Patch for DECTalk Express driver

Patch for DECTalk Express driver

[Tony Baechler]

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Hello,

I would appreciate it if a developer would please commit this.  Thanks.  I am not a programmer, so I apologize in advance if I did anything wrong.

The purpose of my patch is to fix a few small problems.  First, the default pitch was still set at 80.  The factory default should be 100.  The second problem was with the caps_start value.  It was set at 200 which was way too high.  I've lowered it to 150.  It's still raised but it isn't very high like it was.  Finally, I added a space before the closing "]" when sending commands to the synthesizer.  That was recommended by the manual.  Also, I disabled the volume adjustment.  According to the manual, it does not have a way to adjust the volume with software.  On my unit, setting the volume to 14 causes static and overloads the internal filters.  The "gv" parameter doesn't actually change the volume, it changes a characteristic of the voice.

I'm still tweaking the caps_start value, but other than that, everything should be good.  I also bumped the driver version to 2.16.  I'm thinking about setting the default rate to 10, but I don't want it to talk too fast for people.

Re: Patch for DECTalk Express driver

[William Hubbs]

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Hi Tony,

your patch did not come through.  Can you try to send it again?

Also, please go ahead and bump the driver version number.

Thanks,

William

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Re: Patch for DECTalk Express driver

[William Hubbs]

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> Also, please go ahead and bump the driver version number.
 
 I re-read your message and saw that you bumped the version number, so
 this is good, you don't need to bump it again.
 
 Thanks,

 William

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Re: Patch for DECTalk Express driver

[Chris Brannon]

Tony Baechler wrote:
> The second problem was with the caps_start value. 
> It was set at 200 which was way too high

I used to have one of these synths (mine is now broken), and I remember
that caps_start was too high.  150 is probably a good default.
I think I kept pitch at 70 and caps_start at 100, because high pitch
hurts my ears.

> According to the manual, it does not have a way to adjust the volume
> with software.

How about the command [:vs DD ]?  Does that change the volume on your
unit?
(DD is a number).

-- Chris

Re: Patch for DECTalk Express driver

[Tony Baechler]

I'll have to get back to you on this, but from my recollection of the 
manual, the Express has no volume control except the knob on the unit. 
The DECtalk PC does have a volume setting which is probably the command 
you gave. I tried the command for the DEC PC with my Express and it 
didn't do anything. I would have to look at the manual again to make sure.

Is there a way to send commands directly to the synthesizer with 
Speakup? If I echo them to /dev/ttyS0, speech becomes very sluggish and 
unresponsive. The same thing happens as soon as hal starts. That only 
seems to be a problem with the DEC Express. I have a Doubletalk LT and a 
Trippletalk which don't do that. There used to be a file called "synth" 
which let me do that but now it only contains the name of the 
synthesizer. The synth name used to be in synth_name which disappeared.

On 9/28/2009 4:53 AM, Chris Brannon wrote:
>
>> According to the manual, it does not have a way to adjust the volume
>> with software.
>>      
> How about the command [:vs DD ]?  Does that change the volume on your
> unit?
> (DD is a number).
>    

Re: Patch for DECTalk Express driver

[Jayson Smith]

Hi,

     Try sending your command to /sys/accessibility/speakup/synth_direct. 
You can probably find it if that location's not right, but synth_direct is 
the file you want.
Jayson

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tony Baechler" <tony@baechler.net>
To: "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux." <speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Tuesday, September 29, 2009 1:43 AM
Subject: Re: Patch for DECTalk Express driver


> I'll have to get back to you on this, but from my recollection of the 
> manual, the Express has no volume control except the knob on the unit. The 
> DECtalk PC does have a volume setting which is probably the command you 
> gave. I tried the command for the DEC PC with my Express and it didn't do 
> anything. I would have to look at the manual again to make sure.
>
> Is there a way to send commands directly to the synthesizer with Speakup? 
> If I echo them to /dev/ttyS0, speech becomes very sluggish and 
> unresponsive. The same thing happens as soon as hal starts. That only 
> seems to be a problem with the DEC Express. I have a Doubletalk LT and a 
> Trippletalk which don't do that. There used to be a file called "synth" 
> which let me do that but now it only contains the name of the synthesizer. 
> The synth name used to be in synth_name which disappeared.
>
> On 9/28/2009 4:53 AM, Chris Brannon wrote:
>>
>>> According to the manual, it does not have a way to adjust the volume
>>> with software.
>>>
>> How about the command [:vs DD ]?  Does that change the volume on your
>> unit?
>> (DD is a number).
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup 

Re: Patch for DECTalk Express driver

[Tony Baechler]

Hi,

As I suspected, the [:vs] command made no difference. I'm sure it works 
on the DEC PC, but not the Express. Probably something that should be 
fixed with my patch is that it still lets you adjust the volume up and 
down, but it doesn't actually do anything. In other words, I can set the 
volume to whatever number and it will happily tell me that it has 
changed even though it doesn't actually do anything. I'm sure that will 
be a source of confusion later. This is my first attempt at modifying 
anything other than BASIC for public consumption, so I had no idea how 
to disable the volume announcement messages.

On 9/28/2009 4:53 AM, Chris Brannon wrote:
> According to the manual, it does not have a way to adjust the volume
>> with software.
>>      
> How about the command [:vs DD ]?  Does that change the volume on your
> unit?
> (DD is a number).
>    

Re: Patch for DECTalk Express driver

[Trevor Astrope]

Fwiw, my preference is to set pitch to 75  and rate to 8.


On Sun, 27 Sep 2009, Tony Baechler wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I would appreciate it if a developer would please commit this.  Thanks.  I am not a programmer, so I apologize in advance if I did anything wrong.
>
> The purpose of my patch is to fix a few small problems.  First, the default pitch was still set at 80.  The factory default should be 100.  The second problem was with the caps_start value.  It was set at 200 which was way too high.  I've lowered it to 150.  It's still raised but it isn't very high like it was.  Finally, I added a space before the closing "]" when sending commands to the synthesizer.  That was recommended by the manual.  Also, I disabled the volume adjustment.  According to the manual, it does not have a way to adjust the volume with software.  On my unit, setting the volume to 14 causes static and overloads the internal filters.  The "gv" parameter doesn't actually change the volume, it changes a characteristic of the voice.
>
> I'm still tweaking the caps_start value, but other than that, everything should be good.  I also bumped the driver version to 2.16.  I'm thinking about setting the default rate to 10, but I don't want it to talk too fast for people.
>

Re: Patch for DECTalk Express driver

[Tony Baechler]

OK, so just echo "75" to /sys/accessibility/dectlk/pitch and "8" to 
rate.  I am going by the manual as much as possible.  The default pitch 
according to the manual is 100.  I'm not sure what the default rate is 
or I would've set that as well.  I don't like a lower pitch, but that's 
not why I did it that way.  I just went by factory defaults except for 
caps_start.  I can send you the manual if you want to double-check my 
settings.  As I said, I'm not a programmer so perhaps I did something wrong.

On 9/28/2009 7:07 AM, Trevor Astrope wrote:
> Fwiw, my preference is to set pitch to 75  and rate to 8.

Re: Patch for DECTalk Express driver

[Trevor Astrope]

On Mon, 28 Sep 2009, Tony Baechler wrote:

> OK, so just echo "75" to /sys/accessibility/dectlk/pitch and "8" to rate.  I 
> am going by the manual as much as possible.  The default pitch according to 
> the manual is 100.  I'm not sure what the default rate is or I would've set 
> that as well.  I don't like a lower pitch, but that's not why I did it that 
> way.  I just went by factory defaults except for caps_start.  I can send you 
> the manual if you want to double-check my settings.  As I said, I'm not a 
> programmer so perhaps I did something wrong.

In that case, my guess is the default rate is somewhere around 3 going by 
the default voice when you turn it on. 100 sounds about right for the 
pitch.

  >
> On 9/28/2009 7:07 AM, Trevor Astrope wrote:
>> Fwiw, my preference is to set pitch to 75  and rate to 8.
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>

Re: Patch for DECTalk Express driver

[William Hubbs]

On Mon, Sep 28, 2009 at 10:57:02PM -0700, Tony Baechler wrote:
> OK, so just echo "75" to /sys/accessibility/dectlk/pitch and "8" to 
> rate.  I am going by the manual as much as possible.  The default pitch 
> according to the manual is 100.  I'm not sure what the default rate is 
> or I would've set that as well.  I don't like a lower pitch, but that's 
> not why I did it that way.  I just went by factory defaults except for 
> caps_start.  I can send you the manual if you want to double-check my 
> settings.  As I said, I'm not a programmer so perhaps I did something wrong.

Hi Tony,

can you send me a copy of that manual as well?

Thanks,

William