03 - 9XR Pro Using Voice with Ersky9x 2014-06-06
03 - 9XR Pro Using Voice with Ersky9x 2014-06-06
To use spoken alarms instead of the variety of beeps, gurgles and chirps that otherwise play, you
need to activate some other options. For the welcome message to sound, the splash screen must
be ‘on’. For throttle, switch, memory and alarms to be spoken, they also must be ‘on’.
A short press RIGHT takes you to page 2/11 of Radio setup. Here you can set the volume and the
pitch of the speaker.
Using this option, you can replace some or all of the safety switches with voice switches. In this
case, the last five safety switches will be replaced by five voice switches. Accordingly, safety
switches 20 to 24 have been replaced by voice switches 20 to 24, as shown below.
Every voice switch has three configuration options. The first allows you to select the switch that
triggers it, which can be any of the physical or custom switches. The second allows you to select
how the voices and telemetry events will be played. Finally, on the right side you can select the
voice file to play or, depending on the middle option, the telemetry event to be played.
In the screen shot above, VS20 (Voice Switch 20) uses the THR physical switch to play voice file
0066.wav from the SD card. In VS23, the SW1 virtual switch plays the telemetry value for RSSI
(signal strength) when programmed correctly, as explained below.
In the middle column you have the following options:
On – Plays a voice file when the selected switch is turned ON.
Off – Plays a voice file when the selected switch is turned OFF.
Examples
Using a Two-Position Switch to Play Voice Files
How to program a voice switch that will play a voice once:
VS20 THR ON 172
This will say ‘Thermal Mode’ when the THR switch is turned ON.
How to play a voice file once when the switch is ON and the consecutive file number when the
switch is OFF:
VS24 GEA BOTH 150
In this case, when you turn the GEA switch ON, voice file 0150.wav will be played (Landing gear
up) and when you turn the GEA switch OFF voice file 0151.wav (Landing gear down) will be
played.
On this menu you find the custom switches. In the left column, among all the logical statements,
you will also find an option called Time. When you select it, you will be able to choose the OFF and
ON durations. This option is used in the Voice Switches to allow repetition of a voice or telemetry
event in a loop with a pre-set time interval defined by the custom switch SW2.
So in the example above we see:
SW1 Time Off 27 On 3 THR
This means that when the THR switch is on SW1 will be on for 3 seconds and then off for 27
seconds repeating every 30 seconds until THR is turned off.
SW1 is the switch we are going to use to trigger the telemetry voice event on the safety/voice
switches menu, as shown in the last picture on page 3.
There we have VS22 and VS23 programmed to play two different telemetry events in a loop every
30 seconds. As explained above, we use SW1 to trigger both voice switches. One is set to play the
RSSI event and the other to play the Tim2 (i.e., Timer 2) value. The order of the files played in the
loop is the same as the order of the Voice Switches. In this case the RSSI info will be played first
and then the Timer 2 time, but only when THR switch is 'on' causing Custom Switch SW1 to come
'on' and 'off' as programmed.
Programming Voice Alarms.
A particularly useful application of the voice feature is programming a spoken alarm to sound
when, for example, the pack voltage or the RSSI drops under a certain value. To do this, in
Custom Switches, page 9/13 of the model setup screens, we enter:
S5 v<ofs A1= 4.8v
S6 v<ofs RSSI 45
So here we have two custom switches. One will turn on if A1 voltage falls under 4.8v, and the other
will turn on if RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indication) is less than 45dBi. The logic statement
v<ofs means ‘a value (v)’ is less than a ‘set point value (s)’.
The software monitors the value of the pack voltage and RSSI and compares them with their
respective set point values. When either falls below the set point, the appropriate switch is turned
on and triggers the alarm.
Now we have to specify which alarm message is played by using SW5 and SW6 to control voice
alarms in the Safety/Voice switches menu. This is a little different from programming the spoken
telemetry events as we will use safety switches rather than voice switches.
Safety switches have four options. The first two, S and X, perform the safety function by replacing
the value of the throttle stick with a predetermined safe value (see the manual Ersk9x Explained for
details).
Note that these safety switches are set to "V" to play the files in a continuous loop.
The switch on CH1 will be ON when SW5 is ON and it will play voice file 31. If you look in
Appendix A you will see that 0031.wav plays ‘Flight Battery Low’.
The switch on CH2 will be ON when SW6 is ON and will play voice file 70, ‘RSSI Alert’, again in a
continuous loop.
Oh, and just so you know…. If there are no values entered in the Telemetry screen 10/13 for the
A1 Voltage alarms then you won’t be able to enter a value into the Custom Switch screen 8/13 for
the value of A1. No value for the A1 telemetry voltage alarm turns it off.
The large blank field in the middle is where you drag and drop the spoken text. The box in the
bottom left corner is where you set the project frequency rate to 16,000Hz for Ersky9x (and Er9x).
The volume of the spoken text is adjusted by the slider in the box to the immediate left of the
waveform. Just above this box is another with a green arrowhead. Click on this to play the
individual track. The slider to the right sets the playback speed. If you want to join two tracks
together load both into the field in the middle.
Using the tool which looks like a double headed arrow (available from the box in the middle of the
top row of symbols) move one track so that it is aligned at the end of the other. You will now have
one track following another. In the drop down menu 'Tracks' click on 'Mix and Render' Audacity will
make one continuous track from the two (or more).
In the drop down menu 'File', click on 'Export' and select 'WAV (Microsoft) signed 16 bit PCM' as
the file format (delete as many of the fields as you wish – they add information that is useless for
our purposes) and export. Rename the file and add it to your 'Voice' folder. When you have your
new folder complete upload it to your SD card.
Internet Forums
Help is always just a few clicks away on the internet forums where experienced Ersky9x users
volunteer their knowledge and experience. Many of these people have been developing the
firmware for years without remuneration; all they ask is donations to fund further development.
Open RC Forums: http://openrcforums.com/forum/index.php
Ersky9x index page: http://openrcforums.com/forum/
9XR index page: http://openrcforums.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=70
Sound Pack Library: http://openrcforums.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=64
NOTICE
Ersky9x and Eepskye are free open source software, independently developed. This manual is
provided to help you understand and use them specifically for the Turnigy 9XR Pro transmitter,
though much of the information also applies to the Sky replacement boards produced as an
upgrade for the 9x transmitter.
You can redistribute the software and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public
License version 2 as published by the Free Software Foundation. You can also freely quote from,
redistribute and/or modify this manual; in doing so please acknowledge the authors, the 9XR Pro
Beta Development Team.
The program and the manuals are distributed in the hope that they will be useful, but WITHOUT
ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. In using them,
you agree that you accept all responsibility.
For more information go to: http://openrcforums.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=7
Other files can have any available number (This could change!)