Using Text-To-Speech with non-bluetooth phone?

[ekenneme]

Has anyone had any luck using text-to-speech with
other non-bluetooth phones? I slapped together
some Radio Shack jacks and plugs and came up
with a solution that works for cell phones and
those portable phones with the headset plug.

The main problem I have is hooking up to a wired
phone, the 60 Hertz noise is killer. My wiring
looks good. If I unplug the laptop I can use
a wired phone. Plug in the laptop, I hear nothing
from the headset but 60Hz "hum"

Here is a ascii schematic, which will be destroyed
by word wrap, but oh well, I tried.

-Edric Kennemer

Code: Select all

                  Sleeve---Gnd                     Gnd---Sleeve
2.5mm (3/32")                                                    2.5mm Jack
jack, plug your   Ring--Audio from phone -----------------Ring   plug your phone
headset here                                                     here
                  Tip--Open (this is the mike        -----Tip
                    of your headset)                |
                                                    |
                                                    |
                                                    |
3.5mm (1/8")        Sleeve---Gnd                    |
jack, plug your                                     |
PC speaker output   Ring---Open (this is the        |
here                  right channel from your PC)   |
                                                    |
                    Tip---Left channel PC to the ----
                          mike input of your phone


Stereo plug:
                 /----|
/\----||------||     |
|      ||      ||     |-~-~~-~~-~cable
\/----||------||     |
    ^      ^     \----|
    |      |       ^
    |      |       |
  TIP     RING   SLEEVE
   
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRS_connector



[D.Leikin]

If I unplug the laptop I can use a wired phone.

Nice to know your telco is still operable

Ideally, appropriate optical couplers should be used in your scheme to avoid any galvanic connection with the landline. Avoiding galvanic connections is important because a huge voltage (over 100V) may be induced between the phone and the pc, especially when the latter is using external power supply plugged into the wall outlet.

Another problem is to correctly balance both the output impedance and the output signal level of your laptop with the corresponding input characteristics of the phone. One could probably use a pair of coupling non-electrolytic condensers and a voltage divider to resolve this kind of problem if somebody took the risk to recommend that.

An optimal (less dangerous for the landline) solution might be to contact the telco directly. Perhaps, they can recommend a certified appliance for such uses. (But please, don’t you tell them you’ve ever tried to make a direct galvanic connection with their equipment!)

Still, the least expensive and the most reliable workaround might be to use acoustic coupling between additional external pc speaker attached to the mike in the handset, connected to the phone.

[ekenneme]

>>to avoid any galvanic connection with the landline
Yeah there was also the worry of having a headset connecting to a phone line. The ring voltage, applied across from ear to ear is probably not the wisest thing to do.

Actually I never hooked up to the phone line itself, rather to the headset. In the case of the wired phone I used an old plantronics headset connection. But also you are right, avoiding any added homebuilt hardware is the solution. It seems that I already have all the pieces. TTS engine, Laptop with WinXP and a modem. There must be some way to use the TAPI 3.1 that comes with WinXP, called through the COM using VBA or similar.

If I could just find a good reference on the TAPI, maybe with an example or two of placing a voice phone call. Then all I would need to do is plug the phone into my modem.

Then I save my little box of jacks/plugs for cell phone calls.

-Edric

[D.Leikin]

I never hooked up to the phone line itself, rather to the headset.

I used to think they should be somehow connected to each other to make the signal pass thru...

A few years ago I had a 'voice modem' in my pc and it was used in kind of software answering machine that received calls, sent some greetings, and even recorded incoming replies to the hard drive. The modem had an interface for the headset, so when I happened to be near the pc I could pick up thus letting my answering machine take a short break.

But now that you called it a driver nightmare I started to doubt it was me using that modem…

In seriousness, I quite agree that using a voice modem could be a neat solution. The problem is whether or not a specific modem would be able to provide a software (or hardware) interface for the headset and whether or not such interface would provide full-duplex functionality let alone the problem of hooking the audio driver.

[D.Leikin]

If not mistaken some laptops have a slot for a GSM SIM card and it would be great if NextUp Talker could place cell phone calls without the need for connecting a cell phone to the laptop.

That might have been a nice addition to using Talker with Skype via landline-modem connection to an ISP, via WiFi, and via the LAN interface.

[ekenneme]

D.Leikin's response about opto-couplers had to "stew" in me overnight. Then this morning I remembered, I had this wireless headset thing from Plantronics. You plug the headset into a little box, and the box communicates to your phone via radio (2.4Ghz I believe) I tried this out and, of course, the 60Hz is gone.

This is not a general solution, because most people don't have one of these lying around (about $100 US). But it is a fix for my problem.

Thanks for the idea that sparked a fix.

-Edric