You can buy the AtariVox+ from AtariAge:- atariage.com/store/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1045 SpeakJet datasheet:- www.sparkfun.com/datasheets/Components/General/speakjet-usermanual.pdf Video from Silverfox0786 that I mentioned:- ruclips.net/video/grx1LV7AlBA/видео.html You can download the Windows C# .NET source code from here:- www.dropbox.com/s/ayesw1574pvsbab/AtariVox%201.0.0.0.zip?dl=0
Gadget... Do you have the capability of flashing a saturn memory cart with the new booting capabilities? I cannot get the disc swap thing to work to do the initial install of the new bios that allows booting back-ups or a different region. Or, alternatively, do you know of anyone on the AA forum that can do it that is in America?
I could but I am in the UK =/ No idea who in the states might be able to assist. You could just post on AtariAge and see if anyone there could help? Or if you dont mind postage each way to the UK I can do it for you probably. My Saturn is chipped, so I guess all I need to do is boot the flash software with the cart connected?
Hi gadget, first off I hope you had a nice Christmas and wish you a very happy new year! I sent you a message a few months back, but I'm not sure if you ever got it. I have a poorly vectrex I would like to donate to the channel, I have neither the skill or time to get it working and it is a shame for it to rot away in my loft.
Cool little device, thanks for showing it off and writing your little tool (or Noddy as we call them at work) for it :P Dunno why but this didn't appear in my subscriptions list, very strange. RUclips is on form.
Thanks =D Yes, it is a noddy app lol. In retrospect (and I will test more tomorrow), the control commands there might be taking offsense of the 255 at the end there, when perhaps the 255 should follow the string as a whole. It might also require the 31 reset after each allophone that follows a command. I've had that issue with YT before btw where a video doesnt appear in my list! =/
It's certainly strange behaviour, might need some studying of the manual, or firing off an email asking some questions, but you might be right, it did seem weird to me you having a terminator after the control commands, I thought that it should only be at the end to say to the device "hey this is the end of communication", but then I wouldn't have expected it to freak out as much as it did. The other thing I was wondering is if the controls only take values of 0-9 rather than 0-255, since it only said like PITCH X instead of PITCH XXX. I could be wrong, but it was just a thought to maybe why 127 and 1 sounded the same :)
I think I tried it both ways though earlier and pretty sure it was exactly the same. It's almost like those commands just dont work at all (except for pauses). It could be related to the PIC that's on the board there. I wonder if that PIC is intercepting the comms and controlling the chip or something like that.
And the datasheet stated 0-127 btw! I did try various values and it was always the same. Interestingly the volume command always made the volume go off completely, no matter the value passed.
Ah fair enough! Totally missed that, I think my Mrs was distracting me with villa's in florida lol. Very strange, something is definitely not right there, but god knows if it's something you missed or a bug somewhere, you'll have to do an update video if you work it out making it do some silly voices :)
Nice little device. I have to say I'm impressed with your coding skills Chris. I did a little C++ myself many moons ago but got nowhere near the level you're at. Ohh, I forgot to mention it in my last comment so better late than never, Happy New Year to you and yours.
Thanks! It's simple code it really is - it might seem complex but its dead simple. If you look at the source you can see that .NET handles all the serial stuff itself, all I do is specifiy the com port, the baud rate, data bits, parity, stop bits, then open or close a connection. Then write out the bytes for each allophone! Trust me, anyone could do that easily!
at @25:07 you have 22 127 255. it looked like 255 was the termination character. I think your problem here was that you were changing the pitch then terminating, then sending the rest of the commands and expecting it to change. but how it interprets it is that you just kept setting the pitch to the same value. luckily disconnecting resets that. set pitch say your things set pitch back to normal then 255. if you did that you wouldnt have to mess about with connecting and disconnecting.
I am pretty sure I tried moving the terminator to the end (and not using it at all), and it was the same! I will take another look when I get 10 mins and let you know! =D
if you look up words in the cambridge online dictionary, you could come up with a table to convert standard phonetics to this device. You could then look a word up in the dictionary, grab the phonetic version, and then convert it. Just reply if you want to know more, it would be fun to help.
I think it's a cool device, but it bugs me that it apparently won't work with a DB9 Y-Adapter cable. Hogging up one joystick port may be okay for some games but definitely not 2-player ones. I don't know if it's possibly but on the 7800, I'd really like to see it connect to the nearly useless Expansion Port [which can be added to most of the post-1987 models because the provision is still on those motherboards]. The port has very low bandwidth - kinda like the 5200 Expansion Port before it - but I'd think it would be capable of transmitting speech commands or high score saves. As more ROMs become hacked to support AtariVox game saves, that would give yet another option to us retro gaming enthusiasts [at least on the 7800 side] besides the soon-to-be-released 7800 XM, the Concerto SD Adapter [if it's ever released], CPUWiz's SaveKey device, and the few people out there that have Curt Vendel's earlier High Score Cartridge or the CuttleCart 2.
It should work on a fully wired DB9 Y-Adapter?!? Although the joystick and AtariVox wont work at the same time obviously. But it at least means you could leave it plugged in for games that dont use the AtariVox? I guess there's no where else to wire it up really =/
The Expansion Port if there was an adapter cable for it. :) Atari Corp later stopped shipping 7800s with them because they weren't going to go ahead and release a CED or LaserDisc Player for the 7800 at that point and that's what the port was for. Although I believe the provision space is still on all of the post-1987 motherboards. Although I have no idea if it would map properly connected to anything besides the 2nd joystick port...
Wait....you made a ComLynx cable for the Lynx? I swear, if you could make a ComLynx-to-MIDI cable and someone finally ported MIDI Maze to the Lynx, you would definitely earn yourself a mansion in Atari Heaven. A ComLynx-to-USB or min-USB would be sweet too, especially if it would work with the Lynx emulator on the PSP. Food for thought!
ComLynx to USB is what I created - it works, I can send ROM images to the Lynx (provided the ROM is smaller than the RAM free). I will do a video over the next week or two. The next idea was to write a lobby application where people can connect over the net and it fowards on ComLynx data to the person you link too. The general idea there is to allow people anywhere to link up their lynxes. The only thing I am not sure about is latency and whether the Lynx software will work with it or not.
That's cool! That would definitely help out with public shows when multiple people want to ComLynx it up for multi-player. That's also why I've been wanting ComLynx-to-MIDI, ComLynx-to-JagLink, and ComLynx-to-USB. If the mini-USB could work and the Sony PSP Lynx emulator could use it, it would definitely open up Slime World matches to a lot more players. BTW, with the Lynx, can you do a video of your menuing system for SainT's/RetroHQ's Lynx SD Adapter so people can always refer to your latest version easily instead of going through the AtariAge Forum? I think that would be helpful. Keep up the fantastic work; we appreciate it! :)
I don't entirely trust these CH340G adapters - communication errors, timing disparity. The best cheap serial adapters are IMO SiLabs based, CP2102/2104 and such. Not that it matters in this case, but in other case, it might.
Thanks for the info there =D Always useful to get feedback like that - I've never used any of these 232 devices in anger, but now at least I know the IMO SiLabs stuff is the way to go =D
I used to have a Vectrex but it was stolen but my dad's twat of a friend who moved and took it with him.......still to this day I never got it back :-(
You can buy the AtariVox+ from AtariAge:-
atariage.com/store/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1045
SpeakJet datasheet:-
www.sparkfun.com/datasheets/Components/General/speakjet-usermanual.pdf
Video from Silverfox0786 that I mentioned:-
ruclips.net/video/grx1LV7AlBA/видео.html
You can download the Windows C# .NET source code from here:-
www.dropbox.com/s/ayesw1574pvsbab/AtariVox%201.0.0.0.zip?dl=0
Gadget... Do you have the capability of flashing a saturn memory cart with the new booting capabilities? I cannot get the disc swap thing to work to do the initial install of the new bios that allows booting back-ups or a different region. Or, alternatively, do you know of anyone on the AA forum that can do it that is in America?
GadgetUK164 - Retro Gaming Repairs & Mods 🙏 your video an knowledge is greatly appreciated my friend . Happy new year 🎆 an all the Best
I could but I am in the UK =/ No idea who in the states might be able to assist. You could just post on AtariAge and see if anyone there could help? Or if you dont mind postage each way to the UK I can do it for you probably. My Saturn is chipped, so I guess all I need to do is boot the flash software with the cart connected?
Thanks! Happy new year to you and your family too =D
Hi gadget, first off I hope you had a nice Christmas and wish you a very happy new year! I sent you a message a few months back, but I'm not sure if you ever got it. I have a poorly vectrex I would like to donate to the channel, I have neither the skill or time to get it working and it is a shame for it to rot away in my loft.
Thank you for the inspiration and breakdown, this was a very informative and well-done video. Keep it up! 👍
Thankyou very much!!! Super appreciated =D
BTW - probably not save "RAM" on these devices, but serial EEPROM I think.
GadgetUK164 - Retro Gaming Repairs & Mods thanks
Great video! This has been on my wanted list and I think a purchase is due when they come back in stock :)
Cool little device, thanks for showing it off and writing your little tool (or Noddy as we call them at work) for it :P
Dunno why but this didn't appear in my subscriptions list, very strange. RUclips is on form.
Thanks =D Yes, it is a noddy app lol. In retrospect (and I will test more tomorrow), the control commands there might be taking offsense of the 255 at the end there, when perhaps the 255 should follow the string as a whole. It might also require the 31 reset after each allophone that follows a command. I've had that issue with YT before btw where a video doesnt appear in my list! =/
It's certainly strange behaviour, might need some studying of the manual, or firing off an email asking some questions, but you might be right, it did seem weird to me you having a terminator after the control commands, I thought that it should only be at the end to say to the device "hey this is the end of communication", but then I wouldn't have expected it to freak out as much as it did. The other thing I was wondering is if the controls only take values of 0-9 rather than 0-255, since it only said like PITCH X instead of PITCH XXX. I could be wrong, but it was just a thought to maybe why 127 and 1 sounded the same :)
I think I tried it both ways though earlier and pretty sure it was exactly the same. It's almost like those commands just dont work at all (except for pauses). It could be related to the PIC that's on the board there. I wonder if that PIC is intercepting the comms and controlling the chip or something like that.
And the datasheet stated 0-127 btw! I did try various values and it was always the same. Interestingly the volume command always made the volume go off completely, no matter the value passed.
Ah fair enough! Totally missed that, I think my Mrs was distracting me with villa's in florida lol. Very strange, something is definitely not right there, but god knows if it's something you missed or a bug somewhere, you'll have to do an update video if you work it out making it do some silly voices :)
That is a cool gizmo. I've not heard of it before. Your tester application would make for a great little add-on util for AtariAge to include with it.
Thanks, yes - quite a cool little device lol! The nice thing is its support by Stella too!
Nice little device. I have to say I'm impressed with your coding skills Chris. I did a little C++ myself many moons ago but got nowhere near the level you're at. Ohh, I forgot to mention it in my last comment so better late than never, Happy New Year to you and yours.
Thanks! It's simple code it really is - it might seem complex but its dead simple. If you look at the source you can see that .NET handles all the serial stuff itself, all I do is specifiy the com port, the baud rate, data bits, parity, stop bits, then open or close a connection. Then write out the bytes for each allophone! Trust me, anyone could do that easily!
And Happy new year =D =D
Happy new year mate!
Thanks =D
What a fascinating device!
at @25:07 you have 22 127 255. it looked like 255 was the termination character. I think your problem here was that you were changing the pitch then terminating, then sending the rest of the commands and expecting it to change. but how it interprets it is that you just kept setting the pitch to the same value. luckily disconnecting resets that.
set pitch
say your things
set pitch back to normal
then 255.
if you did that you wouldnt have to mess about with connecting and disconnecting.
I am pretty sure I tried moving the terminator to the end (and not using it at all), and it was the same! I will take another look when I get 10 mins and let you know! =D
Great video
Thanks =D
if you look up words in the cambridge online dictionary, you could come up with a table to convert standard phonetics to this device. You could then look a word up in the dictionary, grab the phonetic version, and then convert it. Just reply if you want to know more, it would be fun to help.
Thanks - that's brilliant! I never thought of looking there!
I think it's a cool device, but it bugs me that it apparently won't work with a DB9 Y-Adapter cable. Hogging up one joystick port may be okay for some games but definitely not 2-player ones. I don't know if it's possibly but on the 7800, I'd really like to see it connect to the nearly useless Expansion Port [which can be added to most of the post-1987 models because the provision is still on those motherboards]. The port has very low bandwidth - kinda like the 5200 Expansion Port before it - but I'd think it would be capable of transmitting speech commands or high score saves. As more ROMs become hacked to support AtariVox game saves, that would give yet another option to us retro gaming enthusiasts [at least on the 7800 side] besides the soon-to-be-released 7800 XM, the Concerto SD Adapter [if it's ever released], CPUWiz's SaveKey device, and the few people out there that have Curt Vendel's earlier High Score Cartridge or the CuttleCart 2.
It should work on a fully wired DB9 Y-Adapter?!? Although the joystick and AtariVox wont work at the same time obviously. But it at least means you could leave it plugged in for games that dont use the AtariVox? I guess there's no where else to wire it up really =/
The Expansion Port if there was an adapter cable for it. :) Atari Corp later stopped shipping 7800s with them because they weren't going to go ahead and release a CED or LaserDisc Player for the 7800 at that point and that's what the port was for. Although I believe the provision space is still on all of the post-1987 motherboards. Although I have no idea if it would map properly connected to anything besides the 2nd joystick port...
that cat totally freaked me out :)
:o)
Wait....you made a ComLynx cable for the Lynx? I swear, if you could make a ComLynx-to-MIDI cable and someone finally ported MIDI Maze to the Lynx, you would definitely earn yourself a mansion in Atari Heaven. A ComLynx-to-USB or min-USB would be sweet too, especially if it would work with the Lynx emulator on the PSP. Food for thought!
ComLynx to USB is what I created - it works, I can send ROM images to the Lynx (provided the ROM is smaller than the RAM free). I will do a video over the next week or two. The next idea was to write a lobby application where people can connect over the net and it fowards on ComLynx data to the person you link too. The general idea there is to allow people anywhere to link up their lynxes. The only thing I am not sure about is latency and whether the Lynx software will work with it or not.
That's cool! That would definitely help out with public shows when multiple people want to ComLynx it up for multi-player. That's also why I've been wanting ComLynx-to-MIDI, ComLynx-to-JagLink, and ComLynx-to-USB. If the mini-USB could work and the Sony PSP Lynx emulator could use it, it would definitely open up Slime World matches to a lot more players. BTW, with the Lynx, can you do a video of your menuing system for SainT's/RetroHQ's Lynx SD Adapter so people can always refer to your latest version easily instead of going through the AtariAge Forum? I think that would be helpful. Keep up the fantastic work; we appreciate it! :)
Thanks =D Yes, I plan on doing some updates to the menu soon - then it should be clear what the latest version is as well.
I don't entirely trust these CH340G adapters - communication errors, timing disparity. The best cheap serial adapters are IMO SiLabs based, CP2102/2104 and such. Not that it matters in this case, but in other case, it might.
Thanks for the info there =D Always useful to get feedback like that - I've never used any of these 232 devices in anger, but now at least I know the IMO SiLabs stuff is the way to go =D
I used to have a Vectrex but it was stolen but my dad's twat of a friend who moved and took it with him.......still to this day I never got it back :-(