RE: What bedside clock for a HA-er?

["John B" <home-automation@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>> When powered off it can show the time, and has the added
bonus of being able to play  ... TTS announcements (which is exactly what I
use my bedside SliMP3
>> for!).
>>
>
> Sounds useful. How does that work?

The SqueezeBox is always connected to the server software running on a PC
somewhere - even when powered off.
(powering the unit off just dims the display and stops playback -
communication with SlimServer still continues)

So the server just sends updates to the display of the unit to update the
clock.
(at least that's how it worked last time I looked - they may have built the
clock functionality into the firmware now to avoid the constant display
updates happening over the network)

To send a TTS message, you just need to use a speech engine to generate an
MP3 of the text you want spoken, then send a series of commands to
SlimServer to play it.
(e.g. power on, play this file, power off)

I use a piece of software called xPLRioNetTTS written by Tony Tofts to
generate all my TTS messages on the fly.
This is just a web server, and you make HTTP requests to it, passing in the
phrase you want spoken, and it returns you an MP3 stream.

So, by adding the following URL to SlimServer's play list, it will speak
the words "Good morning":

http://mercury:8084/Good+Morning.mp3

(note that there is no file called good morning.mp3 - the web server just
uses whatever text is in the URL to dynamically create an MP3 of the text
and stream it back)

HTH,

John



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