Double Talk LT, but no serial port. Where do we go from here?

Double Talk LT, but no serial port. Where do we go from here?

[Michael Hannon]

Greetings.  We have a blind graduate student in our department.  Several 
years ago we set him up with a desktop PC, to which we connected the 
speech synthesizer that he supplied.  This was a Double Talk LT device, 
and it connected to the PC via a serial port.

We downloaded and installed whatever was the current speakup-modified 
Fedora distribution at the time, and after a bit of fiddling, we got the 
whole thing to run satisfactorily.

Time marches on.  Now the student has purchased a new laptop computer: a 
Dell Inspiron 1200.  He wants us to set up speakup on this system also.

We've got Fedora Core release 3 installed on the system with kernel 
2.6.10-1.766-FC3spk.  Unfortunately, the new Dell has no serial port, so 
it isn't clear to us how to use the student's Double Talk device.  We've 
tried connecting via a serial-to-USB converter, but when we type:

     modprobe speakup_ltlk

we get a "no-such-device" message.  I assume that the ltlk driver is 
looking for a true serial port, not some dumbed-down USB port.  We have 
tested the cable and adapter, by the way.

Hence, we have two questions.  First, is there any chance to make the 
Double Talk LT device work with the new laptop?  I.e., have we 
overlooked the obvious?

Second, if we can't get the Double Talk device to work, do you have 
suggestions as to our next course of action?  We've done a bit of web 
surfing and determined that, as one would expect, there are USB-based 
synthesizers available, although they seem a little pricey, especially 
for a student.  Do you have suggestions for a USB-based synthesizer? 
How about other options?

Thanks.

					- Mike
-- 
Michael Hannon            mailto:hannon@physics.ucdavis.edu
Dept. of Physics          530.752.4966
University of California  530.752.4717 FAX
Davis, CA 95616-8677

RE: Double Talk LT, but no serial port. Where do we go from here?

[Jim Grimsby]

Hi, at this point with no serial device there is not going to be any way
that I know of to get that device working with this computer.  Now some
on this list might have another idea for this but if it was me at this
point I would install speechd-up flite and speech dispatcher.  The
speakup how to guide provides information on how to do this as well as
the users guide.  
This will provide speech threw the laptops sound card.  At this time
none of the devices work as a usb device.  
Hth 

jim grimsby 
msn: jim.grimsby@att.net
email:  jimgrims@pacbell.net
skype: jim.grimsby 

-----Original Message-----
From: speakup-bounces@braille.uwo.ca
[mailto:speakup-bounces@braille.uwo.ca] On Behalf Of Michael Hannon
Sent: Tuesday, October 18, 2005 5:58 PM
To: Speakup is a screen review system for Linux.
Subject: Double Talk LT, but no serial port. Where do we go from here?


Greetings.  We have a blind graduate student in our department.  Several

years ago we set him up with a desktop PC, to which we connected the 
speech synthesizer that he supplied.  This was a Double Talk LT device, 
and it connected to the PC via a serial port.

We downloaded and installed whatever was the current speakup-modified 
Fedora distribution at the time, and after a bit of fiddling, we got the

whole thing to run satisfactorily.

Time marches on.  Now the student has purchased a new laptop computer: a

Dell Inspiron 1200.  He wants us to set up speakup on this system also.

We've got Fedora Core release 3 installed on the system with kernel 
2.6.10-1.766-FC3spk.  Unfortunately, the new Dell has no serial port, so

it isn't clear to us how to use the student's Double Talk device.  We've

tried connecting via a serial-to-USB converter, but when we type:

     modprobe speakup_ltlk

we get a "no-such-device" message.  I assume that the ltlk driver is 
looking for a true serial port, not some dumbed-down USB port.  We have 
tested the cable and adapter, by the way.

Hence, we have two questions.  First, is there any chance to make the 
Double Talk LT device work with the new laptop?  I.e., have we 
overlooked the obvious?

Second, if we can't get the Double Talk device to work, do you have 
suggestions as to our next course of action?  We've done a bit of web 
surfing and determined that, as one would expect, there are USB-based 
synthesizers available, although they seem a little pricey, especially 
for a student.  Do you have suggestions for a USB-based synthesizer? 
How about other options?

Thanks.

					- Mike
-- 
Michael Hannon            mailto:hannon@physics.ucdavis.edu
Dept. of Physics          530.752.4966
University of California  530.752.4717 FAX
Davis, CA 95616-8677


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Re: Double Talk LT, but no serial port. Where do we go from here?

[John G. Heim]

At 07:58 PM 10/18/2005, you wrote:
>work with the new laptop?  I.e., have we overlooked the obvious?


Well, at the very least, you'd have to specify the port.   Speakup is going 
to use ttyS0 by default and your synth isn't connected to ttyS0. To specify 
the port you pass the speakup_ser  parm to the kernel. But I don't think 
you can specify a USB port. To specify ttyS1 you'd say 'speakup_ser=1'. So 
I don't know how you'd tell it to try ttyUSB0 or whatever.




>Second, if we can't get the Double Talk device to work, do you have 
>suggestions as to our next course of action?  We've done a bit of web 
>surfing and determined that, as one would expect, there are USB-based 
>synthesizers available, although they seem a little pricey, especially for 
>a student.  Do you have suggestions for a USB-based synthesizer? How about 
>other options?



Dectalk software. It's only $50. Or actually, there are free speech synths. 
But the Dectalk speech synth was the best 2 years ago when I purchased it. 
That may have changed since.

Re: Double Talk LT, but no serial port. Where do we go from here?

[Gene Collins]

Hi Mike.  Speakup does not support usb devices..  Therefore, you can
either use one of the supported software synthesizers, several of which
are free, or you can purchase a pcmcia serial card.  To use this with
the doubletalk lt, you will have to specify none as the default
synthesizer, and then specify the ltlk driver after the pcmcia devices
have been initialized.  Hope this helps.

Gene
 

Re: Double Talk LT, but no serial port. Where do we go from here?

[Adam Myrow]

The two USB synthesizers made by Access Solutions both have a serial port, 
and can use it for backwards compatibility.  The Dectalk USB will emulate 
a Dectalk Express, and the TrippleTalk USB will emulate a DoubleTalk LT.