the Free Belgian Voice.

I downloaded G-Ware version 4.x or something. Nowhere near version 5 so that will probably fix that issue as well.

Many thanks

[AshaiRey]

www.clearone.com
- resources
- - resource library
- - proffesional audio
- - - Legacy product

The rest you can find yourself i guess.
Tip, get everything.... XAP related and safe guard it. There is a weath of info there

[richard naninck]

Five minutes ago I downloaded and installed versio 5.0.67 without problems!
Good pointers. Now search for the Belgian Voice and hope I can find it and that it works with SAPI on W7

[thechad]

Hello AshaiRey, thankyou so much for posting this. I have ordered one and am so excited as it looks perfect solution to my home automation audio needs! And cheap too!
I have just sent you a PM asking with my email and would really appreciate it if you could send me the mofified xp800lib.js.
I have read you website guide a few times now and downloaded the documents from the clearone website and will workthrough these over the next few days.
Thankyou again for posting this info.

[thechad]

For those looking for the ap800lib.js refered to above...you will not find it

It is infact in a zip ap800.zip in the first post of the following thread on the homeseer board.

http://board.homeseer.com/showthread.php?t=108876

I've attached it below for your convenience

[AshaiRey]

Please note that the XAP800 is a more advance device then the AP800. While most functions of the above mentioned script will work some have a different syntax and fail due to this. Alse the XAP800 have functionality not found in the AP800 so those are obviously missing.