Re: USB synthesizers

[William Hubbs <w.d.hubbs@gmail.com>]

Hi Zack,

On Thu, Feb 11, 2010 at 04:52:12PM -0800, Zachary Kline wrote:
> Since the topic of serial ports has come up, I thought I might inquire 
> about the possibility of interfacing directly with those USB hardware 
> synthesizers that do exist.  I'm thinking especially of the Dectalk USB, 
> which I happen to own.
> I don't know much about USB protocols, but I'd guess the one it uses isn't 
> just an encapsulation of the one used over the serial port?  I just think 
> that if we could either reverse-engineer or better yet pursuade the 
> manufacturers to give us the specs for those protocols, we'd dodge the 
> serial port problem entirely.
> I'm probably raising the same question that bugs free software people 
> everywhere, but I thought it should be asked.

Actually this is being worked on.  I have sent email to the
manufacturer (Access Solutions) last week about getting the specs.  I'll
let you know what happens there.

I own a triple talk USB myself, so I am looking at writing the driver for it
to start with, then probably the dectalk USB.

I'll probably start with kernel level device drivers that create
a device in /devso they can be accessed from user space then figure out
how to integrate them into speakup.

Thanks,

William