[Blindapple] Emulating Echo

GUI Access guiaccess at covad.net
Thu Jul 28 20:46:15 EDT 2005


>Guys,
>Has anyone thought that it might be easier to emulate a cricket than an echo?


Oh now there's a thought.  Unfortunately I know no more about the 
protocol for talking to a Cricket than I do for talking to an Echo.


>That way you're dealing with a serial interface, rather than an 
>unknown quantity in how to talk to the synth itself.
>Then you'd just need code to strip out the control codes, and send 
>the resultant text to a text file, or something.
>You still wouldn't be able to play space invaders under a2, because 
>that relies on apple sound,
>but you might be able to use other speech enabled software.


The Cricket/Echo IIc/Echo LC has always intrigued me.  I had an 
opportunity to get my hands on an Echo LC once but passed since 
Textalker-GS pulled out the serial Echo support and I wasn't going to 
run 8-bit Textalker at that point.  I have no idea what versions of 
DOS 3.3 Textalker's supported the Cricket/Echo IIc.

GUI Access

>
>On Thu, Jul 28, 2005 at 07:30:42PM -0400, Jayson Smith wrote:
>>  Hi,
>>  Actually, this might be quite tricky.  Because what Textalker is going to
>>  send to the slot where the Echo is located certainly won't be the actual
>>  text to be spoken, and probably not even the phonemic representation.
>>  What's probably being sent is some form of very low level signaling to tell
>>  the LPC chip what noises to make when.  If you remember, on a real Apple,
>>  whatever the Apple does comes to a dead hault when the Echo is speaking.
>>  This is probably because Textalker is taking up the processor time by
>>  converting the printed words into phonemes, then converting the phonemes
>>  into the low level signals for the LPC chip, then sending those signals to
>>  the card itself.
>>  Jayson.
>>
>>  ----- Original Message -----
>>  From: "Tony Baechler" <tony at baechler.net>
>>  To: "Blind Apple Discussions" <blindapple at jaybird.no-ip.info>
>>  Sent: Thursday, July 28, 2005 10:08 AM
>>  Subject: [Blindapple] Emulating Echo
>>
>>
>>  > Hi.  Is there a way of finding out what it sends to the slot to detect
>>  > whether there is a real Echo or not?  I tried various tricks to find out
>>  > but as yet have been unsuccessful.  Obviously I know it sends something
>>  > because that is how the Doubletalk knows when to switch.  Is there a way
>>  to
>>  > patch Textalker to only look for a card in slot 1?  I think I am
>>  reasonably
>>  > close to making A2 simulate an Echo but I need a way to trick Textalker
>>  > into sending to slot 1 even though there is no Echo there.  I know there
>>  is
>>  > a way to do this with the older versions, but what about the 3.1 APH
>>  > series?  I believe that even though we can't really ever use a real Echo
>>  > under emulation, it can be simulated fairly easily.  I played with this a
>>  > little and looked at the C source and it looks simple enough.  Aalas, if
>>  A2
>>  > only emulated sound!  However, if I can get something going under A2, it
>>  > might be possible to make it work with a better emulator.  Please, if you
>>  > know any C programmers, contact me!  This would take a good programmer
>>  very
>>  > little time to do since I think I know what needs to be changed.
>>  >
>>  > For those interested, all this stuff is in jump.c and vidout.c.  The
>>  jump.c
>>  > opens a2.printlog if someone activates slot 1.  The vidout.c is obviously
>>  > for video output and opens a2.log if running under Linux.  Both look
>>  simple
>>  > enough and I think they could be easily modified.  The only other thing I
>>  > might need is a dump of the Echo ROM, which I think is in the c400 range
>>  > for slot 4 from within the monitor.  I could very well have no idea what
>>  > I'm talking about, but I would like to try more experiments.  My initial
>>  > attempt did work reasonably well, but not quite good enough.
>>  >
>>  > If anyone else wants to try this, do the following from DOS.  First,
>>  unload
>>  > the screen reader and the synth drivers.  I use Vocal-Eyes so I do "ve /u"
>>  > and I use the DEC-Talk Express so I do "dtexp /u."  Then, assuming you are
>  > > in com1, do the following:
>>  >
>>  > a2 >com1 disk.dsk
>>  >
>>  > Replace disk.dsk with a bootable disk.  Speech should come directly out
>>  the
>>  > synthesizer.  Try cataloging to make sure.  If something bombs, hit
>>  Control
>>  > C, "q" and enter.  If nothing happens, repeat.  Exit the DOS window or
>>  > somehow reload your screen reader.  This isn't perfect since you don't get
>>  > review mode at all and it doesn't always speak right away as it should,
>>  but
>>  > it is a good start.  I believe that it can be done, maybe easier than I
>>  > thought.  Criticisms are welcome.
>>  >
>>  > Oh, I made a mistake about A2.  It is not licensed under the GPL.  Make
>>  > sure to read the comments in the source before changing anything.  It
>>  > allows free copying and distribution, but it doesn't comply with the GPL
>>  so
>>  > may not be considered "free" by some people.  I'm not personally bothered
>>  > by it, but others might be.
>>  >
>>  > At 08:21 PM 7/27/2005 -0400, you wrote:
>>  > >Actually my Doubletalk can be freely switched between Echo and Doubletalk
>>  > >mode.  To use Doubletalk, in Basic you just type pr#X where X is the slot
>>  > >where the card is installed.  Then the card emulates a printer in that
>>  slot,
>>  > >so anything sent to it will be spoken with the Doubletalk voice.  To use
>>  the
>>  > >Echo emulation, which isn't perfect but does get the job done, you must
>>  load
>>  > >the Textalker software as if you had a real Echo installed.
>>  > >Jayson.
>>  >
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