Voice alerts test build

Moeder wrote:
1.) PPM usage detection was completely rehauled, I sincerely hope the flickering screen bug is gone. In rare cases where you turn off PPM usage in a model file you will have to reload the model (or faster turn on/off TX) for reenabling audio for the specific model..

Problem solved !! No more flickering splash. Bravo !
.

2.) Timer alerts have improved timing, the message will start playing earlier so the number mp3 will match the timer time in that specific moment (+ a couple ms of dfplayer delay)..

I have not noticed the change. The message starts on the second 20 for 20 for ex.

I'm glad this bug is resolved. Concerning the timer alerts, they should appear sooner now, but maybe we need some additional " negative delay" to compensate for dfplayer. On the other hand, I noticed timer alerts and time display behaved a little different on devo8 vs devo10 emulators (with the latter being more precise). I haven't looked into this yet.

Edit: what about the rudd Dr message at startup, is it gone as well?

Moeder wrote: Do you have the same issue on current nightlies?

Yes it does the same on my 12s which is running the latest nightly but i figured out a work around..I just set the layout i wanted to the default and now when i reset a model file it loads with the layout i like to use...It also does the same on my 8s running the latest nightly ..

Moeder wrote: I'm

Edit: what about the rudd Dr message at startup, is it gone as well?

Unfortunately not : always there .

Moeder wrote: I'm glad this bug is resolved. Concerning the timer alerts, they should appear sooner now, but maybe we need some additional " negative delay" to compensate for dfplayer. On the other hand, I noticed timer alerts and time display behaved a little different on devo8 vs devo10 emulators (with the latter being more precise). I haven't looked into this yet.

Trying to be more precise : On my devo 8s with the preceding build 5f40044 the beginning alert timer was heard on minus 1 second (second 29 for 30 sec alert). With the last one the beginning of the alert is on the second (second 30 for 30) So there is a change. But may be could you try a big delay (5 sec or more) just to confirm how this works .

It's upgrade time again ...By the way thank you to all patient testers for over and over reflashing their firmware with new test builds. I feel we're really getting close to something very usable!

I again uploaded new builds and sample mp3/map zips , now also in my mother tongue

These are the new features:

• new units and "minus" are included in music.map, although they aren't used anywhere in current readouts so far. You will have to update your music.map and mp3 set, because starting now I require custom MP3s to begin at entry 0151. I wonder if we should add a delimiter in music.map to know where predefined alerts end and custom alerts begin. This way we could also parse an "invalid" music.map correctly....but maybe that is just too paranoid.
• telemetry alert interval can now be set in transmitter config and will be saved in tx.ini, default value is 15 seconds.
• timer voice alerts should announce their time now exactly on the second, somehow there seems to be a little bug in the current timer implementation because the alarms are offset by one second. Also you may notice when a countdown timer has run to 0 it will take an extra second to change from 00:00 to -00:00. But this has nothing to do with voice alerts I didn't feel like putting any effort into it

Thanks fot this new build.
The number of remaining seconds is said just when the figure appears on the timer.
I have a problem with the sound boxes. Once back to "none" I have no means to change.

Could you elaborate on the bug? I cannot reproduce it on the emulator, did you start with a fresh model? Maybe it is related to your old model file having entries with an mp3id < 151?.

Has anyone tried the new AUX handling? I do not own a transmitter with aux knobs, but it I like the sound handling in the emulator

Moeder wrote: Could you elaborate on the bug? I cannot reproduce it on the emulator, did you start with a fresh model? Maybe it is related to your old model file having entries with an mp3id < 151?.

You are right My model.ini had some music lines which had not been erased. Once erased by notepad all seems correct. Sorry for the false problem.

Just had a interesting idea...Would it be possible to hook a Bluetooth module to the DFplayer and play the voice alerts on a smart phone? It would make it a lot simpler for some that has limited space and not wanting to build a external box to house a speaker ect...Could probably fit the Dfplayer with module inside all the devo series transmitters...

I will nevertheless update the code so it will only accept ids in the model ini which are 151+ to avoid this problem.

i just received my DFplayer waiting for the sd card then i am going to need help installing in the devo 10 with the 4 in 1 module. ty. i can't wait to start testing.

I also received my DFplayer and also I am eager to get started.

magic_marty wrote: Just had a interesting idea...Would it be possible to hook a Bluetooth module to the DFplayer and play the voice alerts on a smart phone? It would make it a lot simpler for some that has limited space and not wanting to build a external box to house a speaker ect...Could probably fit the Dfplayer with module inside all the devo series transmitters...

Possible, I am pretty sure the answer is yes. The DFPlayer has a headphone output (DACL and DACR) that could provide the audio signal, but then you need to convert that to a bluetooth transmission. There are a few little external boxes that do that, but I don't know enough about the tech to build it in. In the short term maybe just include a headphone jack so the external BT transmitter can connect.

The newest test revision seems to work well on my 12e - I cleared all the music in my model.ini and had no issues. I have checked the volume control and switch assignments. I hope to fly it a bit tonight with a few tiny whoops and maybe one with telemetry.

I'm almost finished with the external box for the DFPlayer. It's set up for a common 60mm x 40mm (56mm x 36mm mounting hole centers) PCB on which I've mounted the DFPlayer, power regulator, switches and LED along with a USB port. The handles allow you to strap it to your TX or whatever. I'm sending the STL out to get a couple printed up, then if everything fits right I'll post a blog entry somewhere. Here is the basic look.

Found a place to mount the dfplayer, turns out the devo 12 has a compartment under the battery that houses the 3v button cell battery for the internal clock and there is plenty of room to place the dfplayer inside there after removing the pins and turning the used pins sideways ...I then ran the speaker wires under the main battery and out the battery door and installed the very thin talking card speaker under the base plate on the bottom of the 12 and surprisingly it has good volume with no holes drilled yet to help let the sound out...I am going to turn it face down and drill some holes in the bottom plate to let the sound out more but for now it works great...I just needed to add some nylon spacers to the base plate to allow the speaker to fit between the bottom of the tx housing and the base plate..I do still have the player hooked to the tx/rx pins on the pdb board but never use the dsc port on the 12 i use my 12s for dsc port needs or my 8s ...I would like to know if it is safe to have it hooked up this way and still be able to use the port or is there anyway to make it safer like adding a diode ect...

Imho it should be safe. Why don't you try out if ppm in/out still works with the player hooked up?

There have been quite a few downloads with not too much feedback, I am wondering if there are still any issues to be sorted out, or if we can proceed with cleaning things up and making a pull request to merge this extension into current nightlies?

Only thing I would like to see is perhaps more alerts for beta/cleanflight controllers like angle mode acro mode ect.. the welcome and goodbye doesn't always work but no big deal to me. One thing u could add is if powering on the tx with throttle stock above idle a voice alert for that would be nice..Something like "Warning throttle at xx%" also for the Heli models an alert for if powering up the tx with the ThrottleHold active to prevent a accidental spool up...

The last build is good for me except the Rud dr bug I have already mentionned and detailed above. But as nobody seems to have encountered it may be it comes from one other tile of my devo 8:(
As concerns prealert messages my preference would have been to have the end of the full message (including seconds) before the count and possibly as it seems possible to adjust precisely the timing of the message to have a special word "seconds, beep" for this count down. May be its too much
My main regret is that there is no count for stopwatch and (and for count down except for prealert setting) as I have asked before. May be for the future...
I am preparing my sound box. My choice goes to a rather big box to be strapped on the handle of the TX . I will have one for my two Tx.

I guess everyone has a different preference concerning the timing of timer alerts, I will leave it as it is for now, as I think it is precise and logical. I don't like the additional beep idea too much personally.
I will try to fulfill the wish for stopwatch timer announcement tonight as well as the safety message alert.

Concerning custom alert, anyone with a mac or Linux box can generate mp3s with the genspeech tool if they like,or even record custom alerts with his/her own eyes. When we are approaching finalization of this feature I'd also be willing to generate sets if you pm me a list of messages which you think are useful to the main actions controlled by switch and aux knobs for helis, multicopters, planes, cars and boats.

Any comments on the Aux knobs announcement?