Insignia Infocast 8" Touchscreen $99

Yes. Your instructions say nothing about the commands used to play your generated tts mp3. I did find the command in a sample python script on a different page which isn't exactly self explanatory. If answering simple questions like this is too much support then I'm sorry. I am grateful for all the software you are willing to offer for free, but you give the impression you don't want anyone to bother you about it.

PS. For others interested, the command used to play the mp3 tts file is the following:

Code:
btplay /mnt/xPL/xPLChumbyTTS/Cache/x.mp3 > /dev/null

i thought my instructions on the link were pretty self explanatory:
"xPLChumbyTTS responds to tts.basic messages, converts the text to speech to mp3 and sends an xPL message to the xPLChumby.py instance running on the target Chumby."

and later on that page:

"If you send a tts.basic message to doghouse-chumtts.family_room, it will perform a text-to-wave (dropping that into the Cache directory) and then run LAME to convert the wav file to mp3 (putting it also into the Cache directory). Finally, it sends an xPL message to the target Chumby running xPLChumby.py. The script then issues a shell command to play the created mp3 file. The path to that file is mounted on your Chumby via CIFS.

For example, add this to your debugchumby file:
mkdir /mnt/xPL;mount -t cifs //192.168.100.1/xPL /mnt/xPL -r -o username='user',password='pwd'

Configure the path in xPLChumby.py to point to the mp3 file. See the sample xPLChumby.py (link provided)"

actually, it proves my point. you want me to open source my hard work on panel builder so you can build whatever you want with it and you say i don't have to provide support if i open source it. yet, when i post all the needed information on how i did tts to the infocast, you only read the headline. yes, that page didn't have the command used in the xPLChumby.py python script, but isn't that the benefit of open source? you can just download the python script source and read it yourself. i'm sorry if you felt reading 1 page and clicking 2 links, which were provided, was too much work for you.
 
pete,

i'll look into it tomorrow. looks like it's a SAPI thing. a couple things, the app needs .net 2.0 & .net 3.5 - make sure you have those installed. i assume you have SAPI since there's voices showing up in the dialog box.

is this on xp or 2003? i'm thinking you're missing .net 3.5
 
Damage,

I'll check on net 3.5. I'm not sure any more what my home office desktop (XPSP3) has as I've historically played with SAPI and multiple TTS voices on it over the last year but never really used it in "production" plus about 10 VMs on it in various stages of testing (Linux, Android, W7, W2003, etc) (so basically what I am saying is that its in a "mangled" state). IE: even the Java DCM doesn't show anything at all anymore on the office desktop.

Not running .net 3.5 - found a plug n play (without any work) .net version checker....noticed too that it didn't show up on my MS updates so I had to manually download and install it...

I opened a "can of worms" relating to my dot net installations on my home office desk computer so a quick FYI.
- Found dot net 3.5 (short version) - downloaded it and it didn't install. Then found another version of 3.5 (long version) and it also didn't install. Then (for whatever reason) googled it and found there are issues installing dot net 3.5.
- Found references to utilizing MS Product called .NET Framework Setup Cleanup Utility. Easiest way referenced to run it is to run it for every version of .NET you have installed and reboot PC. Funny too that's its a bit of a search to find the program but there is plenty of links on the MS tech sites to it and mostly outside of MS.
- Noticed that dot net 3.5 was "kind of installed" because I could remove it but it not referenced as installed nor could I install it. I ended up using the "cleaning" dot net utility twice to clean up 3.5 then it installed.
- A casual look at a few other XP / 2003 / XPE & W7 machines dot net setups and they all look fine.

I am still getting an error running "xPLChumbyTTS.exe" on my home office PC. This is after "cleaning up" installs of both dot net and SAPI. Tested the ap on about three other computers to work fine. I am at a loss here.
 

Attachments

  • net checker.jpg
    net checker.jpg
    206.4 KB · Views: 13
that is weird. is it printing the same error message as before? can you see if there are any differences in the .net installations on this pc vs. the other 3 that work?
 
Odd thing; but no; runs on W2003, XP and W7 boxes.

I do use my desktop though for all kinds of stuff. With the dot net removed (step by step) and added Dot Net 1.X, 2.X, 3.0, 3.5 and 4.0 and service packs. I started to remove more applications more. Its not a big deal as it'll work on the machines that would be destined for installation of said application anyways...
 
Going slow here:


Tested command using Windows xplsend and it works great.

xplsend xpl-cmnd doghouse-chumby.FR control.basic device=brightness\ncurrent=90

I next tried to test similiar command on lamp server and Chumby. Getting the following errors related to command syntax.

root@ICS-PHP:/# xpl-sender -m xpl-cmnd doghouse-chumby.FR -c control.basic device=brightness\ncurrent=90
xPL::Client->new: instance_id, ICS-PHP, is invalid.
The default can be overriden by setting the XPL_HOSTNAME environment
variable
at /usr/bin/xpl-sender line 89

ICS-Chumby-3:/mnt/storage/bin # xplsend -m xpl-cmnd doghouse-chumby.FR -c control.basic device=brightness\ncurrent=9
0
Unknown message type of xpl-cmnd for -m
 
unfortunately, because the 3 senders are written by 3 different people who didn't pay attention to the syntax of the others, they're all different.

for xpl-sender on your lamp server, you don't need the "\n" separator as in the windows version. use the -h option to show you its syntax. also, it looks like it doesn't like your hostname? you can probably do a 'setenv XPL_HOSTNAME newhostname' - it may not like the hyphen?

for xplsend on the chumby, it uses 'cmnd' instead of 'xpl-cmnd' - just do ./xplsend with no arguments to get help
 
added a webcam viewer that refreshes at specified intervals. sample xml for this feature:

Code:
    <webcam id="Front">
      <camx>200</camx>
      <camy>200</camy>
      <camrefresh>5</camrefresh>
      <action>http://your.ip.cam/image.jpg</action>
    </webcam>
 
Thanks Damage.

I currently do a cam view with one of the Chumby site widgets and would prefer to just do it with your method. I started to play with having Homeseer send XPL commands over to the Chumby and it works great! Still playing with the TTS being sent over to the Chumby. I get no errors but I also get no TTS yet.

This simple "in a command line prompt" in XP HS integration would be the "baby" steps regarding the introduction of the using HS/Chumby/XPL in a bit of an autonomous fashion. IE: Just running the XPL hub and Python on the Chumby and having Homeseer do some simple stuff over to the chumby.

I tried to set up the HAI OPII XPL application and I do get communications between the XPL and the OPII but for whatever reason the DCM configuration sometimes works for all of the fields and sometimes doesn't. (wonder if its related to whatever version of Java I am running). I noticed yesterday that the Lamp server I built has now a "hodge podge" of executible XPL, Java XPL and Perl XPL installed from my experimenting.

Did the UK XPL site get shut down? I see the cache'd forum and links but nothing live. I also noticed that the MrHouse stuff seems a bit abandoned.
 
make sure that you've configured xPLChumbyTTS with DCM - which basically is giving it an instance name. if not configured, it won't receive any messages. it should show up in the "need configuration" tab if you haven't configured it yet.

after that, send it an xPL tts.basic message and check the cache directory to see the .wav & .mp3 get created (and play them to make sure they're not blank)

next, make sure that directory is shared & mounted via CIFS and you can manually play the mp3 from a chumby shell.

let me know how far you get. this xpl site is still up http://xplproject.org.uk - not sure what's going on w/ misterhouse
 
Thanks Damage; will do.

yeah forgot to set up TTS with DCM. It is creating the files in the cache directory as I have seen them deleted them and seen them appear again.

For whatever reason I cannot get to the UK site; but was able to use the repositories there. I see the cache of the web page though. I have issues sometimes with UK sites for whatever reason. I have no problems though streaming BBC audio / video though. Will give it a go with HMA and see if that works. I do have every XPL program tho

Watching the WLAN signal on the Chumby #3 noticed that it waxes and wanes; looking at the network logs it drops on and off the network. I don't see that with the other two Chumby's "online". Might add a little wire or something similiar to give me better WLAN reception. This was my reasoning for purchasing some (bulk China purchase) USB WLAN dongles.
 
have added a slideshow screensaver feature.
Code:
<slide> 
   <action>http://your.server/php/slide.php</action>
   <idle>180</idle>
   <gap>180</gap>
</slide>
where idle is the screen idle time in seconds and gap is the interval between pictures.

the url points to a php script that returns a random image. images must be 800x600 or smaller.

have also been trying to get a SIP client running on it, but it's not picking up the infocast audio devices. would make a nice little intercom with the built in mic & speakers & panel builder as the front end.
 
Trying the random image php script. I changed the line:

$image = getRandomImage('c:/slideshow/');

To a local directory (\web\php)

I installed the script as is and put 2-3 pics in the \web\php\ directory. It works as my screen is going blank but its not displaying any pictures. Once blank though; it stays that way until I reboot the Chumby. I know I'm missing something obvious.
 
Trying the random image php script. I changed the line:



To a local directory (\web\php)

I installed the script as is and put 2-3 pics in the \web\php\ directory. It works as my screen is going blank but its not displaying any pictures. Once blank though; it stays that way until I reboot the Chumby. I know I'm missing something obvious.

open the url of the script in a browser. if a picture doesn't show up then you've misconfigured the path in the script - (ie: use forward slash instead of back slash)
 
Back
Top